Eating Out Tonight!

"Pancakes with syrup or cheeseburgers are never a health food, but it seems like The Cheesecake Factory, Chili's and other chains are trying to outdo each other to make them worse."
"Although the 2019 Xteme Eating winners are nutritional nightmares, plenty of other dishes are as bad or worse."
"The good news is that all chains with twenty or more outlets are now required to list calories on menus and menu boards, and expanded nutritional information upon request."
Lindsay Moyer, senior nutritionist, Center for Science in the Public Interest (CSPI)

Well, as questions go, this is rather naive, but who, shopping for a calorie-dense, nutrition-absent treat would be interested to begin with in scrutinizing that nutritional information? Unless they're feeling deliberately masochistic, that is. People are drawn to the pure and rather insane allure of over-sweetened, -salted, -oily taste and texture of these folksy gourmet delights, having shed a sense of guilt, and prepared to indulge and that's the truth of it.

It is rather mind-boggling, in actual fact, that three of the Cheesecake Factory's Cinnamon Roll Pancakes contain 2,040 calories'-worth of brown sugar, white flour, icing and syrup infused with butter. What a treat! Although anyone sitting down to this special breakfast/lunch/dinner-all-in-one special might wish to think hard and deep that the ingredients and the calories contained within are the equivalent of 11 Crispy Creme Original Glazed Doughnuts....

So then let's get down to the serious business of meat-on-a-bun. Would you prefer a variety of sliced processed meats or would you go for three McDonald's Triple Cheeseburgers along with an order of large fries, or might you be intrigued with its caloric equivalent at Chili's where you can order The Boss Burger, accompanied with fries and pickles. "Smoked brisket, rib meat, jalapeno-cheddar smoked sausage, bacon, cheddar, lettuce, tomato, house BBQ & house-made ranch. We.Dare.You."
Well, dare to be bold and do it often enough and you can join the prestigious ranks of the 70 percent of U.S. overweight adults, edging toward obesity. The choice, dear consumer, is yours, all yours!

And not to be outdone, there's an oversized sub at Jimmy John's Giant Gargantuan stuffed with luncheon meats; salami, capicola, turkey, roast beef and ham, along with provolone cheese, onion, lettuce, tomato, mayonnaise, oil and vinegar all stuffed into that sub whose 7,720 mg of sodium and saturated fat (29 g) is a guarantee you'll walk out of the experience feeling, um, full and smacking your greasy lips with satisfaction, wondering how you'll top that one when dinner rolls around, since you've just finished with lunch...?

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And if you're feeling really thirsty, how about giving a really great milkshake a try, and if you really like it, it can become a regular treat. That's where Sonic's Oreo Peanut Butter Master Shake takes a bow and a curtsy. It has a day's value of added sugar (62 g) for a large shake -- about a litre at 32 oz -- containing enough saturated fat (48 g) to represent two and a half days' worth. But think about how delish it'll taste to the appreciative tongue, with its topping of whipped cream, and a bright, red cherry.

Oh, there's more, there's always more as specialty purveyors of peoples' favourite taste sensations do public relations adverts and study people's tastes and psychological frailties over denying themselves the unalloyed sensuous pleasure of eating the forbidden; processed food in excess of common sense, forgetting moderation in the temptation to feel good because let's face it, eating is such a pleasure, all the more so when taste-bud-sensational cautions of salt, sugar and fat intake beyond the sensible will inevitably result in excess weight, all he more so as we grow older and no more wiser.

And who can resist waffles? And then there are fascinating combinations most people would likely never think of. Take that old favourite chicken, and pair it with waffles and you've got -- wait for it -- “We’re bringing in better ingredients and the best chefs to craft craveability that you’ll only find at Dave & Buster’s", boasts the arcade and sports bar’s menu of their Chicken & Waffle Sliders.  In which white flour, sugar and "better" ingredients produce fried chicken, bacon, mini-Belgian waffles, maple syrup and tater tots to the value of only 2,340 calories! Its less preciously- tantalizing equivalent? 8 Eggo waffles, 8 Jimmy Dean pork sausage patties, with 1/2 cup of maple syrup. Yum!

Yet Another Pathological Eating Nightmare

"Popular media have highlighted the risks for poor cardiovascular health, obesity and cancer associated with junk food, but poor nutrition can also permanently damage the nervous system, particularly vision."
"That means [youth diagnosed with optic neuropathy] he can't drive and would find it really difficult to read, watch TV or discern faces."
"He can walk around on his own though, because he has got peripheral vision."
"Initially, they may struggle to function [body cells lacking a variety of nutrients to enable normal functioning] with depleted supplies but eventually they [the cells] will die."
"So, problems take a long time to develop [following four years on the chosen restrictive diet]."
Dr. Denize Atan opthalmologist, Bristol Eye Hospital

"However, the patient confessed that, since elementary school, he would not eat certain textures of food."
"He had a daily portion of fries from the local fish and chip shop and snacked on Pringles [Kellogg], white bread, processed ham slices, and sausage."
"[Unlike anorexia nervosa], avoidant-restrictive food intake disorder [is not driven by concerns about body image or weight gain. It tends to strike in middle childhood in a sudden lack of interest in food, a heightened sensitivity to certain textures and] fear of the consequences of eating."
"Nutritional optic neuropathy should be considered in any patient with unexplained vision symptoms and poor diet, regardless of BMI."
Bristol research team: "Blindness caused by junk food diet"

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A study of a case linked to the fairly newly coined "avoidant-restrictive food intake disorder" (ARFID), recently added to the fifth edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, was published in Annals of Internal Medicine, titled "Blindness caused by junk food diet", chronicling the case of a 14-year-old from Bristol, brought to his family doctor when he complained of feeling constantly tired. The boy seemed well enough but he was described as a "fussy eater".

The examining physician diagnosed him with macrocytic anemia -- abnormally large red blood cells -- along with low levels of vitamin B12. After which B12 injections were prescribed, and the boy was advised to expand his diet sensibly, to begin eating a healthier diet. Instead, he began to develop loss of hearing after a year and then started complaining of problems with his vision which grew more compromised over the following two years. He was eventually sent on to Bristol Eye Hospital. And there Dr. Atan diagnosed damage to the optic nerve.

Alcohol, tobacco or drug use were all ruled out as a causative. The boy denied ever using any of them. He was of normal-to-average height and weight as was his body mass index. The vitamin B12 shots had gone by the wayside, leaving him with low levels of copper, selenium and vitamin D levels as well as abnormally high zinc levels -- and he was losing bone mass. Placed on nutritional supplements, he was referred to a mental health expert for validation of a suspected eating disorder.

His vision appeared to stabilize, leaving him, however, with permanent blind spaces in the centre of both his eyes. Malnourishment causing optic neuropathy is rare in developed countries, and caught early enough the condition can be reversible. However, left untreated, it leads to permanent blindness. Now 19 and studying information technology, the young man is registered with sight impairment and will never drive a vehicle.

InspiredTaste Veggie Burger

Selective eating deliberately and severely restricted to inexpensive, nutritionally vacant junk foods cause multiple vitamin deficiencies creating a recognized eating disorder. And according to Dr. Atan writing as well in The Conversation, it is quite possible that nutritional optic neuropathy will become more commonly diagnosed given recent trends.
"For example, the wide-spread consumption of junk food at the expense of more nutritious food and the rising popularity of veganism can lead to vitamin D and B12 deficiencies, because fish, meat, eggs and dairy are the main dietary sources of these vitamins."

While it is possible to remain healthy eating a vegan diet that is plant-based, including a variety of fruit and vegetables, nuts, seeds and grains, "...this still needs to be supplemented with B12 in particular, as animal products are the main source of B12."

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