The 20 Most Sugar-Packed Foods in America
20. Most Sugar-Packed Cereal
Quaker Natural Granola: Oats, Honey & Raisins (1 cup)
30 g sugars
420 calories
Warning: Granola’s reputation as a great way to start your day is largely unfounded. The problem is those healthy-sounding oats are invariably battered with a variety of sweeteners, making it not only the one of the sweetest cereals in the aisle, but also one of the most caloric. In fact, one cup of this stuff has more sugar than two servings of Lucky Charms.
19. Most Sugar-Packed Chicken Dish
KFC’s Five Teriyaki Wings
30 g sugars
480 calories
Teriyaki sauce is infamous for being packed with sugar, but with these wings, KFC reaches new levels of adulterated meat. Each wing has five grams of fat and six grams of sugar. Go with hot wings instead; they have no sugar and 130 fewer calories.
18. Most Sugar-Packed Vegetarian Dish
Bob Evans’ Vegetable Stir-Fry
31 g sugars
505 calories
No, not even stir-fry is safe in the hands of a corporate cook. This one is sautéed in a thick, sugary slurry and then seasoned with more than 2,000 mg of sodium.
17. Most Sugar-Packed Salad
Uno Chicago Grill’s Spinach, Chicken and Gorgonzola Salad
38 g sugars
720 calories
The candied walnuts on this salad help to make it sweeter than a double-scoop cone of Ben & Jerry’s Butter Pecan ice cream. Choose a more sensible meal and save the sugar calories for dessert. (Which you’ll share, right?)
16. Most Sugar-Packed Sandwich
Subway’s Foot-Long Sweet Onion Chicken Teriyaki
38 g sugars
740 calories
The most distressing part: this sandwich finds its way onto Subway’s “healthy” menu. Ignore the claims of ‘low fat’ that adorn the menu board; the teriyaki sauce contributes nearly 10 teaspoons of sugar to the sandwich, which will soon find their way to your waistline.
15. Most Sugar-Packed Side Dish
Boston Market’s Cinnamon Apples
42 g sugars
210 calories
This apple dish is right up there with the one Eve served to Adam, and you know how that worked out. Boston Market’s sickly sweet side consists of apples overwhelmed with sugar, brown sugar, soybean oil, and cornstarch. Oh yeah, and a pinch of cinnamon—which is about the only healthy thing in it. If you want this dish done right, make it at home.
14. Most Sugar-Packed “Healthy” Food
Panera’s Pumpkin Muffin
47 g sugars
530 calories
Stop thinking of muffins as health food and start thinking of them as cake. They’re made from refined flour, contain only trace amounts of fiber, and can pack more sugar than two ice cream bars. Have one of these for breakfast, and you’ve sabotaged your diet for the whole day.
13. Most Sugar-Packed Cookie
Dunkin’ Donut’s Oatmeal Raisin Cookie
51 g sugars
480 calories
Oatmeal and raisins on their own are good eats, but combined in this massive cookie they contribute to a full meal’s worth of calories. You’re better off eating two glazed donuts than sinking your teeth into this disaster.
12. Most Sugar-Packed Soft Drink
Sunkist Orange
190 calories
52 g sugars
Soft drinks are the No. 1 source of added sugar in the American diet, and this perennial favorite is the worst offender of all. Drink just one of these a day and you’re looking at adding nearly 42 pounds of sugar to your diet this year alone.
11. Most Sugar-Packed Breakfast Pastry
Panera’s Cobblestone Sweet Rolls
61 g sugars
590 calories
Make this streusel-and-icing topped roll your breakfast staple and you’ll add 7,564 calories of pure sugar to your monthly intake. That’s more than 25 extra pounds of sugar-induced body fat you’ll be forced to deal with. You better hope the sugar buzz keeps you active. (Don’t count on it.)
10. Most Sugar-Packed Kids’ Meal
Oscar Mayer Maxed Out Turkey & Cheddar Cracker Combo Lunchables
61 g sugars
680 calories
Kids love Lunchables, and for the usual reason: It’s a candy box. Too bad so many busy parents use them to fill empty lunchboxes. But this kids’ meal has more calories than a Whopper and more sugar than two Snickers bars; suddenly, packing their own lunches becomes more of a priority. Anything to avoid that prepackaged candy and sugary drink.
9. Most Sugar-Packed Dinner Entrée
Uno Chicago Grill’s Baby Back Ribs
62 g sugars
860 calories
Uno Chicago Grill likes to boast about the signature citrus barbecue sauce that covers these ribs. We bet we can guess the secret ingredient (hint: it’s not citrus).
8. Most Sugar-Packed Asian Dish
Pei Wei Asian Diner’s Orange Peel Beef
66 g sugars
1,320 calories
Unlike Pei Wei’s parent company, P.F. Chang’s, this Asian restaurant actually discloses its sugar content. Unfortunately, the numbers they provide leave little hope for Chinese-food lovers, considering such a large portion of their popular dishes are obscured by a cloak of molten sugar. Makes you wonder what’s hiding in P.F. Chang’s menu.
7. Most Sugar-Packed Yogurt
Au Bon Pain’s Large Low-Fat Blueberry Yogurt with Fruit (15 oz.)
75 g sugars
440 calories
Don’t let Au Bon Pain trick you into thinking that this is one of its healthier options – it has nearly four times more sugar than the Apple Strudel. In fact, most fruit-flavored yogurts should be avoided, since the “fruit” usually comes in the form of a puddle of high fructose corn syrup waiting at the bottom of the cup.
6. Most Sugar-Packed Breakfast
Bob Evans’ Stacked & Stuffed Strawberry Banana Cream Hotcakes
102 g sugars
1,200 calories
Despite the fruity name, this is truly one of the worst breakfast entrées in America. Each stack has 25.5 teaspoons of sugar—that’s more sugar than six funnel cakes. This is their diabetic special—one that contributes to the disease, instead of curing it.
5. Most Sugar-Packed Coffee Drink
Starbuck’s Venti Strawberries & Crème Frappuccino® with whipped Crème (24 oz)
120 g sugars
750 calories
This afternoon pick-me-up is a clandestine delivery system for 30 teaspoons of sugar. To top this sugar load, you would have to munch through three sticky orders of cotton candy.
4. Most Sugar-Packed Fruit Drink
Sonic’s Route 44 Cherry Slush
170 g sugars
640 calories
There are just two parts to the cherry slush: ice and sugar. That leaves no room for real cherry in the slush, just as there ought to be no room in your diet for 44 ounces of frozen sugar.
3. Most Sugar-Packed Chunky Ice Cream
Baskin Robbins Large Fudge Brownie 31 Below (24 oz)
233 g sugars
1,900 calories
Baskins’ Law: The chunkier the ice cream, the more havoc it will wreak on one’s waistline. As a rule of thumb, avoid all specialty concoctions, sundaes, and shakes at Baskins; if you must splurge, stick to a single scoop in a cup. Better yet, take advantage of their impressive array of sorbets, sherbets, and no-sugar-added ice creams.
2. Most Sugar-Packed Sundae
Uno Chicago Grill’s Mega-Sized Deep Dish Sundae (servings listed as four)
272 g sugars
2,800 calories
If you plan on eating this thing alone, you better have your doctor on speed dial. The 1.7-pound ice-cream sundae has more than a day’s worth of calories. Even split four ways it amounts to 700 calories and 68 grams of sugar. Ick.
1. The Most Sugar-Packed Food in America
Baskin Robbins Large York® Peppermint Pattie Shake
281 g sugars
2,210 calories
Baskin Robbins’ line of candy-based beverages are horrendous on so many accounts: Each large shake has a day’s worth of calories, up to three days of saturated fat, and an ingredient list so long—some more than seven inches—it requires an advanced degree in chemistry to decipher. This particular caloric catastrophe has more sugar than 11 Peppermint Patties.
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