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The Worst "Free" Restaurant Food

Remember the story of Hansel and Gretel? How the witch of the woods lured them into her edible candy hut and gave them piles and piles of free food—just so she could fatten them up and turn them into stew?
Well, think about that old fairy tale the next time a waiter drops a plate of “free” food on your table. For years I've been recommending the best foods to buy, and warning about menu items that might make you fat. But our newest Eat This, Not That! research reveals that some of the worst dietary sins aren’t ordered at all. They just come to your table for free!
Plenty of mischievous food peddlers are happy to give you free food—food that’s certain to fatten you up plenty, if not land you in a big black cauldron. Whether it’s “bottomless” buckets or “endless” entrees or the breadsticks and salad at Olive Garden, freebies almost always consist of high-fat, high-carbohydrate munchies that won’t fill you up—after all, the restaurant wants you to buy more food!—but will fill you out.
Of course, I wouldn’t recommend shoving the waiter into an oven; restaurants do sort of frown on that kind of thing. But I would recommend shoving these free plates to the other side of the table, before you create a dietary fairy tale of your own: “Hansel and Regrettal.”

WORST "FREE" RESTAURANT FOOD #6: Fazoli’s Garlic Breadsticks
1 breadstick
150 calories
7 g fat (1.5 g saturated)
290 mg sodium
20 g carbohydrates

These free, unlimited breadsticks are a signature part of the Fazoli’s dining experience. Folks seem to love ’em: Googling “Fazoli’s breadsticks recipe” returns more than 3,000 results. And at only 150 calories each, how bad could they be? Well, each breadstick is the caloric equivalent of more than 7 Hershey’s Special Dark Chocolate Kisses. Eating one is a sensible indulgence—but try to eat just one! Appetizers are often the downfall of a diet: To see my point, check out this eye-popping Eat This, Not That! list of the 10 Worst Starters in America.

WORST "FREE" RESTAURANT FOOD #5: Red Lobster Cheddar Bay Biscuits
1 biscuit
150 calories
8 g fat (2.5 g saturated fat)
350 mg sodium
16 g carbohydrates

These Red Lobster staples come free with any entrée—and you can have as many as you want. Red Lobster’s website boasts of serving “almost 1.1 million” Cheddar Bay Biscuits every day. Add two of them to your Parrot Isle Jumbo Coconut Shrimp and your already-sizeable meal (880 calories) balloons to the caloric equivalent of more than a half-dozen Krispie Kreme glazed donuts! That said, keep far from Cheddar Bay, and Red Lobster is actually a nutritional safe harbor: Its menu is consistently one of the best in the country among chain restaurants. I'm always keeping my eye on the very best places for you to eat, and the often surprising places where hidden calories lurk. Get the scoop every day by following me right here on Twitter! or by signing up for the FREE Eat This, Not That! newsletter.

WORST "FREE" RESTAURANT FOOD #4: Ruby Tuesday Endless Fries
396 calories
18 g fat
1,389 mg sodium
50 g carbohydrates

If you order a burger at Ruby Tuesday, you automatically get fries on the side—with infinite refills. A bargain, right? Sure, for your tailor: He’ll be making a lot of extra dough letting out your pants. A single side of the chain's fries has more calories than a McDonald’s cheeseburger! That means every time you ask for a refill, you’re getting an additional visit from Mayor McCheese. And Ruby Tuesday doesn’t report saturated fat levels—a warning flag for those who like to know what, exactly, they’re putting in their bodies. In fact, two of Ruby's burgers make this Eat This, Not That! treacherous list of the 15 Worst Burgers in America.

WORST "FREE" RESTAURANT FOOD #3: On the Border Chips and Salsa
430 calories
22 g fat (4 g saturated)
52 g carbohydrates
460 mg sodium

Chips and salsa: Who could eat Mexican food without it? At On the Border, the answer should be you. This free starter has more calories than three White Castle sliders. That’s no way to start your meal anywhere, let alone at a restaurant where every single enchilada dish will cost you at least 1,000 calories. Good things come to those who wait: Eschewing the chips and sticking to your order will get you across this Border with less baggage around your midsection.

WORST "FREE" RESTAURANT FOOD #2: Denny's Unlimited Pancake Stack
Buttermilk Pancakes with Maple-Flavored Syrup (2 pancakes)
473 calories
4 g fat (0.5 g saturated)
1,196 mg sodium
103 g carbohydrates

They say breakfast is the most important meal of the day. They don't say, “Eat as much as humanly possible for breakfast.” And yet you’d think that’s what Denny’s has in mind with this deal. Just two buttermilk pancakes will cost you more calories than four full servings of Breyers Smooth & Dreamy Dark Chocolate Velvet ice cream—double or triple that, and you’ve ruined your diet for the day without paying a cent. The Denny’s press release announcing this promotion brags about the “value” they’re providing Americans: Not Americans who value their bodies! (If you're one of those folks, get easy, effective advice about foods to avoid--and the smart swaps you should go for instead to make the belly fat fall off--with the latest Eat This, Not That! 2011 book.)

Bonus Tip: Lose weight fast. Build muscle. Get out of debt. Whatever your resolution for 2011, here's your plan.

THE #1 WORST "FREE" RESTAURANT FOOD: Olive Garden Bottomless Salad and Breadsticks
Garden-Fresh Salad (1 serving with dressing)
350 calories
26 g fat (4.5 g saturated)
1,930 mg sodium
22 g carbohydrates

Breadstick (1 with garlic butter spread)
150 calories
2 g fat (0 g saturated)
400 mg sodium
28 g carbohydrates

Olive Garden wins the battle of the fattening freebies by a mile. The minute you sit down, you’re staring at bowls of bottomless breadsticks and “garden” salad. Bottomless, however, doesn’t describe what you’ll look like if you spend too much time grazing in the Garden. Just one serving of each will give you 25 percent of your day’s caloric intake, before you’ve taken your first bite of your actual meal. But wait: Aren’t salads “healthy”? Not in this Garden: The free salad alone has almost a full day’s worth of sodium. Unfortunately, Olive Garden is far from the only restaurant that’s really a dietary minefield. Check out this comprehensive slideshow of the 20 Worst Restaurant Foods in America.

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The Best and Worst Super Bowl Foods

By the time the final whistle blows to end Sunday’s big game, two things will be certain: Either Green Bay or Pittsburgh will be champions of Super Bowl XLV, and more of us will be champions of Size XXL. In fact, as a nation we’ll down a collective 156 billion calories during the game, mostly from the terrible trifecta of pizza, wings, and beer—the gluttonous gargoyles of the gridiron.

But what if there was a way to indulge in terrific football food—rich, meaty, spicy stuff—and not gain weight? The Eat This, Not That! team uncovered the super-simple swaps below; make them and you'll cut around 1,500 calories of mindless game day snacking. You won't notice the sacrifice. You will, however, notice the extra spring in your postgame step.

Bonus Tip: Super Bowl Sunday is about the beer, too. Here's your guide to the Best and Worst Beers for gameday and beyond!

Worst Pregame Snack
6 Chicken Wings
592 calories
40 g fat (11 g saturated)
167 mg sodium
0 g carbohydrates

Going to a Super Bowl bash famished is like going to the supermarket on an empty stomach: It's a recipe for diet disaster. Your game day options will most likely include seemingly innocent chicken wings—which, in reality, contain more than a quarter of your daily recommended calories. And that’s before you dunk them in blue cheese! The better option: Eat a bowl of chili at kickoff—you'll save yourself 300 calories. Plus, it's the snack that pays you back. The protein and the fiber will fill your belly and prevent the mindless munching that football (and high-budget commercials) encourage.

Eat This Instead!
Bowl of Chili
287 calories
14 g fat (6 g saturated)
1,336 mg sodium
30 g carbohydrates

Bonus Tip: Make sure this is the last time you’re surprised by how unhealthy chicken can be—don’t miss our slideshow of the Worst Chicken Dishes in America.

Worst Veggie Snack
Spinach Artichoke Dip (1/4 cup dip and 8 chips)
325 calories
19 g fat (9 g saturated)
625 mg sodium

Spinach ... good. Artichokes ... good. But most of what’s in that bowl is processed cream-based gunk, the kind that can make your arteries harder to work through than the Steelers’ linebackers. Remember, just because a snack contains vegetables doesn’t make it healthy. Swap it out for tomato bruschetta to cut more than 100 calories and nearly 80 percent of the fat.

Eat This Instead!
Tomato Bruschetta (2 pieces)
200 calories
4 g fat (1 g saturated)
230 mg sodium

Bonus Tip: Staying thin would be easy if the Super Bowl were the only day of the year filled with hidden gut-bomb foods—but unfortunately, it isn’t. Check out our slideshow of the 20 Worst Foods in America for meals to skip on every occasion.

Worst Cheesy Snack
Nachos (40 chips and 4 oz cheese)
1,101 calories
59 g fat (18 g saturated)
1,580 mg sodium

When it comes to fitness, there are two types of people: The Haves, and the Have Nachos. These little chips are nothing more than a delivery system for saturated fat, and offer nothing by way of redeeming nutrients. For your cheesy fix, take a dip in good old Goldfish, a healthy-snack standby for good reason: You can eat a whole school of them before getting anywhere close to the calories in nachos.

Eat This Instead!
Pepperidge Farm Goldfish Cheddar Crackers (55 pieces)
140 calories
5 g fat (1 g saturated)
250 mg sodium

Worst Chip Dip
Lay's Smooth Ranch Dip (2 Tbsp)
60 calories
5 g fat
210 mg sodium

Think laying a hand on Green Bay quarterback Aaron Rodgers is tricky? Try walking into the supermarket and laying your hands on a healthy dip. Every time you take a dip at this ranch, you're scooping up a few grams of fat. Go with Ortega's Thick & Chunky salsa instead. Just as big-screen TVs were made for football, chips were made for munching in large numbers. With no fat and only a sixth of the calories, this salsa is delicious, filling, and guilt-free.

Eat This Instead!
Ortega Thick & Chunky Salsa (2 Tbsp)
10 calories
0 g fat
170 mg sodium

Bonus Tip: Chips and dips can be as dangerous as a helmet-to-helmet tackle: Know what to avoid with our slideshow of the Worst Chips and Dips.

Worst Popcorn
Smart Food White Cheddar Popcorn (1¾ cups)
160 calories
10 g fat (2 g saturated)
290 mg sodium

Smart food? I don't think so. This popcorn is coated in powdered cheese and covered with salt. The smart food choice here is to go with hot and freshly popped microwave popcorn, like the one from America's Best.

Eat This Instead!
American's Best Microwave Butter Popcorn (2 cups popped)
40 calories
0 g fat
80 mg sodium

Worst Potato Chips
Ruffles Cheddar & Sour Cream (about 11 chips)
160 calories
11 g fat (1.5 g saturated)
230 mg sodium

More than one handful of this fattening finger food will really chip away at your diet. Swap for Baked Lays Original for 40 fewer calories and 90 percent less fat. You’ll even get to enjoy more chips per serving.

Eat This Instead!
Baked Lay's Original (~15 chips)
120 calories
2 g fat (0 g saturated)
180 mg sodium

Finally, remember: I'm on a mission to uncover surprising places where hidden calories lurk. Get instant weight-loss, health, and fitness secrets every day by following me right here on Twitter or by signing up for the FREE Eat This, Not That! newsletter.

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Worst Sandwiches In America

In comic books, it’s easy to tell which masked marauder is the hero (Spiderman, Batman, Aquaman, most everyone else whose name ends in “man”) and which one’s the villain (Green Goblin, The Joker, The Riddler, and most everyone else who wears green). But sometimes, the hero is the villain. Like when you walk into a restaurant, and order one of the hero sandwiches we’ve listed below.

A sandwich is just about the easiest meal in the world to make: You take two pieces of bread, and put something delicious in the middle. Done. With a smart mix of high fiber carbs (like whole-wheat bread), lean protein (like roast beef or turkey), produce (lettuce, tomatoes, or whatever floats your boat), and healthy topping (mustard, relish, or even a modest schmear of mayo), a sandwich is a complete meal you can eat with one hand while dueling Two-Face with the other. Yet America’s chain restaurants seem determined to create a Bizzaro world, where everything good is bad, and a simple, nutritious hero becomes a duplicitous dietary demon.

Fortunately, the world is changing. When we began the Eat This, Not That! movement four years ago, nutritional information was almost impossible to come by. Today, thanks to the book series, most chains post their info for customers to see. Still, it helps to be forewarned and forearmed. Steer clear of the breaded beasts below, and you’ll be eating healthy faster than you can say “Mister Mxyzptlk!”

Bonus Tip: We've got your no-diet weight loss solution for 2011 right here! Step 1: Avoid the 20 Worst Foods in America and the 20 Worst Drinks in America. Step 2: Watch the pounds melt away. Step 3: Look—and feel—like a million bucks!

#7: Panera Full Italian Combo on Ciabatta
1,040 calories
45 g fat (17 g saturated, 1 g trans)
3,080 mg sodium
95 g carbohydrates

Panera is a classic example of a restaurant where it’s crucial to do your homework. Decently healthy options exist, but you’d better know what you’re looking for. Here's a shortcut: Stick to the “Café” category of the menu. If you swap the very reasonable Tuna Salad sandwich for the Italian Combo, you'll cut the calories nearly in half and the sodium by almost two-thirds.

Eat This Instead!
Full Tuna Salad on Honey Wheat
590 calories
28 g fat (5 g saturated, 0 g trans)
1,160 mg sodium
67 g carbohydrates

Bonus Tip: I'm on a mission to find the very best places for you to eat, and the often surprising places where hidden calories lurk. Get instant weight-loss, health and fitness secrets every day by following me right here on Twitter or by signing up for the FREE Eat This, Not That! newsletter.

#6: Blimpie BLT 12” Super Stacked
1,270 calories
82 g fat (18 g saturated fat)
2,870 mg sodium
84 g carbohydrates

BLT, indeed! Eat this and you'll be Bigger, Larger, and Tubbier. You’ll ingest more sodium in one sandwich than you should eat in an entire 24-hour period, not to mention a day's worth of saturated fat--the equivalent of 18 strips of bacon! Swap in the smaller BLT and drop the “Super,” and you’ve got a sandwich your belly will thank you for. There's another lesson here: Don't assume that if you double the size of a meal, you're doubling the nutritional qualities (or lack thereof). In this case, the 12-incher is overstuffed, so you're actually tripling the calorie, fat, and sodium counts! Yikes!

Eat This Instead!
BLT 6”
430 calories
22 g fat (5 g saturated)
960 mg sodium
43 g carbohydrates

#5: Red Robin All-American Patty Melt
1,315 calories
98 g fat
2,064 mg sodium
60 g carbohydrates

Ominously enough, Red Robin doesn’t report saturated fat levels—and this is an extremely fatty concoction, with a full day and a half’s worth of total fat. The only thing American about this sandwich is, sadly, the reality of our nation’s obesity epidemic. Avoid this caloric calamity and try the Natural Burger instead: You’ll cut the calories, fat, and sodium by more than half.

Eat This Instead!
Natural Burger
569 calories
24 g fat
989 mg sodium
51 g carbohydrates

Bonus Tip: Want to hear a secret? You'll eat 35 percent less if you keep the serving dishes off your dinner table! Amazing, right? You'll discover more awesome tips just like this one in our must-have list of the 25 Best Nutrition Secrets!

#4: Quizno’s Double Cheese Cheesesteak (Large)
1,450 calories
89 g fat (11 g saturated, 2 g trans)
2,890 mg sodium
93 g carbohydrates

Double Cheese? That’s your first clue that this nutritional nightmare is better fit for two people. Sneakily, Quiznos’s nutritional table lists the cheese and dressing for its sandwiches separately from the rest of the sandwich itself—despite the fact that, when you order, you’ll get all of it squished between the bread. Do the math, though, and this gut-busting cheesesteak will make you want to avoid Philadelphia entirely, with more than a day’s worth of sodium and fat and the caloric equivalent of more than seven Krispie Kreme glazed donuts. Switch to the Honey Bourbon Chicken for a third of the calories and a tenth of the fat. (Make an Eat This, Not That! smart swap like this one every other day to lose nearly a pound of belly fat a week!)

Eat This Instead!
Honey Bourbon Chicken (Regular)
520 calories
8 g fat (3 g saturated)
1,470 mg sodium
76 g carbohydrates

#3: Applebee’s Stuffed Meatball Sandwich
1,490 calories
77 g fat (31 g saturated fat, 2 g trans fat)
4,380 mg sodium
141 g carbohydrates

Meatballs can be a simple treat. Applebee’s doesn’t do simple: These meatballs are stuffed with provolone cheese before they're stuffed between the bun. If you think that’s crazy, consider the stats above. With more than a day and a half’s worth of both saturated fat and sodium, these meatball monstrosities should come with a defibrillator. Swap them for the Bacon Cheese Chicken Grill for less than half the calories, fat, sodium, and carbohydrates.

Eat This Instead!
Bacon Cheese Chicken Grill
740 calories
33 g fat (11 g saturated, 0 g trans)
1,830 mg sodium
50 g carbohydrates

#2: Chili’s Jalepeno Smokehouse Burger with Ranch
1,780 calories
125 g fat (40 g saturated)
5,240 mg sodium
71 g carbohydrates

Chili’s burgers are like serial killers: Every one is evil in its own twisted way. This Ranch-drenched rascal will cost you almost two days’ worth of fat and sodium. In fact, this burger alone is the caloric equivalent of a dozen White Castle sliders! Finding a decent sandwich on the Chili’s menu is a needle/haystack affair, and it's hard to recommend a single Chili’s burger. Instead, go with the Grilled Chicken Sandwich for less than half the calories and a tenth of the fat.

Eat This Instead!
Grilled Chicken Sandwich w/ Veggies
610 calories
12 g fat (5 g saturated)
1,270 mg sodium
78 g carbohydrates

THE #1 WORST SANDWICH IN AMERICA: Cheesecake Factory Grilled Shrimp & Bacon Club
1,890 calories
24 g saturated fat
2,964 mg sodium
125 g carbohydrates

The last time we checked on the Grilled Shrimp & Bacon Club, it clocked in at 1,930 calories. So the good news—if you can call it that—is that Cheesecake Factor has figured out how to lop off 40 calories. It's a start. Unfortunately, this sandwich is still the caloric equivalent of seven McDonald’s hamburgers. The truth is, this entire list could easily consist of Cheesecake Factory sandwiches. To make matters worse, the chain repeats a mistake of Chili’s—neither reports trans fat levels. But here’s the crazy thing about the Cheesecake Factory: Despite the all-star lineup of the worst foods in America, it's also home to one of the best sit-down burgers in the country. Choose the Factory Burger and cut your calories and sodium by more than half!

(Better yet, whip up a delicious 350-calorie cheeseburger yourself, in minutes, with the new Cook This, Not That! Easy & Awesome 350-Calorie Meals book. You'll save time, cash AND calories!)

Eat This Instead!
Factory Burger
730 calories
15 g saturated fat
1,016 mg sodium
52 g carbohydrates

Bonus Tip: As I said earlier, these aren't the only chains serving sandwiches that would scare your bathroom scale. Check out our complete list of the 30 Worst Sandwiches in America!

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10 Worst Supermarket Foods

Who likes food? All of us!

Who likes shopping? All of us!

Who likes food shopping? Hands? Anyone? Hello . . .?

The answer is, almost nobody likes food shopping. Going to the supermarket is a drab, draining drudgery, as even shopaholic gourmands will confess. A trip to the grocery store means spending an hour or so parsing specious nutritional claims and confusing price schemes and annoying, cloying packaging tricks, all while paying more money than you ever imagined, and doing it all under florescent lighting that could make Brooklyn Decker look like the Crypt Keeper.

Worse, thanks to tricky packaging, that supermarket is loaded with food that’s going to cause more weight gain than you bargained for. And it doesn’t matter how thorough your command of the English language is; Eminem couldn’t pronounce half of what’s on an ingredients list, and only Don Draper could make sense of marketing gobbledygook like "Part of a Well-Balanced Diet" and "Loaded with 9 Essential Nutrients." What you need is a cheat sheet that will lead you away from the worst offenders, and toward the shelves of nutritional safety. Fortunately, I’ve got one.

Through years of groundbreaking Eat This, Not That! research, we've managed to conquer the labrynth, and to show you what I mean, we've pulled together the worst of what the supermarket has to offer. If you want to survive the aisles, you'd be wise to avoid these diet-destroying pitfalls.

1. Worst Yogurt
Stonyfield Whole Milk Chocolate Underground (1 container)
220 calories
5 g fat (3 g saturated)
36 g sugars

Stonyfield is notorious for being generous with the sugar, but the 9 spoonfuls in its Chocolate Underground is bad even by the most indulgent dessert standards. Not even Ben & Jerry's most decadent scoop has this much sugar.

Eat This Instead!
Stonyfield Plain 0% Fat Yogurt
80 calories
0 g fat (0 g saturated)
11 g sugars

2. Worst Condiment
Eggo Original Syrup (1/4 cup)
240 calories
0 g fat
40 g sugars

Breakfast is the most important meal of the day, but not when it comes topped with this much sugar. Thanks to the combined impact of three liquid sweeteners, one serving of Eggo's pancake syrup has as much sugar as two packages of Reese's Peanut Butter Cups, according to Eat This, Not That! Supermarket Survival Guide. That's no way to start the day.

Eat This Instead!
Maple Grove Farms Sugar Free Syrup (1/4 cup)
25 calories
0 g fat
0 g sugars

Special Report: If you're serious about losing weight, you need to cut down on sugar first. Problem is, many of us eat too much of the white stuff for breakfast. You stay full longer when you swap out sugar for fiber, and we'll show you how to do it with ease right here: The 24 Best and Worst Cereals.

3. Worst Pick-Me-Up
Vault Red Blitz (20-oz bottle)
290 calories
78 g sugars

Here's a staggering stat: If you're used to drinking black coffee every morning, and you switch to this bottle of Vault, you'll pack on more than 5 pounds of body fat in the first two months on your normal diet. What's more, it's unlikely that you'll earn any extra buzz. This bottle has 115 milligrams of caffeine. An 8-ounce cup of coffee has as much as 200 milligrams. Stick with coffee or pick a leaner energy drink.

Drink This Instead!
Rockstar Recovery (16 fl oz)
20 calories
2 g sugars

Special Report: Watch out for liquid calories! They add up frighteningly fast, and here's the proof: The 20 Worst Drinks in America.

4. Worst Ice Cream
Haagen-Daz Chocolate Peanut Butter (1/2 cup)
360 calories
24 g fat (11 g saturated)
24 g sugars

Premium ice creams are notorious for heavy loads of fat and sugar, but Haagen-Dazs' Chocolate Peanut Butter is just egregious. Eat two scoops and you've just consumed more calories than a McDonald's McDouble with small fries and more saturated fat than you should consume in an entire day. Drop the peanut butter and opt for Dark Chocolate instead. You'll take in fewer than half the calories and a third less sugar.

Eat This Instead!
Haagen-Daz Dark Chocolate (1/2 cup)
160 calories
17 g fat (10 g saturated)
16 g sugars

DID YOU KNOW? Grocery cart handles are dirtier than bathrooms, and half of them carry E. coli, says a new U of Arizona study. Discover more shocking health, nutrition and weight loss secrets like this by following me on Twitter right here (where I'm giving a FREE iPad2 to a lucky follower) or by signing up for our FREE Eat This, Not That! newsletter.

5. Worst Frozen “Healthy” Entrée
Healthy Choice Complete Meals Sweet & Sour Chicken (1 serving)
420 calories
9 g fat (2 g saturated)
480 mg sodium
25 g sugars
Since when has fried chicken been healthy? Certainly not when it's cloaked in syrup. This meal has as more sugar than a Reese's-flavored Klondike bar, which makes it more like dessert than dinner. If you’re too busy to cook your own chicken, at least make it nutritious; the Roasted Chicken below has less than half the sugar and 40 percent fewer calories.

Eat This Instead!
Healthy Choice Complete Meals Oven Roasted Chicken (1 serving)
250 calories
5 g fat (1 g saturated)
540 mg sodium
10 g sugars

6. Worst Packaged Side
Pasta Roni Fettuccine Alfredo (1 cup prepared)
450 calories
24 g fat (7 g fat, 3.5 g trans)
1,050 mg sodium
44 g carbohydrates

Once again, Alfredo proves itself to be the biggest belt-busting option on the shelf. And, in this case, it comes with a ruinous load of trans fat and as much sodium as three orders of McDonald's french fries. This side dish has a meal's worth of calories, and if you try to turn it into a meal in itself, expect to top 1,000 calories.

Eat This Instead!
Pasta Roni Tomato Parmesan (1 cup prepared)
270 calories
9 g fat (3 g saturated, 1 g trans)
840 mg sodium
40 g carbohydrates

7. Worst “Kids” Entrée
Kid Cuisine All American Fried Chicken (1 package)
540 calories
24 g fat (6 g saturated)
750 mg sodium

For kids approaching the pre-teen growth spurt, this might not be such a bad meal. But for smaller children, 540 calories quite the heavy load. Healthy lifestyles begin young, so use this as an opportunity to explain the importance of smart choices, like choosing the Dip & Dunk Ravioli instead. It has 220 fewer calories and half the saturated fat; plus, your little ones will have more fun with dippable pasta. (For hundreds more health and nutrition tips, check out Eat This, Not That! For Kids)

Eat This Instead!
Kid Cuisine Dip & Dunk Toasted Ravioli (1 package)
320 calories
7 g fat (3 g saturated)
290 mg sodium

8. Worst Stir-Fry
Bertolli Chicken Alfredo & Penne (1/2 bag)
630 calories
32 g fat (17 g saturated)
1,200 mg sodium

Dinner should get your blood flowing, but this chicken has as much saturated fat as 17 strips of bacon! Switching to Chicken Marsala will save you 240 calories per serving. Make a swap like that every day and you'll drop 25 pounds this year.

Eat This Instead!
Bertolli Chicken Marsala & Roasted Red Potatoes (1/2 bag)
390 calories
13 g fat (5 g saturated)
920 mg sodium

Special Report: You don't always have time to cook your own dinner, and that's when you succumb to the convenience of the drive-thru. The good news is you can eat fast food while still losing weight. The bad news is, you won't lose a pound if you're eating any of these: The 10 Worst Fast-Food Meals.

9. Worst Frozen Pizza
DiGiorno Traditional Crust Supreme Pizza (1 pizza)
790 calories
36 g fat (14 g saturated)
1,460 mg sodium

This is DiGiorno's lunch-sized pizza, and it has more calories than Taco Bell's Half Pound Cheesy Potato Burrito with Cinnamon Twists on the side. A calorie load like this will probably make you feel drowsy the second half of the day. Better to downsize your meal and preserve your energy—not to mention your waistline.

Eat This Instead!
DiGiorno Flatbread Melts Chicken Parmesan (1 package)
380 calories
14 g fat (7 g saturated)
750 mg sodium

10. Worst Packaged Food
Marie Callender's Creamy Parmesan Chicken Pot Pie (1 package)
1,020 calories
58 g fat (24 g saturated)
1,660 mg sodium

Marie Callender's commits the ultimate sleight of hand here: The nutrition information says this medium-size entrée has two servings, but let's get real—nobody wants to split a potpie. The problem here is twofold: a pie crust that's shot through with lard, and a filling that's swimming in cream. That makes for one fatty dish. Go with the Herb Roasted chicken and cut your your sodium by 44 percent, calories by 55 percent, and your saturated fat by 75 percent!

Eat This Instead!
Marie Callender's Herb Roasted Chicken (1 package)
460 calories
21 g fat (6 g saturated)
940 mg sodium

Bonus Tip: Food manufacturers think you're stupid. In fact, they're counting on it. But we've cracked the packaged food labeling code. Check out 18 Supermarket Lies Revealed and never be fooled by misleading labels again. And for hundreds of smart swaps and recipes to save 10, 20, 30 pounds or more, check out the new Eat This, Not That! No-Diet Diet guide.

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The Worst Late Night Snacks

There are a lot of things that can conspire to keep you up all night: The slumping markets. The rising prices. That recurring nightmare about being chased down the street by Steven Tyler's lips. But if you're having trouble getting a good night's sleep, here's a culprit you might not have looked at: Your diet. Turns out that plenty of late-night snacks can actually interfere with sleep—and conspire to make you gain more weight than you should.

It's true: When food keeps you awake at night, it's actually doing a double-whammy on your tummy. In a study from Wake Forest University, adults younger than 40 who slept 5 hours or less gained more abdominal fat over a 5-year period than those who slept for 6 or 7 hours a night. (You think Jimmy Kimmel looks like that by accident?) And worse, in a recent study from the European Heart Journal, researchers found that people who sleep fewer than 6 hours a night are at a higher risk for certain health conditions such as heart disease and stroke.

What are these late-night dietary double-crossers? And how can you tweak your diet so you not only burn calories day and night, but get the added fitness burst of a good night's sleep? Eat This, Not That! has (tirelessly) compiled a list. Let's find out...

WORST LATE-NIGHT DINNER
Beef Ribeye (8 oz)
565 calories
33.5 g fat (13 g saturated)

If you eat dinner late, avoid big, fatty beef cuts. They digest slowly, which means your body has to keep active when you want it to be in shutdown mode. Plus, the heavy dose of protein will pump you full of tyrosine, an amino acid that triggers neurons in your brain to become more active. That's not something you want before you nod off. If you must appease your grumbling, stick with poultry as your main meat. The tryptophan in turkey and chicken induces serotonin, a compound that plays an instrumental role in regulating sleep cycles. And the bun that holds the chicken? That helps, too. An Australian study published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition found that starchy carbs—like the ones in bread—can bolster the tryptophan and serotonin spikes.

Eat This Instead!
Grilled Chicken Sandwich
400 calories
15 g fat (3 g saturated)

DID YOU KNOW? Grocery cart handles are dirtier than bathrooms, and half of them carry E. coli, says a new University of Arizona study. Discover more surprising health, nutrition, and weight loss secrets like this by following me on Twitter right here (where I'm giving a FREE iPad 2 to a lucky follower) or by signing up for our FREE Eat This, Not That! newsletter. And check out Eat This, Not That! Supermarket Survival Guide. It'll help you navigate the jungle of 60,000 supermarket choices and lose weight while eating your favorite foods.

WORST LATE-NIGHT DESSERT
Chocolate Ice Cream (1 cup premium brand)
510 calories
31 g fat (20 g saturated)
40 g sugar

Just about the worst thing you can put into your body right before bedtime is sugar. Sugar is that fast-burning energy that your body wants to use as quickly as possible, but that's hard to do while you're sleeping. So instead, your body does the next best thing—it stores most of the sugar as fat. But there are plenty of sugary snacks out there, why pick on chocolate ice cream? Because chocolate contains caffeine—not as much as a cup of coffee, but more than you should consume if you're worried about sleeping soundly. To get the sweetness you crave, try yogurt with granola and fruit. Granola is made from oats, which are a good source of tryptophan, and bananas contain a heavy dose of melatonin, a hormone that helps regulate your body's circadian rhythm.

Eat This Instead!
Lowfat yogurt (1/2 cup) with 1 chopped banana and 2 Tbsp granola
257 calories
6 g fat (2 g saturated)
26 g sugars

Bonus Tip: Look, you can still eat ice cream, just don't wolf it down right before you hit the sack. And of course, limit your indulgence to varieties that won't turn to flab the second you ingest them. You can find the best right here: 15 Desserts That Burn Fat!

WORST NIGHT CAP
Black tea with 1 Tbsp sugar (8 fl oz)
70 calories
0 g fat
12.5 g sugars

Sure, black tea is a better late-night choice than black coffee. And you can cut the sugar content in half by adding honey instead. But, chances are, you'll still be tossing and turning in bed an hour later. That's because black teas have beween 40 and 120 milligrams of caffeine—about half that of a cup of coffee. The better choice? Rooibos tea. This red tea has no caffeine and is naturally sweet—no need to add sugar or honey. Plus, it contains antioxidants that studies have shown can lower blood pressure and boost immune function.

Drink This Instead!
Celestial Seasonings Red Tea (8 fl oz)
0 calories
0 g fat
0 g sugar

Bonus Tip: Watch out for liquid calories! They add up frighteningly fast, and here's the proof: The 20 Worst Drinks in America. (Want an entire day's worth of calories with your drink? Yikes!)

WORST MIDNIGHT SNACK
Cap'n Crunch (1 cup)
147 calories
2 g fat (1.5 g saturated)
16 g sugars
1 g fiber

No food comes to the rescue faster than cereal when you need a quick midnight snack. But if you plan on falling asleep, do yourself a favor and avoid the hyper-sweetened kid stuff. A bowl of Cap'n Crunch has nearly as much sugar as a Hershey's Take 5 bar and scarcely any fiber to prevent it from hijacking your blood sugar. (Here's a list of another dozen Worst Cereals in America.)

That said, a little dose of carbs can actually improve your sleep, but the best cereal is one that contains as much fiber as it does sugar. Formulated with whole grain corn, Kix has just that. Simply add a banana if you need something sweeter!

Eat This Instead!
Kix (1 cup)
88 calories
1 g fat (0 g saturated)
2.5 g sugars
2.5 g fiber

RELATED STORY: Smart snacking can work wonders on your waistline, too, but it can be a challenge to find options that keep the sugar low and the protein and fiber high. That's why we put together The 50 Best Snack Foods in America to help keep you lean and full all day long! Check it out.

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Best and Worst Valentine's Day Candy

Valentine’s Day: Celebration of love, or calculated plot to destroy romance?

Think about it: There’s nothing more romantic than a spontaneous outpouring of love. But that’s one thing you can’t have on V-day, when we’re all supposed to move in lockstep formation down to the jewelry/flower/stationery store. How about cozying up over an intimate dinner for two? Fugghedaboutit: Every restaurant in town is packed to the gills and about as romantic as the mosh pit at a Green Day concert. And what about being fit, healthy, and ready for lovin’? Good-bye, sexy body: There’s nothing like an enormous cardboard heart filled with carbohydrates to ruin the way your belly looks, and feels.

When it comes to chocolate disaster, temptation is everywhere. From the coworker who sets out a community bowl, to the aisles lined with sweets at your local grocery store, there’s no love for your waistline.

But I have good news: If you know what to look for and can exercise a little self-discipline, indulging your sweet tooth isn’t nearly as sinful as you might think. That’s why I’ve dedicated this post to arming you with the knowledge you need to enjoy a romantic evening, compliments of the new Eat This, Not That! and Cook This, Not That! books. Here's how to embrace the sweet (and still guilt-free) side of life:

Not That!
Ghirardelli Milk & Caramel Chocolate Squares (1 square)
73 calories
4 g fat (2 g saturated, < 1 g trans)
8 g sugar

These chocolates are troubling for two reasons: Aside from the fact that a single square has 73 calories, Ghirardelli uses enough partially hydrogenated oil to make eating three pieces—the recommended serving size—result in the consumption of 0.5 grams of trans fat, or a quarter of your day’s daily allowance. Candy heart: Okay. Candy heart disease: Not so good.

Eat This Instead!
Ghirardelli Intense Dark Twilight Delight Squares, 72% Cacao (1 square)
55 calories
5 g fat (3 g saturated)
3 g sugars

FOOD SECRET: White chocolate isn't technically chocolate, since it contains no cocoa solids; it's mostly just fat and sugar. For more great food and health tips that shrink your belly and help you live better, make sure you follow me right here on Twitter or sign up for our FREE daily Eat This, Not That! newsletter.

Not That!
Russell Stover Milk Chocolate Almond Delights (1 piece)
90 calories
5 g fat (3 g saturated)
6 g sugars

The problem with a box of chocolates—as Forrest Gump’s mother so aptly noted—is that you never know what you’re going to get. A few unlucky grabs could easily net you an extra hundred calories. It's worth consulting the map that comes with the box to avoid the Almond Delights. They're high in calories and laced with partially hydrogenated oil, unlike the Whips below.

Eat This Instead!
Milk Chocolate Chocolate Whips (1 piece)
53 calories
3 g fat (2 g saturated)
6 g sugars

Bonus Tip: Nothing ruins a romantic dinner like 2,500 unnecessary calories. Check out the Best and Worst Date Foods for simple swaps that will ensure you have room—and energy—for dessert.

Not That!
Lindor Mini Milk Chocolate Hearts (1 heart)
83 calories
6 g fat (4 g saturated)
6 g sugars

Here's an ominous sign: In the ingredients list, chocolate doesn’t make an appearance until five entries down, with sugar and vegetable oil snagging the top two spots. No wonder these seemingly innocuous little hearts pack such a big caloric punch. The Lindt’s chocolate bar below is made from flavonoid-packed dark chocolate and incorporates a bit of sea salt, which bumps the flavor profile up a notch and makes something already indulgent deliciously decadent.

Eat This Instead!
Lindt Excellence Dark Chocolate Bar w/ a Touch of Sea Salt (1 square)
48 calories
3 g fat (2 g saturated)
5 g sugars

Bonus Tip: Everyone knows eating too much candy helps put your dentist's kids through college. But, truth is, many of your favorite foods are just as bad or worse. Check out our slideshow of 12 Foods Your Dentist Would Never Eat!

Not That!
Fannie May Cappuccino Truffle (1 piece)
140 calories
8 g fat (7 g saturated)
15 g sugars

This rich truffle has twice the fat and sugar content of a real cappuccino—without any of the antioxidants you'd get from consuming the actual drink. The Citrus Peels, however, make for a dynamic flavor profile when paired with chocolate. Not to mention, 99 percent of citrus-peel oils consist of d-limonene, an antioxidant that’s been shown to kill cancer cells. Now, that’s some delicious multitasking.

Eat This Instead!
Chocolate-Covered Citrus Peel (1 piece)
43 calories
2 g fat (1 g saturated)
5 g sugars

Bonus Tip: Did you know that a cappuccino is one of the healthiest coffee drinks you can order? Just make sure you don't drink it with one of these 20 Worst Breakfasts in America! Some of them have a day's worth of calories, fat, sodium, or sugar in one meal!

Not That!
Hershey’s King Size Valentine Marshmallow Heart (1 heart)
240 calories
7 g fat (5 g saturated)
35 g sugars

As a filling, marshmallow is preferable to heavier, higher-calorie options like fudge and nougat. However, eating a massive marshmallow by itself is not advisable. More than half of this mallow’s calories come from the huge load of sugar used to make it. Know what else has 35 grams of sugar? Two scoops of Breyers Rocky Road ice cream. You can do better.

Eat This Instead!
Hershey’s Special Dark Chocolate Kisses (3 pieces)
60 calories
4 g fat (3 g saturated)
7 g sugars

Bonus Tip: Knowing how to maximize your calorie burn will make chocolate-indulgence guilt a thing of the past. Check out the Lean Belly Prescription, by Travis Stork, M.D., cohost of The Doctors, for the no-exercise trick that burns an extra 24,000 calories a year—enough to lose 7 pounds without ever seeing the inside of a gym!

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7 Worst Supermarket Rip-Offs

Walking into your average supermarket is a lot like being a contestant on “Jeopardy!” If you think hard, choose wisely, and give all the right answers, you can go home with a carload of cash and prizes. But make a few mistakes and you'll leave with an empty wallet—not to mention a lot of empty calories.

In fact, even the lowest-priced supermarket in your neighborhood is brimming with complete rip-offs—health foods that aren’t healthy, gourmet foods that aren’t gourmet, specialty items that just aren’t that special. Here are just some of the foods you're overpaying for, compliments of Eat This, Not That! Supermarket Survival Guide and Cook This, Not That!.
Organic Onions and Avocados
The Environmental Working Group, an organization that studies pesticide contamination, ranks onions and avocados as the most pesticide-free vegetable and fruit, respectively—even when grown conventionally.

In fact, as a general rule, anything you have to peel before you eat (such as bananas or garlic, for example) is relatively low in pesticides. If you want to eat organic, splurge on produce with permeable or edible skin, such as peaches, lettuce, and apples.

Bonus Tip: Onions and avocados are extremely healthy for you. Still, they don't quite make our list of the 40 Foods with Superpowers—foods that, even in moderation, can strengthen your heart, fortify your bones, and boost your metabolism so you can lose weight more quickly.

Funyuns
Does a bag of Funyuns look like a bargain to you? At about $4, it holds 6.5 ounces of snackable corn inside. Now consider this: a large ear of corn will run you about a buck and weighs just over 5 ounces. So the Funyuns bag contains the food equivalent of 1¼ ears of corn. Do the math here: If an ear of corn costs a dollar, a bag of Funyuns should run no more than $1.25, and that's under the assumption that cheap fillers like sugar, corn starch, and soy flour haven't driven the cost down significantly (a very generous assumption, indeed). Part of the reason this bag contains so little actual food is that it contains massive amounts of air. The corn is puffed and the bag is puffed—so you’re buying mostly puffery. Even a regular bag of potato chips, which is by no means a bargain, contains more actual food than this. A bag of Ruffles is 10 ounces, a bag of Doritos 17.

Bonus Tip: Life is hectic. Funyuns are tempting. That's why we created our new book: The Eat This, Not That! No-Diet Diet, a complete day-by-day, meal-by-meal weight-loss plan for busy people. You can eat all the foods you love, and still lose tons of weight—without ever dieting again. Check it out.

Swordfish
A pound of swordfish can cost more than $20. Why? Supply and demand: Because it’s scarce, it’s viewed as a luxury. But you should consider its high cost a blessing: It probably has saved your family from slow, steady infusions of poison. Due to abnormally high levels of mercury, the Monterey Bay Aquarium recommends that children and women (who could potentially become pregnant) cut swordfish from their diets entirely. A better seafood option: halibut. It has all the flavor, with 40 percent fewer calories, a much lower cost, and it’s one of the cleanest fish out there.

Remember: I'm on a mission to uncover surprising places where hidden calories lurk. Sign up for our FREE Eat This, Not That! newsletter and we'll help you cut hundreds of calories a day—and save you time, money and all those unwanted pounds in the process.

Gluten-Free Baked Goods
Gluten-free foods generally cost two to three times more as their gluten-containing counterparts, and unless you’re among the less than 1 percent of people with celiac disease, there’s no point in coughing up the extra dough. Gluten-free pastries and breads don’t necessarily have fewer calories or more nutrients than regular products. A 2006 study published in the American Journal of Gastroenterology followed a group of gluten-free dieters with celiac disease for 2 years and discovered that 81 percent of them actually gained weight.

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5-Hour Energy
There’s a lot of hype in this bottle, but the only ingredient that provides any significant energy is caffeine, of which there are 135 grams in each bottle. That’s less than you’d find in a14-ounce cup of coffee (Dunkin’ Donuts 14-ounce medium has 164 grams of caffeine). Cost for a cup of coffee: A buck or two. Cost for 5-Hour Energy: Between $3 and $4.

Bonus Tip: 5-Hour Energy may be a lot of hype, but at least it won't make you fat. These drinks most certainly will if they're among your go-to options: The 20 Worst Beverages in America.

Tenderloin Steak
This is consistently one of the most expensive cuts of beef, but all you're buying is a little bit of tenderness. In fact, tenderloin isn’t a particularly flavorful steak. So why does it cost so much? Because there aren’t many tenderloin steaks on a cow. Switch to top sirloin instead. It’s one of the leanest cuts on the cow, and it packs in far more rich, deep, beefy flavor. And depending where you’re buying, it might end up costing you about half as much. This saves you cash at the supermarket--and the steakhouse!

Bonus Tip: For simple steps to live a longer and healthier life, check out Dr. Oz's 25 Greatest Health Tips Ever.

Anything with a Cartoon on the Box
You know there's trouble when food needs a mascot. A grinning cartoon character on the front of a box is a surefire sign of two things: 1) The box is filled with mostly cheap carbohydrates, and 2) Most of the money you spend on it will end up in the pockets of marketers. See the Golden Crisp box here? The mascot on the front is known as Sugar Bear, which explains why more than half the calories come from pure sugar. And what's that all around him? Advertisements. This box is like a big billboard stuffed full of junk that will make you flabby. You might as well just eat your money—at least that's sugar free.

Bonus Tip: You stay full longer when you swap out sugar for fiber, and we'll show you how to do it with ease right here: The 24 Best and Worst Cereals.

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