Business & Tech

Extreme Eating: Where Do You Draw the Line?

Some restaurants pack a day or two's worth of calories into a single meal.

When you eat out, do you choose your meal based on its nutritional content, or do you splurge?

The Center for Science in the Public Interest’s website put the spotlight this week on some of the more extreme options offered by national restaurant chains.

The organization reveals the caloric, fat and sugar contents of specific dishes at IHOP (the only restaurant on the list with a Buffalo Grove location) as well as Chili’s, Maggiano’s, The Cheesecake Factory, Uno Chicago Grill, Johnny Rockets and Smoothie King.

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IHOP’s Country Fried Steak & Eggs breakfast combo packs 1,760 calories and 23 grams of saturated fat, as well as 3,720 mg of sodium and 11 teaspoons of sugar, according to a press release announcing the organization's 2013 Xtreme Eating Award winners.

These eating awards aren’t the only ones continuing the public discussion about some of the unhealthier menu items available.

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Last summer, Burger King made headlines when it introduced a 510-calorie bacon sundae. 

On a more local level, Bulldogs Grill, with locations in Grayslake and Wauconda, offers an extreme eating challenge called the "Bluto Burger." This bad boy consists of four, half-pound beef patties, grilled onions, bbq sauce, pepperjack cheese, 12 pieces of bacon, jalapeno cream cheese sauce and onion rings plus a 1-pound order of hand-cut fries topped with cheese and chili. Finish in a half-hour and you'll get a T-shirt and your name on the Wall of Fame.

The Glenview House has on its menu this month an Ultimate BLT sandwich. Nicknamed “the anti-resolution sandwich,” features a half-pound of bacon, lettuce, tomato and homemade mayonnaise served between two grilled cheese sandwiches.

Do you have a favorite extreme meal? Or is there one that you wouldn’t dream of eating? Share your food stories with us here.


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