Maybe if I Just Ate Half...

I walked by Carl's Jr. yesterday and saw their poster advertising the "Low-Carb breakfast bowl". It appears to be a sausage patty, folded egg, cheese and ... bacon? ... in a bowl. No potatoes, no bun. It looked pretty good.

Last night I looked it up on the web, if for no other reason than to see if that really was a sausage patty or a hamburger patty. I'm glad I looked! I don't expect to be trying one anytime soon. Not unless I can split it with one or two people.

It is low-carb; that's true. It contains only 5g of carbohydrate (as advertised) per 11 oz serving; there's 2 g of fiber and 2 g of sugars. (Sugars? Someone tell me why there is any sugar in this meal.)

According to the nutritional information at calorieking.com, meal also contains 58g of protein and 73g of fat, of which 33g is saturated fat (the bad kind).

Last but not least (are you ready for this?) it's got

Eeek!.

Now, I no longer believe that "a calorie is a calorie is a calorie". I no longer believe that just because fat has twice as many calories per gram, "fat calories" are automatically twice as bad for you. I've stopped believing in the "low fat" dietary theory. All fats are not created equal (as neither are all carbs).

But still. 33g of saturated fat per serving?! What were they thinking?!

OK. I know what they were thinking. This is the same Marketing mindset from ten years ago when "low fat" products were all the rage, with sugar substituting for the missing fat at least by a 2:1 ratio. Call it "Low Carb" and no-one will read the label... especially if the label isn't prominently displayed on the package!

Nevertheless, I'm appalled. 909 calories. Just for breakfast. The "Low Carb Six Dollar Burger" (9.4 oz) has just over half that much.

Have a burger for breakfast.

Maybe if I Just Ate Half... ( in category Random Thoughts ) - posted at Thu, 05 Aug, 18:22 Pacific | «e»