Friday, April 09, 2010

KFC's Double Down - New burger to die from for

If you want to get 92% of your daily recommended dose of sodium in one food item, then Kentucky Fried Chicken's Double Down, will not let you down. Dr. Yoni Freedhoff, obesity specialist, at Weighty Matters, reports that this new beast, or beasts (chicken and bacon), weighs in at 540 calories and 1,380 mg of sodium (adults are recommended to get not more than 1500 mg of sodium a day).

It is a "breadless" burger, if you forget the two coated deep-fried chicken fillets, that surrounds two strips of bacon, and two slices of processed cheese.

Freedhoff's food articles remind me of reading comparisons between Canon and Nikon cameras, as if each negative (no pun intended) feature is a positive. In this link he compares the Double Down to a "secret" McDonald's menu item, called the Mc10:35, because it is a combo of egg and bacon taken from the breakfast McMuffin, and added to the McDouble (replacing inadequate McSingle), at the changeover time between bk and lunch (apparently now popular in the San Francisco area .. so far).

Estimated calories 560, estimated sodium 1,300mg.
Nutritionally? Pretty much a wash. Yuck factor? Flip a coin.
The winner?
The Double Down.

The winner will indeed be KFC. For a few minutes, consumers tasting this will feel like they've won a prize. Too bad that all those types of happy meals don't keep us happy after we consume them.

4 comments:

NPC said...

That's a nasty sandwich. I'm sure a lot of kids will go for it though.

Charlie said...

Yes, I think they will just eat it up.

ViewPoint2010 said...

My gawd ... talk about a heart attack waiting to happen. A kidney specialist told me the other day that the recommended max dose of salt now is 1200mg a day, down from what it used to be. I checked out 1/4 pounders and McCain pizza a week or so and was blown away by the amount of salt in them. Maybe we should start a fast-food blog log or something because I'm sure 80% of the people chowing down at Mickey's or KFC don't realize what they're eating. Thanks for the warning!

Charlie said...

That is interesting ViewPoint! Some food (using this term loosely) items have that much alone.

Just reading nutrition labels is an eye-opener (check out cans of soup, or beans, for example). The site Weighty Matters is an excellent blog about unhealthy foods. The writer, Yani Freedhoff, specializes in treating obesity, and also is a big critic of the Health Check program. (some previous posts on that here). He's been consulted and appeared on programs like Marketplace, and keeps very up to date on unhealthy foods.