so i tried the KFC doubledown

[Order 66]

old, but i've been meaning to post it FiveThirtyEight: Politics Done Right: Double Down by the Numbers: Unhealthiest Sandwich Ever?

Double Down by the Numbers: Unhealthiest Sandwich Ever?
by Nate Silver @ 1:02 AM

KFC's Double Down Sandwich, an in-your-face collection of bacon, cheese and something called Colonel's Sauce betwixt two fried chicken "buns", is making waves for its unapologetic gluttony, compelling reviews out of everyone from the New York Times's Sam Sifton to the Onion's Nathan Rabin. But is it really the caloric monstrosity that it appears?

To get this out of the way: I haven't eaten a Double Down. I probably will. And I'll probably like it. But there are so many much tastier ways to clog your arteries here in New York that it's not high on the priority list.

So instead, let's start with the Double Down's calorie count: 540 calories for the crispy "Original Recipe" version and 460 for a grilled variant. Those seem like big numbers, but by fast food standards, they're pretty mild: the Burger King Chicken Tendercrisp weighs in at 800 calories, for instance, and Jack-in-the-Box's Ranch Chicken Club will set you back 700. Calorie counts for burgers are even higher: 1,320 for a Hardee's Monster Thickburger, and 1,350 for a Wendy's Triple Baconator. Even the humble Big Mac, a lightweight by modern standards, contains 540 calories, exactly the same number as the Double Down.

But calorie counts are overrated. We all need to eat, to the tune of about 2,000 calories per day for a healthy adult. It's not the calories so much as what you do with them. Are you getting a lot of fat, cholesterol, and sodium (bad)? Or lots of fiber and vitamins instead?

Here, the Double Down's credentials are more impressive. Those 540 calories contain 145 milligrams of cholesterol (more than twice that of the Big Mac and about half of the USDA's daily allowance) -- along with 1,380 milligrams of sodium (the USDA recommends no more than 2,400 per day) and 32 grams of fat (65 will keep you slim, says the government). So, for getting only about one-quarter of the calories that you need in a day, you're exhausting about half your budget of "bad stuff".

We can, of course, be a bit more exacting about this. I've created an index based on the amount of fat, sodium and cholesterol that the Double Down and a variety of comparable sandwiches contain as a portion of the USDA daily allowance. (In the fat category, saturated fats are counted double and trans-fats are counted triple.) The index is scaled such that the Original Recipe version of the sandwich receives a score of 1.00, a measure of gluttony that will hereafter be known as The Double Down (DD).**

By this measure, the Double Down is indeed quite unhealthy, but some other sandwiches are just as bad. The Burger King Chicken Tendercrisp (1.00 DDs), which has less cholesterol but more fat and sodium, is comparably unhealthy to the Double Down on balance. The chicken ranch sandwiches from Sonic (0.94 DDs) and Jack-in-the-Box (0.98 DDs) are close. And surprisingly, some sandwiches from "fast casual" restaurants that have a reputation for healthy food do even worse. Panera's Chipotle Chicken checks in at 1.49 DD's -- it has almost 50 percent more bad stuff than the Double Down -- and Boston Market's Chicken Carver at 1.14. So do some products that stretch the definition of "sandwich". A chicken burrito from Chipotle with rice, black beans, cheese and corn salsa will cost you 1.16 Double Downs: load it up with sour cream, guacamole, and picante salsa as well and you're up to 1.69. A pack of five McDonald's Chicken Selects with a side of ranch sauce is worth 1.23 Double Downs.
http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4038/...020c4e7c_o.png
But it's the burgers that dominate this category, with Wendy's Triple Baconator (2.45 DDs) and Hardee's Moster Thickburger (2.24 DDs) in a league of their own and more than twice as bad-for-you as the Double Down. Even an ordinary Whopper with Cheese (1.10 DDs) is slightly worse than the Double Down.

All of those products, however, contain more -- often substantially more -- calories than does the Double Down. They have lots (and lots and lots) of bad stuff, but some good stuff like protein, iron and fiber as well. Their calories aren't quite so empty, and they damned well ought to leave you full.

So suppose instead that we re-calibrate our metric by dividing by the number of calories that each sandwich contains. This alternate measure, which we'll call Double Downs per Calorie (DDPC), gets at the idea of how bad each product is for you on a bite-by-bite basis.
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And here, things don't look very good at all for the Double Down, since for all that crap you're taking in, you're only getting about one-quarter of the calories that you need. On this basis, not only is the Double Down worse for you than any of the chicken products (Chick-Fil-A's Chargrilled Chicken Club, at 0.91 DDPCs, is the next-worst), but also all of the burgers as well -- even the Triple Baconator (0.98 DDPCs) and the infamous Thickburger (0.92 DDPCs). In fact, the only thing that beats than the Original Recipe Double Down is the supposedly healthier grilled Double Down (1.19 DDPCs), which is almost 20 percent worse for you than the signature version on a per-calorie basis.

Things would look even worse for the Double Down if we also punished it for its lack of fiber (the original recipe version has just 1 gram and the grilled version has none) and other nutrients. But fast food restaurants are inconsistent about publishing this information, so it's getting a break.

So, is the Double Down the most gluttonous fast food sandwich ever created? It depends on how you measure it. At the margins, consuming one Double Down almost certainly isn't as bad for you as a Triple Baconator, a Thickburger, or even a fully-loaded Chipotle burrito. But while those products should, in theory, fill you up for at least half the day, the Double Down might leave you hankering for seconds. It's a high bar to clear, but it's the closest thing to pure junk food of any "sandwich" being marketed today.



** To calculate Double Downs for your own favorite sandwich, apply the following formula: divide the number of mg of cholesterol by 469, the number of mg of sodium by 3,754, the number of grams of total fat by 133, the number of grams of saturated fat also by 133, and the number of grams of trans-fat by 66. Then sum the result.

To calculate Double Downs per Calorie (DDPC), take the above result, divide by the number of calories, and multiply by 540.

[Order 66]

tl;dr: the doubledown aint so bad, but on a bite-by-bite basis it has less 'good stuff' than your standard fast food junk meal

[Eulogy]

that was actually a good read. i'll probably use that as a good reference tool.

looks like wendy's spicy chicken sandwich might be the best of the worst choices. also I <3 the panera chipotle chicken and the quizno's baja chicken. whoops.

[slunken]

I'm fucking starved

[slunken]

Like, srsly.

[Caine Walker]

Originally Posted by Eulogy

.

looks like wendy's spicy chicken sandwich might be the best of the worst choices.

yeeeeessssssssssssss.

[slunken]

ZOMG DIP IT IN GRAVY

[TuralyonW3]

Originally Posted by Eulogy

looks like wendy's spicy chicken sandwich might be the best of the worst choices. also I <3 the panera chipotle chicken and the quizno's baja chicken. whoops.

I lost like 20 pounds eating wendy's spicy chicken (replace mayo with sweet and sour) for lunch and working out.

also reccomend chipotle bowl no cheese/sour cream

[28if]

wendy's spicy chicken is by FAR the best thing you can get there.

just had my second double down. so good, but too expensive.

[threetwooneZERO]

[slunken]

Originally Posted by 28if

wendy's spicy chicken is by FAR the best thing you can get there.

just had my second double down. so good, but too expensive.

I was surprised at the price too, tbh. But then again I think all fast food should be no more than $2. The sandwich itself wasn't as gnarly as I expected. Will prolly eat another one in about a month. Also, in case you missed my update, dipping it in gravy is stepping off a cliff.

[cocksure]

what can you get for under $2

[slunken]

Pretty much all fast food joints have those "dollar stretcher" menus.

I just don't get people who go to a place like Taco Bell and buy a $6 burrito. I can get real food for that kinda scratch.

[hnibos]

want some of these right meow

http://goodiesfirst.typepad.com/phot...falo_wings.jpg

[Order 66]

Are yall paying $5 for the doubledown? That's what I did, thought it was fair despite the fact it doesn't fill you up like a normal meal would. to put it in perspective, a large fry from mcdonalds costs $2

[Nimrod's Son]

Originally Posted by Rider

See there was time when companies as a thank you for being interested and taking the time to e-mail them would send a coupon. Never pass up the opportunity to get someone into the store.

i think you're thinking of the days of handwritten letters, before every jackass sends 4000 emails per day of complaints and the recipient has to weed through all of the porn they've been signed up for

[Luke de Spa]

also why would they give you anything for free when you've just begged and pleaded for them to sell you something

[ATS]

sonic's jalepeno cheeseburger is the best burger on that chart

[duovamp]

Originally Posted by Luke de Spa

also why would they give you anything for free when you've just begged and pleaded for them to sell you something

Because they failed to deliver.

[Luke de Spa]

unless you can demonstrate that canadians have a god-given right to buy kfc double downs: what

[Order 66]

I tried another DD today and it tasted horrible. quality on this is definitely variable

[Rider]

Originally Posted by Nimrod's Son

i think you're thinking of the days of handwritten letters, before every jackass sends 4000 emails per day of complaints and the recipient has to weed through all of the porn they've been signed up for

Nope. I've emailed several companies and gotten coupons in return. There have also been times when I've called to complain. One time I called Tabasco to complain about stuff floating in my bottle of Tabasco. Then asked me to mail the bottle to them, which I did. A few weeks latter I got a giant box full of all kinds of Tabasco products.

[duovamp]

Originally Posted by Order 66

I tried another DD today and it tasted horrible. quality on this is definitely variable

Was it at a lower quality KFC altogether, or the same KFC? I find fast food can be quite dependent on difference in location.



Wendy's in Oakland - someone may as well shit in my mouth
Wendy's in Irwin - like angels descended from heaven to fry up some food in their own vaginal fluid

[Order 66]

Actually its kind of ironic... I went to another kfc because the one I went to first had horrible service... took forever for somebody to help me, cashier was rude, gave me wrong order at first. So I went to another and came to regret it. Though I couldn't say either of the stores is more upscale than another

[duovamp]

I see. Well I hope that if I ever try one, it comes tasty.

[exactlythesame]

Originally Posted by TuralyonW3

I lost like 20 pounds eating wendy's spicy chicken

i had me one of those fine fellows for lunch today. i like taking off the bun and eating it with ketchup and hot sauce. a worthy meal.

[Shallowed]

Originally Posted by duovamp

fry up some food in their own vaginal fluid

http://mattcbr.files.wordpress.com/2...ling_homer.gif

[yo soy el mejor]

i really wanna try it but probs wont. gotta stay fit!

i did eat large chili chz fries and a jr burger from sonic today, though. best ff ever.
ooh and a medium cherry limeade. om nom nom

[Order 66]

Just try it if you really want to. You should be okay just don't snack for the rest of the day or have a salad later

[slunken]

I'm fucking irritated this morning. Everyone just shut up.