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July 3, 2013

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Fried fish meal crowned 'worst' in America

A batter-laden fried fish dish packs two weeks worth of harmful trans fat in a single serving and has been named worst restaurant meal in America by a US consumer advocacy group.

The Big Catch meal, sold at the fast food chain Long John Silver's, contains 33 grams of trans fat and 3,700 milligrams of sodium, according to the Center for Science in the Public Interest.

People should limit themselves to two grams of trans fat daily, according to the American Heart Association.

"Long John Silver's Big Catch meal deserves to be buried 20,000 leagues under the sea," CSPI Executive Director Michael Jacobson said yesterday in a statement announcing the group's pick of worst restaurant meal in America.

"This company is taking perfectly healthy fish and entombing it in a thick crust of batter and partially hydrogenated oil. The result? A heart attack on a hook."

The fish is battered and fried in partially hydrogenated soybean oil, and sold with onion rings and hush puppies. Its total calorie count is rather low for a fast food meal ? just 1,320. But its artery-clogging trans fat is twice the level of the worst KFC dish, which had 15 grams of trans fat before a 2006 CSPI lawsuit led the chicken chain to stop using partially hydrogenated oil.

"Trans fat from partially hydrogenated oil is a uniquely damaging substance that raises your bad cholesterol, lowers your good cholesterol, and harms the cells that line your blood vessels," said Walter Willett at the Harvard School of Public Health.







 

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