«Cooking
Articles Index
America's
Worst Breakfast Foods
By David Zinczenko, with Matt Goulding
URL: http://health.yahoo.com/experts/eatthis/
13908/americas-worst-breakfast-foods
It’s hard to overestimate
the importance of eating breakfast. Studies show that people
who take time for a morning meal consume fewer calories over
the course of the day, have stronger cognitive skills, and are
30 percent less likely to be overweight or obese. Beyond that,
people who skip breakfast are more likely to drink alcohol and
smoke, and they’re less likely to exercise.
But just because breakfast
is the most important meal of the day doesn’t grant you
permission to go into a feeding frenzy. But that’s exactly
what many of the country’s most popular breakfast joints
are setting you up for, by peddling fatty scrambles, misguided
muffins, and pancakes that look like manhole covers.
These foods are loaded
with unhealthy fats, added sugars, and refined carbohydrates,
which catapult your blood sugar, sap your energy levels, and
tell your body to store fat.
To help you avoid the morning mishaps, we searched out the good,
the bad, and the greasy, and uncovered some of the worst breakfast
foods in America. We’ve presented a sampling of the worst
offenders below. It’s like a lineup down at the local
police station, except in this case, they’re all guilty
as charged.
Worst Side Dish
Burger King Hash Browns (large)
620 calories
40 g fat (11 g saturated; 13 g trans)
1,200 mg sodium
60 g carbs
Yes, you’re ingesting more than a meal’s worth of
calories from a side dish, but the real cause for concern here
is that these little potato cakes pack seven times more trans
fats than you’re supposed to eat all day! Until BK learns
to cut out the partially hydrogenated oils, avoid encounters
with potatoes of any kind at that fatty food joint.
Eat This Instead!
Burger King Egg & Cheese Croissan’wich
300 calories
17 g fat (6 g saturated; 2 g trans)
740 mg sodium
26 g carbs
Worst Breakfast
Sandwich
Hardee’s Monster Biscuit
710 calories
51 g fat (17 g saturated)
2,250 mg sodium
37 g carbohydrates
