I Doubled Down And Lived To Tell
Posted by Tom Naughton in Media Misinformation, The Food EvangelistsIf you’re reading this post, it means I survived eating one of the new Double Down sandwiches from KFC.
After learning a few weeks ago that KFC would begin offering the Double Down nationwide on April 12, I made plans to try one. But first, given the hysterical health warnings prompted by KFC’s announcement, I put my affairs in order: I made sure my life insurance was paid up and placed a copy of the policy on my desk. I had an attorney update my will. I called my mom to tell her she was a great mother. I also tucked away a note for my wife, telling her I’d understand if she remarried after a reasonable grieving period — say, 25 years.
If you’re not familiar with the Double Down, here’s a KFC commercial introducing it:
Bacon, cheese, and fried chicken … not exactly new ingredients in fast-food restaurants. Apparently the impending rise in fatalities will be caused by — egads! — serving a sandwich with no bread. That probably explains why Michael Jacobson of CSPI isn’t already throwing a public hissy-fit about the Double Down: he can’t use his trademark “heart attack in a bun!” line. I picture him in front of a mirror somewhere, trying out alternates: “Heart attack in a breast! No, dangit, that doesn’t work! Heart attack NOT in a bun!”
Jacobson aside, I’m sure you can imagine the reaction among the usual anti-fat hysterics. Actually, you don’t have to imagine the reaction, because I found plenty of headlines and quotes:
On April 12, KFC’s Double-Down Sandwich Will Bear Down Upon Us Like a Train Without Brakes
KFC’s Bacon Sandwich On Fried Chicken “Bread” Starts Killing People Nationwide April 12
The Double Down Proves Once Again That KFC Wants Us All Dead
The KFC Double Down: One Sandwich To Kill You All
KFC’s newest “sandwich” is a heart-stopping creation that seems literally to die for.
Well KFC has heard your demands, and has started facilitating quite possibly the food equivalent to a WMD.
Corporate America has officially lost its buns. Fresh off the signing of the historical Health Care Legislation, Corporate America decides it’s time to ‘Double Down.’
Excuse me? What does forcing other people to pay for your health insurance have to do with improving health? If you can name one provision in the “historical” health-care legislation that will actually make people healthier, please share.
Why pay one angel’s hair of attention to what Michelle Obama, Jamie Oliver, and those killjoys at the American Heart Association are telling you when KFC keeps giving us moist, crunchy ways to kill ourselves, one bite at a time?
I can come up with plenty of reasons not to take health advice from Michelle Obama or the American Heart Association, but I’ll just mention one here: they have no flippin’ idea what they’re talking about.
KFC has helpfully posted both a countdown clock and nutritional content on its website, which is a little like being given the chance to see exactly when and how you’ll die. With any luck, the primary ingredient in the Colonel’s sauce is Lipitor.
Ah, yes … replacing white bread with extra meat will give you heart disease, but Lipitor will save you. As far as the grain lobby and the pharmaceutical companies are concerned, that last reporter would fall into the category of journalists that Josef Stalin referred to as “useful idiots.” (He used the term to describe western journalists who actually believed what he told them.)
As the useful idiot noted, KFC has added the Double Down to its online nutrition menu, so I looked it up. Here are the calories and macronutrient values for the fried-chicken version, which is the one I tried:
Calories: 540
Fat: 32
Saturated Fat: 10
Protein: 53
Carbohydrate: 11
Hmmm … seems to me we’re looking at a high-protein, high-fat, low-carbohydrate meal without too many calories. Compared to a lot of other fast-food offerings out there, it’s actually a pretty good choice. Here’s the nutrition info for a Quarter Pounder With Cheese, for example:
Calories: 510
Fat: 26
Saturated Fat: 12
Protein: 29
Carbohydrate: 40
The Double Down provides a bit more fat, a lot more protein, and barely one-quarter of the carbohydrates. So this is the sandwich that proves KFC wants us all dead? You’ve got to be kidding me. I think it just proves KFC wants us feeling satisfied. In fact, according to one of their executives, that was the whole point:
Javier Benito, executive vice president of marketing and food innovation at KFC stated that in consumer studies young men said they were still hungry after eating chicken sandwiches served on conventional buns. “They told us they were looking for something meatier,” he says.
Yup … a thin piece of low-fat meat on a bun can definitely leave a guy feeling hungry. This sandwich won’t. I slept late and skipped breakfast, then had a Double Down for lunch. I wasn’t hungry for hours. I had a small goat steak for dinner, and that’s it.
Is it a tasty sandwich? You bet. Is it health food? Of course not. But the biggest downside is that KFC fries their chicken in vegetable oils — which is exactly what the anti-fat hysterics demanded years ago. The polyunsaturated oils aren’t good, but at least a Double Down isn’t going to add insult to injury by jacking up my blood sugar. I know because I checked.
When I woke up this morning, my fasting blood sugar was 89 mg/dl. An hour after the Double Down, I measured the effect of those 11 grams of carbohydrate: 94 mg/dl. I checked again at the two-hour mark: 92 mg/dl.
Back in my young and foolish days, a typical breakfast for me was a cup of Grape-Nuts with a cup of skim milk — in other words, exactly the kind of “hearty-healthy” choice the experts recommend. Here’s what that meal provided:
Calories: 507
Fat: 2
Saturated Fat: 0
Protein: 21
Carbohydrate: 107
Low protein, very low fat, screamingly high in carbohydrates … a prescription for a blood-sugar joyride to Diabetes Land. I couldn’t find any testimonials about what Grape-Nuts do to a person’s blood sugar, but a couple of years ago, Dr. William Davis posted a reader’s experience with Cheerios — another low-fat, “heart healthy” cereal:
My BG started to rise very fast within 15 minutes after eating the cereal, peaked at about 250 mg/dL at 45 minutes, then slowly dropped. By about 60-75 minutes, I experienced strong hunger and carb cravings as the BG began to slowly drop, and by about 2.5 hours after eating, my BG had suddenly dropped quite low (in the low 70s) and I had developed a nasty hypoglycemic feeling (shaky, irritable, craving sugary foods, headache, etc.)
So let’s review: a sandwich consisting of bacon, cheese and fried chicken produces a blood-sugar reading of 94 mg/dl. A bowl of Cheerios produces blood sugar of 250 mg/dl, at least for some people … but in a nation of type 2 diabetics, Cheerios are promoted as health food, while the sandwich denounced as the equivalent of a WMD.
If only the useful idiots in the media could comprehend that most of the major health problems we see these days are the result of runaway blood sugar. Now that would be “historical.” And perhaps we’d finally see some headlines like this:
Cheerios prove the American Heart Association Wants Us All Dead
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Hey Tom,
This sounds like the best KFC invention yet (right after popcorn chicken), and I totally hope some day we do see a headline that makes the American Heart Association accountable for all the BS they have been feeding everyone.
Unfortunately there hasn’t been any word on whether this sandwich will be coming to New Zealand or when will it make it to New Zealand. Any clue where I can find out about this? Anyways, I hope u keep on blogging Tom, your blogs are a really good read in my “study-breaks”. Thanks.
I have no idea … maybe they have a NZ website?
Props to my friend and former acting classmate Dee Ade (http://www.facebook.com/#!/profile.php?ref=sgm&id=817675093) for his work in that commercial…and thank you Tom, I would never would have seen it otherwise;)
Good for him. A commercial is a lucrative gig.
If anything this is inspiration. Alternative “buns”! Coincidentally I’ve got stable tallow fat rendering on the stove right now… great for deep frying!
Tossing the bread is a great idea. Too bad it’s causing such a panic, although it’s probably free marketing for KFC.
Hadn’t heard of this yet, but sounds yummy! KFC may be my new favorite fast food!
I had to share with you. At the staff meeting yesterday, I noticed a copy of Super Size Me on a table, where one of the teachers had left her stuff. I stuck a quick note on it: “You might want to check out Fat Head as a counterpoint to this!”
I appreciate that. We’d like to crack the school market.
They’re offering a grilled chicken version, as well.
I would like to try one too (after reading about it from a couple different people) despite the bad vegetable oil fats. And if it’s good, I think I would like to write KFC and thank them. I am sure that would be a change since I have also heard about the impending doom that is coming from this sandwich.
My family likes to joke about 2012. Really they say it’s supposed to change the world – maybe everyone will become low-carb!
Now that would be truly historical health-care improvement.
But..BUt..BUT.. Tom. This sandwich has BACON and CHEESE in it and no yummy, flavorless, crustless, squishy bun surrounding it. It HAS to be bad. Where will you get your MDR of white flour?
I wish KFC would sell chicken skins, deep fried. I’d be all over that..
My daughter would scarf those right up. She loves pullling the skin off her chicken and eating it first.
I’ll make one of these with some pasture raised chicken, nitrate free pasture-raised bacon, perhaps some raw cheese, all cooked in butter or just the bacon fat. Downright healthy once you skip the franken oils and breading, as you pointed out!
Any chance I could drop by for dinner when you make your version?
Have you heard about the Heart Attack Grill in Arizona? They serve “quadruple bypass burgers” and fries and cook with lard. If you skipped the fries and the bun, the burgers would make a good meal! Their slogan is “taste worth dying for.” Check it out at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zbKRSYAuSNg.
I’ve seen the video. Love to try that place. If I’d thought about it, I would’ve checked to see if it was out of the way when we made our cross-country move.
I’ve been waiting for this to come out, but I still haven’t had the chance to try it. For a limited time, you can get a free soft drink with this coupon:
http://www.pepsixtras.com/thankyou/5150/kfc_coupon.html
Enjoy!
My soft drink was iced tea, since I’ve given up the sodas. Thanks for the link.
If only the grilled chicken, and the double-down sandwich, were available in Canada. Unfortunately, they aren’t, which is a shame because the grilled double-down has even better nutritional numbers:
Calories: 460
Fat: 23g
Saturated Fat: 9g
Protein: 61g
Carbohydrate: 3g
If it sells well here, you’ll probably see it there soon.
Maybe I’m just stupid-optimistic, but could this be an early sign that restaurants are feeling the grass-roots pressure to start serving people A: what they actually want to eat (as opposed to what they thing they should eat because they were conditioned to think they should eat it), and B: what is actually good for them (yes, a relative term when discussing fast food, but…)? Perhaps this will spread to other fast food places.
Their experiments serving low-fat foods haven’t worked out well, either. Remember the McLean? Taco Bell’s Border Lights?
Fat Head 2: The Chicken Run ? ? ?
Hey, I’d like to see an all-cartoon version of Fat Head. It would be my Yellow Submarine moment.
Fantastic! I could have that and stay under my 20 grams. If only the KFC in my town hadn’t closed. Road trip!
Happy trails.
Now if only they would fry it in coconut oil or butter, I’d eat a couple of these every day. (And that would have the added benefit of pissing off lipophobes and the AHA even more!)
I was thinking the same thing; go back to frying in lard, and I wouldn’t see anything wrong with this sandwich at all.
It also comes in a “grilled” version that has even fewer carbs. It’s almost the perfect fast food, and yet everywhere I look, people think that this sandwich came straight out of satan’s kitchen.
I’ll probably try the grilled version too, but I wanted to enjoy the heart-stopping version first just to see what, if anything, would happen with my blood sugar.
I put up a post about this thing yesterday. I find it odd that it’s all about how people perceive the food. This sandwich isn’t outrageous when compared to…well, anything you’d eat for lunch. Heck, that bowl of grape nuts shocked me as far as calorie content goes. Yet because the Double Down LOOKS unhealthy, it’s getting attacked.
I bet you could even eat the cheese, bacon, and chicken while dipping them in the sauce and no one would say anything. Once sandwiched together, that’s when people are shocked.
I also wish I knew what is so magical about bread to some people?
I think it’s the look of the thing that drives people nuts. It’s actually lower in calories and fat than the five-piece box of Chicken Selects at McDonald’s.
I’m going to have to try this as well. It really does look good.
Here’s another headline I saw today:
KFC Double Down Takes Low Carb Craze to New Levels
Yea! The low carb craze is back after being told for years that low carb was dead!
I’m surprised someone in the media recognized it as low-carb, as opposed to simply high fat. Maybe there’s hope.
Tom, I have an alternative interpretation of your experience with low blood sugar and strong hunger. The strong hunger is not due to low blood sugar. Rather, it is due to the low fatty acids and low ketones content of your blood. This is due to the high insulin. Of course, high insulin will cause blood sugar to drop but it will also cause other things like shut off lipolysis, shunt fatty acids to fat tissue and stop the production of ketones. During fasting, and during ketosis, blood sugar can and will drop in the low 70s and as I’ve noticed in my case in the low 60s yet I did not suffer strong hunger because my blood was full of fatty acids and ketones which was noted by the ketones in my urine.
The point is that when you suffer strong hunger following a high carb meal, you do so because you don’t have enough fatty acids and ketones, not because you don’t have enough blood sugar.
Another alternative hypothesis to explain the strong hunger following a high carb meal is that even though insulin is pushing glucose into cells, it’s only pushing it into fat cells because all other cells are just too resistant. We got the drop in blood sugar but all that sugar is not going where it’s supposed to. Combine this with the lack of fatty acids (and ketones) because the meal doesn’t contain enough fat and we got a full spectrum fuel deficit.
That sounds like a reasonable explanation as well. Bottom line is that starches make me hungry and I don’t need them in my diet.
The news was talking about all the fat and calories last night. There was no mention of satiety. I have a feeling many of the people buying one of these sandwiches will probably ditch the side (fries etc..)
I’d go for one of the grilled versions in a pinch.
That’s the point they’re missing: I ate less the rest of the day because the high-fat, high-protein meal was so filling.
The AHA are trying to kill us, but have you read the advice the ADA spits out? The idea is to eastas many carbs as you can, and take *lot* of insulin to compensate (I am a type 1). I alsmost lost my sight, and following (to the letter!) my doctors advice, I kept putting on weight, andmy control was not getting a lot better. Through research online, some excellent books, and the help of my fantastic wife (the worlds greatest researcher and cook!) I am taking a fraction of the insulin that I used to, my blood control is more stable than ever, my vision is improving quickly (had to have another surgery, but my healing time is faster)
And the amazing thing, I am not hungry. I am losing weight, taking much less insulin, but am not wanting for anything.
Pizza ( to pull a food item at random) was a one or two time a week meal for us. I have not had pizza in 3 months now. And I do not miss it. We have our own ‘pizza’ – grated cheese in a frying pan, heat, add pepperoni, when slightly bubbly lift out, lay flat to cool. Crispy, pizza (ish) – add sauces as needed, but do watch thse carbs!
Some intelligence in reporting would be awesome! I suspect the problem is the people who finance (openly and covertly) the ADA are the insulin makers and sugar growers. Thats healthy!
Glad to hear your health is improving. Between the AHA and the ADA, they’ve caused a lot of people have suffered needlessly.
The Double Down looks a billion times more appetizing than a quarter-pounder, too. I’ll admit that at first I was wary of the double down, but seeing the nutrition info, it looks like it’s one of the better ‘bad for you’ fast foods out there. It’s unfortunate people are vilifying what should be a tasty treat for occasional protein packing.
Now, if only it was fried in something other than veggie oil…
Sure, it’s not health food, but as far as fast food goes, you could do far worse.
Me and a buddy had to try it yesterday. We didn’t double down, we quadrupled down. Both of us ordered one of each. The verdict: probably won’t be having another any time soon. It’s a novelty.
It’s also really salty. Especially the grilled version. Wouldn’t have expected that, but the grilled has some sort of seasoning that overpowers the chicken flavor. Though the grilled chicken was surprisingly juicy for fast food.
BTW, a quick check of the KFC nutritional info shows that one Extra Crispy chicken breast alone has the same 510 calories, slightly more fat, more carbs and slightly less protein. No one is up in arms about that. Of course, the chicken breast would also likely be eaten with a thigh or drumstick as part of a two-piece meal along with some sort of side. Still, no freak-outs there.
http://www.kfc.com/nutrition/pdf/kfc_nutrition.pdf
Or check out their Crispy Twister Wrap. Anything wrapped in a tortilla with lettuce and tomato is health food. 590 Calories, 31 g fat, 49 g carbs.
That’s why the fear and loathing about the Double Down makes no sense. They already sell far worse choices.
They test-marketed the Double Down here in Providence a couple months ago and my husband had a personal dare to himself to try it. Only he didn’t get to it before the test marketing ended. Imagine his delight when KFC announced it was going nationwide! I’m sure I’ll have a report from him within a couple of weeks.
I’m really interested by your blood glucose readings. KFC says they’ll be selling grilled and fried Double Downs. Did you try the fried one? If so, I wonder if the BG increase would be even lower with the grilled one.
I tried the fried. I figured 11 grams of carbohydrate probably wouldn’t do much to my blood sugar, and it didn’t.
Oh, sorry, I just read through the other comments and saw you tried the fried one. It would still be interesting to see your readings if you do try the grilled one.
I’ve got to try one of these. Has to beat a Horseshoe (you can explain to the masses what exactly one of those is!)
For those who didn’t grow up in central or southern Illinois: A horseshoe sandwich is two pieces of bread or toast placed side-by-side on a plate, topped with the sliced meat of your choice, then covered with a large helping of french fries, then finally smothered with Welsh rarebit sauce … a concoction made from butter, milk, cheddar cheese, flour, worcestershire and beer or ale. Now that’s a sandwich that can actually kill you, but it’s almost worth it.
Funny how if they put the double down between two slices of bread, it’s just another sandwich. Take the bread off and the idiotic media gets thrown into confusion and thinks it must be bad.
I’m afraid some folks just can’t imagine life without bread. I mentioned to a friend a year or so ago that I don’t eat bread anymore, and he replied, “Well … what the heck do you eat?!” You’d think I’d just announced I was giving up air.
If it wasn’t actually killing us, the comedy of errors would almost be funny. Cheerios… a heart attack in a box!! I’m going to double down soon.
They should keep that heart logo in the box of Cheerios, but add a big plaque buildup to it.
I don’t have television (lost the stupid DTV box in our move) so I had no clue this was coming out – I’m excited! I don’t eat much fast food anymore because the bread tastes gross and I’m never satisfied for long – I’m trying this for sure – eating salads when I hit up a fast food place was gettig old.
If you’re going to eat fast food, this is a pretty decent choice. The grilled version would be almost carb-free.
I had a couple Double Downs for lunch yesterday – I ordered one of each, but they were so busy they ran out of the grilled chicken and I had to “settle” for two fried. Pretty good, but not something I’d want to eat every day.
All this talk of Double Downs & horseshoes is making me hungry! I always used to ask for horseshoes for my birthday dinner as a kid. I like them best with a porkburger and crispy crinkle fries – yum!
Most people have never heard of horseshoes, so I take it you’re from my neck of the woods.
I mentioned to a friend a year or so ago that I don’t eat bread anymore, and he replied, “Well … what the heck do you eat?!”
Reminds me of a conversation I had here at work (ironically, a cardiovascular home health agency). When I told one of the other nurses how I eat, she said “but how do you get your starches?”
And yea, the AHA and the ADA diets are killing people. It bothers me that our heart patients are put on low fat low cholesterol diets… I went on the ADA forum and suggested a paleo type diet to someone who was just diagnosed with Type ll and was called a “dangerous extremist” by others on the board.
That says it all. Eating the way humans ate for most of their existence is considered extreme.
“My soft drink was iced tea, since I’ve given up the sodas.”
Here in North Carolina and farther south, iced tea = sweet tea. And by sweet tea, I mean you have to mix in the almost 2 cups of sugar per gallon while it is hot or it doesn’t all dissolve.
I heard you say iced tea in FatHead too so naturally I’m thinking “northern” tea.
I’ll have to try the grilled version, if only to avoid the soybean oil they fry in here (I asked what they use and the manager told me they used soybean cause it was healthy. LOL. Right…)
Here in Tennessee, if you just ask for iced tea, it’ll usually be the sweet stuff. But most restaurants also have unsweetened.
So I was watching a BBC show about low carb. They did a bunch of tests to see as to why it worked so well, when OOOO fat is supposed to clog your arteries. Of course using the “you can eat as many calories as you want” was getting downright old, they did a “does fat make you feel full” study, but giving half of the subject low-fat versions of meals, and the other half, the same meals, but with extra fat snuck into it. OF COURSE, they used PASTA and MOUSSE for the two meals, and concluded that the people with high-fat foods at MORE CALORIES…. *Throws hands up* They ALWAYS, get it WRONG.
I toast my low-carb six dollar burger to your double down, Tom.
Yup, they always seem to stack the deck against low-carb. I eat less now, not more, because I’m not eating foods that ramp up my appetite.
Heh, reminds me of a friend’s favorite steak sandwich: a thin New York Strip between two thick slices of Prime Rib.
Now that’s a sandwich I could love.
Definitely have to try this, but I’ll keep my fingers crossed that they’ll bring out a dark-meat version someday!
We can hope.
I stopped at KFC for lunch today (something I do maybe, once a month) and saw the poster for the Double Down as I walked in. I thought about it for a minute and then decided to get a couple of grilled breasts and maybe try the DD on my next visit. My buddy (the one I just loaned my copy of “Protein Power” to) decided to try one. Trouble is, he opted for the combo meal which included steak fries and a large coke. Oh well. Baby steps I guess.
I can’t imagine consuming fries and a Coke with that sandwich. It was plenty satisfying.
If you are sensitive to wheat and/or gluten, the Double Down is not a good choice as even the grilled version has wheat in it. There is almost nothing at KFC that is edible to those of us that are gluten intolerant. The corn on the cob or the green beans is pretty much it and those choices are probably cross-contaminated.
I don’t have celiac — I had that checked — but I try to avoid wheat and gluten for the most part. For the occasional fast-food meal, I don’t worry about it much as long as I keep the carbs low.
Hmmm must make my own version tonight, will fry in tallow without the breading and fill it with maasdam cheese, streaky bacon, sauteed onion/mushroom/capsicum and a peri-peri sauce.
Prefer thigh to breast meat but the thigh meat doesn’t lend itself to making a bun unless I finely grind it to make patties.
I’d say a homemade version would be best of all.
Glad your still alive, Tom.
I also want to let you know that I am still alive after drinking a gallon of whole milk per day for the last 5 weeks. That’s 90g/day (400% of the RDA!) of saturated fat. But my heart is still beating and my blood is flowing. I am 31, though, so if I keep this up I might not see past 50!
Scott
Wow, I don’t think I could put away that much milk, unless it was my entire diet. I hope it’s raw milk … ?
I’m surprised that the fried version has so few carbs. And I pass a KFC every day … hmm … I might have to try this.
I had some of their chicken on my fast-food diet, and it’s not too high in carbs if you avoid the extra crispy.
KFC says the Double Down is 540 calories? Lets break that down:
2 slices bacon – 200 calories
1 slice cheese – 100 calories
2 fried chicken breasts – 240 calories? That would mean 1 fried chicken breast is only 120 calories? Say what? The fat in one fried cutlet alone would be that. I would guess 1 fried chicken cutlet is at least 250 calories.
That would make total calories for the Double Down at least 850 calories.
For a big strapping guy like you that probably doesn’t matter, but for us gals watching our figure, maybe the Double should be halved before downed.
Our bacon label says 46 cals/slice. So that plus cheese leaves 340 calories for the two chicken filets, which are smaller than the big ol’ chicken breasts they normally sell. The calories may add up. Even if they don’t, I’m not worried about it since I don’t count calories. The carb count had to be reasonably accurate, since my blood sugar barely moved.
Great post. I’m pretty sure that was my Cheerios comment on Dr. Davis’ Heart Scan blog. What a surprise to see it again!
Small world, isn’t it? I just ran across that post last week.
Have you looked at the ingredient list for the chicken?
KFC® Original Recipe® Filet
Fresh, Boneless Chicken Breast Filets, Rice Starch, Soy Protein Concentrate, Salt, Sodium Phosphates and Monosodium Glutamate. Breaded With: Wheat Flour, Salt, Monosodium Glutamate, Spices, and Garlic Powder. Battered With: Water, Wheat Flour, Tapioca Dextrin, High Amylose Corn Starch, Nonfat Dry Milk, Dried Whey, Dextrose, and Dried Egg Whites. Predusted With: Wheat Flour, Salt, Monosodium Glutamate, Spices, Nonfat Dry Milk, Dried Whey, Dried Egg Whites, and Garlic Powder. Breading Set in Low Trans Fat Oil (RDB) Soybean or Corn/Soy Blend With or Without TBHQ.
Contains Egg, Milk, Wheat and Soy
OR
Fresh Chicken Filets Marinated in Salt, Potassium and Sodium Phosphates, Breaded With Wheat Flour, Sodium Chloride and Anti-caking agent (Tricalcium Phosphate), Nonfat Milk, Egg Whites, Colonel’s Secret Original Recipe Seasoning.
Contains Egg, Milk, and Wheat.
*Will contain one of the Ingredient statements above, depending upon regional suppliers
You won’t do much better with the grilled chicken. That one contains trans fats too as partially hydrogenated soy bean oil. http://www.kfc.com/nutrition/pdf/kfc_ingredients_apr10.pdf
Even if I was not gluten sensitive I would not eat anything at KFC. Looks like industrial food to me. This “sandwich” could easily be whipped up at home and would taste much better.
I bet those weren’t in the Colonel’s original recipe. A homemade version would definitely be the best choice. Unfortunately, the kind of ingredients you listed are common in packaged foods I see people buying at the grocery store as well.
On a more relevant note, I know! Everyone seems to like to totally slam this sandwich! (Is it really a sandwich if it doesn’t have bread? Hmm…) But it’s just crazy. If people ate things like fried chicken, cheese, and bacon separately nobody would say anything. But because they’re together it’s suddenly horribly evil? Although it’s something I would have for breakfast, since it looks like it could hold me for almost the entire day.
And Kris, according to KFC’s online nutrition menu, the grilled double down is 460, while the fried is 540.
I was looking at how Japan was cracking down on fat workers by watching what they’re eating, literally, and making them have an exercise time during work. The latter doesn’t sound like a bad idea to me, but the former, ugh. Yay for making people’s decisions for them. ANYWAY, point is, they said “look at this traditional japanese meal, miso soup, vegetables, and fish. about 600 calories. Now look at the evil mcdonalds big mac, large fry and coke. 1300 calories! more than double!” yeeaahh, get rid of the fries, coke and bun, that’s only 330. I wonder where all those excess calories are coming from?! :O I guess I was dealt with lucky cards since I really dislike french fries and cereal and ended up never eating them.
I used to like fries in my youth, but that’s probably because they were cooked in beef tallow. I can easily skip them now.
Guys, while I agree this is a cool idea in principle, it fails due to how industrialized our food has become. If you look at just the nutritional information of the Grilled Double Down (personally I’m going to try the breaded if it comes to Canada. Once.) it doesn’t look too bad.
Then you look at the ingredients. Something that should just been chicken, bacon, cheese and sauce/spices has 102 ingredients. 102 INGREDIENTS!
MSG alone (in it’s myriad of forms) shows up 7-10 times at least (hard to tell, they disguise the name msg and other flavour enhancers), and it contains a huge variation of processed wheat, corn and soy. And this is the grilled version!
I find it incredibly frustrating that we live in a time where something so straightforward is not, at all. And as Food Inc shows, we never see the processing on the label (ammonia bathed beef by-product in hamburgers for example).
I’ve always wondered how things got and get this way. When they were making the Tender Chicken Fillet at the “labs” at KFC, when and why was the decision to add “Hydrolyzed Corn Gluten and Soy Proteins” made? or “Soy Protein isolate”? Why? Are these people proud of their product? Are they just ignorant to it? Who are these people?
Anyways, here’s the ingredient list… they don’t make it very straightforward…
https://docs.google.com/viewer?url=http://www.kfc.com/nutrition/pdf/kfc_ingredients_apr10.pdf
It’s certainly not health food. I hope someday fast-food restaurants go back to using real ingredients.
Tom,
Since your daughter (like me) eats the chicken skin first. What do they do with the skin from the skinless chicken? Or, is the chicken skinless to begin with? Or is there a big vat at Perdue filled with it, and people scratching their heads on how to get rid of it?
Mom always told me to take the skin off of fried chicken. I do Mom, I eat that first.
Kind of scary, now that you brought it up. Where are the tons of chicken skin going?
That burger can’t be healthy. It doesn’t have enough bacon.
Bingo. I’m with you.
This entire post fails to mention the one thing that makes this sandwich dangerous. Yes, the Double Down weighs in at 540 calories, 32 grams of fat and — holdon — 1,380 milligrams of sodium!!!!
For the ladies who think that grilled is “healthier” – KFC offers a grilled version that mysteriously is just as bad and has MORE sodium: 460 calories, 23 grams of fat and 1,430 milligrams of sodium.
Oh yeah, and don’t forget to add in the fries and soda.
Simple Facts: Excess sodium intake is linked to: hypertension/high blood pressure and heart disease, fluid retention (oedema) and kidney stones.
The next time you write a food review about something not being so bad – be sure to include ALL the statistics about it instead of leaving out the one that smacks people dead in the face. Seriously, and YOU complain about being mislead.
You might want to do a little objective research on the horrors of sodium. You can start here:
http://www.junkscience.com/news3/taubes.html
The bottom line is that very few people suffer negative reactions from sodium and very few people derive any benefits from even drastic reductions in sodium intake. I love salt, put it on pretty much everything, and my blood pressure is usually on the low side of normal.
Regarding sodium…
What I love about it, is that most people do not realize how much is in everyday “nutritious” food.
Just a quick check at Fitday..
Instead of the double down, I could have 12 spears of asparagus, 2 hard boiled eggs, one cup of canned tuna and one cup of orange juice. (an odd combination I know, just 4 items that were in my recent foods)
OH MY GOD!!!!!!! That’s 1225 milligrams of sodium. We’re all gonna die!!!!!!
Someone — I believe it may have been Eric Oliver — explained it to me this way: government agencies don’t trust the public to grasp complex messages, so they want their health advice to be simple. They concluded that a fraction of the population MIGHT benefit from a lower sodium intake, so the simple message was that everyone should cut back on salt. To their way of thinking, if the majority of us who aren’t sodium sensitive also cut back on salt, what’s the harm?
The potential harm, of course, is that they are conducting yet another uncontrolled experiment. For all they know, some people need more salt to be healthy, just as some people need far more fat than the government recommends.
Tom,
I know I’m not the only one who longs for a lc replacement for buns/sandwich bread. Several things have been tried: lettuce wraps,egg bread, lc bread/pita/tortilla (still wheat).
It’s not a craving for bread, just a need for a vehicle to eat a “sandwich” with your hands. Somebody will come up with something one day.
Here’s one you might want to try: Take a couple slices of mild processed cheese (white american works best, imo). Put them in the microwave on parchment paper. The secret is discovering the right cooking time. You don’t want to cook it so long that it turns hard like a cheese chip. But you cook it long enough so that after it cools you can pick it up without it sticking to your fingers. Use these slices as your “bread” on a sandwich or burger. Pick it up and enjoy!
I’ll have to try that with the raw-milk cheese we buy now.