Literally speaking, when the new 2012 Edition of “Eat This, Not That” was released, it was all about The Cheesecake Factory. In the list of top-ten “worst” kids’ meals, The Cheesecake Factory’s Alfredo Sauce Kids Pasta took gold as it had the worst calorie content at a whooping 1,810 and an astonishing 89 grams of fat…this is enough to feed a hungry adult for 24 hours. Also on the top-ten worst, The Cheesecake Factory took 7th and 8th place respectively, with their Kids Southern Fried Chicken Sliders (820 calories) and their Kids Grilled Cheese Sandwich (810 calories).
On the Border Kid’s Cheese Quesadilla with Mexican Rice took the silver with a mere 1,220 calories (that is about 35% less than first spot!). Bronze goes to Outback Steakhouse Joey Spotted Dog Sundae with a very close, 1,216 calories).
I will have to say this…I absolutely love eating at The Cheesecake Factory and while I don’t have kids, I can still say that I probably would not allow them to have the 1,810 calorie meal. That being said, I really do not believe you can judge a meal solely based on their calorie and fat content. Further, the portion sizes of The Cheesecake Factory are, well, simply put, over-sized. Sometimes you can easily take half of the meal to go, and that applies to the kids’ meal sizes as well. If you do that, suddenly you have already cut your meal from 1,800 calories to below 1,000. Don’t get me wrong, that is still huge.
One more thing I would have to add is that I don’t recall knowing anyone that eats at The Cheesecake Factory every day or even every other day (go ahead and blame our economy for that). Most of the time, people eat out to reward themselves or to celebrate a special occasion. So, is it bad to treat yourself out once in a while? Is it bad to allow a kid to consume that big of a meal? I know some kids that are extremely active and can probably burn off that many calories in one afternoon (and can probably keep their parents in shape in the process). While this may not be the norm, regulating the calorie content should not be the responsibility of the government. The restaurant should simply disclose the content information and allow adults to behave responsibly, at least when eating or when selecting the foods they want to stick in their mouth.
It is about education, not about regulation. On that thought, I think I will have some cheesecake tonight…or at least cheese-stick, is only 2 letters off anyway.
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