Shrimp pasta, steak and eggs, maybe a bacon cheddar double cheeseburger.

Sound good?

Those dishes, as prepared by restaurant chains, may look and taste good, but they're loaded with calories, saturated fat, sodium and sugar - enough to earn them the dubious distinction of being named Xtreme Eating "dis-honorees" on this year's list from the Center for Science in the Public Interest, known as the CSPI.

For the last six years, the CSPI has released Xtreme Eating Awards winners in its Nutrition Action Healthletter.

But "we think this year that this is the worst of some of the worst," said Jayne Hurley, CSPI senior nutritionist. "They top the list for being extremely high in calories, saturated fat and salt or sugar."
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Kate Krader (@kkrader on Twitter) is Food & Wine's restaurant editor. When she tells us where to find our culinary heart's desire, we listen up.

It doesn’t seem fair to wait until November 3 to celebrate National Sandwich Day. (I’ll tell you why we celebrate sandwiches on November 3 - it’s the birthday of John Montagu, Earl of Sandwich. He’d be 294 this year.) Maybe it’s because the new school year always signals sandwiches in my head, but I say we celebrate Sandwich Day early. Like right now.

Here, some phenomenal new sandwich spots across the country, each with something cool that, while we’re on the subject of school, earns them Extra Credit from me.  
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Kate Krader (@kkrader on Twitter) is Food & Wine's restaurant editor. When she tells us where to find our culinary heart's desire, we listen up.

Some key statistics from the National Hot Dog & Sausage Council:


- During "Hot Dog Season" from Memorial Day to Labor Day, Americans typically consume 7 billion hot dogs: That’s 818 hot dogs per second.
 
- Los Angeles residents consume more hot dogs than any other city, including New York.
 
- The biggest hot dog day of the year is surely the 4th of July: it’s estimated that Americans eat 150 million hot dogs, enough to stretch from D.C. to L.A. over five times.
 
If you want to send out summer with a bang, and make Labor Day an even bigger hot dog holiday than Independence Day, we can help you get started at the following places. Better still, some of them can help save the world while you eat their terrific dogs. 
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Previously - You're eating too much salt. Consider not doing that.

Yesterday the New York Times Diners Journal's daily "What We’re Reading" post (with which we are ridiculously obsessed and over which we weep when we [frequently] don't make the cut) pointed us to a 2009 (but new to us) video on Americans’ perceptions of the chain restaurant industry.

The National Retail Foundation and Shop.org partnered with ExpoTv.com to ask consumers to sum up what they like about national chains like T.G.I. Friday's, Chili's, Panera Bread and Cracker Barrel. Their overwhelmingly consistent response? Consistency - as manifested in atmosphere, service, menu items, pricing and even uniformity in food size.

We get it. We totally do. Sometimes we're out on the road, low blood sugared, beset with ennui - something's gone awry, and we just wanna get fed with no major surprises. There are even a few items (helloooooo Chick-Fil-A chicken biscuit!) for which we beeline when we're in geographical range. But beyond that, in many ways consistency is rather the antithesis of what we're looking for when we spend our money to dine out. Yes, things should be consistently GOOD, but new choices, flavors, dishes, cuisines and ingredients - that's thoroughly linked to our love of the non-chain places.

Previously - Poll: Maintenance meals

Remember how we said last week that hell is other people's chicken? It would seem that's just the tip of the brimstone.

This, unlike 911 (per Flav, in what seems to be a lifetime ago) - not a joke.

More from WQAD

Editor's note: all week, CNN Newsroom, Rick's List and Eatocracy are teaming up to take a look the effects our dining choices have on our minds, bodies and wallets. Tune into CNN Newsroom daily from 9 a.m. – 5 p.m. ET for on-air coverage and join in the discussion here on Eatocracy. ALL COVERAGE

Wes Little is a CNN Editor/Producer based in Atlanta.

"They're turning over all the land which is what people do with machines, but you know, we do it with pigs," Jared Pickard tells me as a few small black pigs wander out of the woods on Fowler Farms outside Athens, Georgia. They are followed by a few larger red ones. They give me a sniff and move on.
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Today, CNN Money's Laurie Segall reports on 4food, a new New York City restaurant that's fueling its customer base with the use of social media. The restaurateurs claim to offer 96 billion burger combos available as orders. Stacy Cowley crunches the numbers.

New Manhattan burger joint 4food lets eaters customize their creations with an extensive ingredient menu, and news reports have put the range of options at anywhere from "more than a million" to "140 million" burger combinations.

"There can't possibly be 140 million combinations," I said to my statistician spouse.

"Let's find out," he said, firing up Excel.
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