How bad are your favorites? Maybe worse than you think

Albany, N.Y. — Worst food in America? According to Men’s Health magazine, it’s the Aussie cheese fries with ranch dressing at Outback Steakhouse.

This concoction of fries topped with melted cheese, chopped bacon and spicy ranch dressing contains 2,900 calories. That’s the equivalent of 14 Krispy Kreme doughnuts. And, since most people should be consuming 1,500 to 2,000 calories per day, that’s a day and a half’s worth right there.

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muffin

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chicken wings

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bagel with cream cheese

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What about the foods we think are healthy, or at least not all that unhealthy, that turn out to be bad for us?

To help us identify such foods, we asked three nutritionists, including Nina Marinello, coordinator of nutrition education in the department of athletics at the State University of New York at Albany to weigh in.

Muffins

“How many people walk into a Dunkin’ Donuts and opt for the muffin instead of the doughnut, thinking they’re doing themselves a favor?” Marinello says.

They’re not. A honey-bran raisin muffin has 500 calories, a pumpkin muffin has 650 and even a reduced-fat blueberry muffin has 450. By comparison, a glazed doughnut has 220 calories.

“Read the label of a pre-wrapped muffin. If it reads serving size 200, then that’s not bad. Right? Trouble is, read it closer, and it says this one muffin is three servings — or 600 calories.”

Bagels

As with muffins, the main problem with bagels is size. And add to that: cream cheese.

“A large bagel can be about 400 calories,” Marinello says. “Then spread a couple of tablespoons of cream cheese or peanut butter on it.”

Two tablespoons are about 180 or 190 calories, she says. “And two tablespoons aren’t a lot when you start spreading it on a big bagel,” she says. “So you spread on more. Then what happens is, now you have about 400 calories worth of peanut butter on a 400-calorie bagel.”

Chicken wings

“Chicken wings are the kind of food you eat with abandonment,” Marinello says. “Who’s satisfied after three chicken wings? It doesn’t fill you either.”

It’s a little bit of chicken and a lot of skin. Skin is mostly fat. Then it’s fried. Finally, it’s coated with sauce and sometimes dipped into blue-cheese dressing (two tablespoons of which are 170 calories).

Each wing is about 100 calories (sans dipping sauce). That means a dozen is about 1,200. Wash them down with a few beers, and soon you’ve reached — or surpassed — your whole day’s recommended calorie intake.