Baskin Robbins shake named 'Worst Food in America'

I've never been one to turn my nose up at a well-made milkshake, and I had one of the best ones in my life at NYC's Shake Shack in Madison Square Park last fall. Creamy, chocolatey, and the perfect accompaniment to one of their delectable ShackBurgers.

But let me say that I will not be one of those lining up for the Baskin Robbins Chocolate Oreo Shake, recently dubbed "The Worst Food In America Of 2009" by Men's Health magazine. That's quite a feat when you consider the cheese-and-bacon-laden burgers, greasy breakfast sandwiches, and deep fried chicken nuggets it was competing with.

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One of these large-sized shakes from the popular ice cream joint reportedly contains an astonishing 2,600 calories, 135 grams of fat, including 59 grams of saturated fat and 2.5 grams of trans fats, 263 grams of sugars, and 1,700 milligrams of sodium.

2600 calories! That's significantly more than my entire daily recommended calorie intake (according to my height and weight I should be getting about 2,100 calories daily). And we're not even looking at the ghastly amount of fat, sugar and sodium whipped up in there.

Intrepid food writer Ian Froeb ordered, and then consumed, one of these artery-clogging dandies in order to write about it for the Riverfront Times, and he described it as "kinda thin," while one of his colleagues suggested the bits of ground up Oreo brought to mind a protein shake. Imagine - all those calories wasted on something that apparently doesn't even taste that good.

I think I'll stick with my small cup of Gold Medal Ribbon, thanks.

Salut!

Suzanne

Tips, advice, suggestions, comments? Email suzannekathrynellis@gmail.com.