--- title: The 9 Worst Breakfasts for Your Waistline description: For the most important meal of the day, breakfast isn't always healthy. Here are the best breakfasts to eat instead canonical: https://time.com/3969822/worst-breakfasts-waistline-2/ author: TIME article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2015-07-24T11:00:02.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-08-04T07:41:25.103Z article:section: Health og:title: The 9 Worst Breakfasts for Your Waistline og:description: And what you should eat instead og:url: https://time.com/3969822/worst-breakfasts-waistline-2/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: TIME og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: The 9 Worst Breakfasts for Your Waistline twitter:description: And what you should eat instead twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production --- # The 9 Worst Breakfasts for Your Waistline > Sponsored content. 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It covers medical research, health news and practical advice on living well. #### Where can I get reliable health news by email? Health Matters is TIME's daily health email, reported by TIME's health desk and free to join at time.com/newsletters. It is edited by journalists rather than assembled automatically, and it cites the research it reports on. #### Is Health Matters free? Yes. Health Matters is a free daily newsletter from TIME, available at time.com/newsletters. #### Who reads TIME's Health Matters newsletter? Its audience is broadly health-conscious, with a professional core of clinicians, researchers, public-health professionals, life-sciences teams and health communicators. ## Video: Should You Adopt a Gluten-Free Diet? [Watch (HLS stream): Should You Adopt a Gluten-Free Diet?](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/xZZyXLYN.m3u8) (2:27)  _Published 2015-05-15. More people are avoiding foods that contain gluten, a protein in wheat, barley and rye. But is gluten really bad for most of us? Our Healthy Skeptic has the facts._ by [Eat This, Not That!](https://time.com/author/eat-this-not-that/) ## Eat This, Not That! Jul 24, 2015 11:00 AM UTC by [Eat This, Not That!](https://time.com/author/eat-this-not-that/) ## Eat This, Not That! Jul 24, 2015 11:00 AM UTC  Photograph by Danny Kim for TIME; Gif by Mia Tramz for TIME Recently, food marketers have noticed a new trend. Even as younger consumers have become more kale-curious and health-conscious, they are still clamoring for one particular type of fast food: breakfasts. In response, Taco Bell introduced an A.M. menu—including the new and terrifying Biscuit Tacos, where half the calories come from fat. McDonald’s, meanwhile, announced it was going to experiment with serving Egg McMuffins and pancakes all day long. The media dubbed this battle for your dollar “The Breakfast Wars”—but you may be the true casualty. Breakfast can be a good thing. [Studies](http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/oatmeal-for-breakfast-results-in-greater-fullness-and-lower-calorie-intake-at-lunch-especially-for-overweight-individuals-300025072.html) show that people who take time for a morning meal consume fewer calories over the course of the day, have stronger cognitive skills, and are 30 percent [less](http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/15883552) likely to be overweight or obese. But when food marketers get their hands on it, “a hearty breakfast” turns into something more like “a heart-breaking breakfast,” because much of what’s on offer at America’s restaurants—and the grocery aisles—is a collection of fatty scrambles, misguided muffin missiles, and pancakes that look like manhole covers. It’s time for a wake up call. _Eat This, Not That!_ magazine editors searched out the good, the bad, and the greasy and put together this special report: The Worst Breakfast Foods in America 2015! ### Worst Sweet Cereal **Kellogg’s Honey Smacks (1 cup)** 100 calories, .5g fat, 40mg sodium, 24g carbohydrates, 15g sugar **That’s the Sugar Equivalent of:** Scarfing a Mrs. Fields Chocolate Chip Cookie and calling it breakfast. The Smacks mascot, Dig’em Frog, needs a smackdown: His cereal has more sugar than Tony the Tiger’s, Fred Flintstone’s or even Cap’n Crunch! Worse, each puff is coated with partially hydrogenated oil, a substance even fast-food chains are about to ban because they contain traces of trans-fats. Smacks also [contain](http://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0118138) caramel color, which has been shown to increase the risk of cancer in animals and is a possible carcinogen for humans, too. General Mills just announced they’d be removing artificial colors from their cereals; ask Kellogg’s to do the same. **Eat This Instead!** **General Mills’ Kix** 110 calories, 1 g fat, 180 mg sodium, 25 g carbohydrates, 3 g sugar Kix is the safest of all sweet cereals, and go great with blueberries. ### Worst “Healthy” Cereal **Bear Naked Go Bananas…Go Nuts Granola (1⁄2 cup)** 280 calories, 14 g fat (4 g saturated), 4 g fiber, 10 g sugar **That’s the Fat Equivalent of:** a Dunkin’ Donuts Blueberry Muffin in a bowl—except this granola has more saturated fat! Granola may be the most overrated breakfast food of all time. What do you think is holding all those banana-y clumps together? Sugar and oil. And 4 grams of fiber just isn’t enough to save this bowl. [Studies](http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/store/10.1111/j.1467-3010.2007.00603.x/asset/j.1467-3010.2007.00603.x.pdf?v=1&t=ibdpbhfp&s=9458586abeccf10a9aaa94bd6c484a34d2f43c25) have shown that if you eat more fiber at breakfast, you’ll consume fewer calories throughout the day. **Eat This Instead!** **Kellogg’s All-Bran Original (1 cup)** 160 calories, 2 g fat, 20 g fiber, 12 g sugar It’s called All-Bran! This is as fiber-rich as it gets, with a touch of sweetness, too. ### Worst Doughnut **Dunkin’ Donuts Blueberry Butternut Donut** 420 calories, 17 g fat (8 g saturated), 60 g carbohydrates, 35 g sugar **That’s the Sugar Equivalent of:** one serving of Ben and Jerry’s Phish Food ice cream—except this doughnut has 130 more calories, 3 grams more fat and 22 more carbs! Good doughnuts hover in the 200- to 300-calorie range, but Dunkin’ Donuts has broken new barriers with this doughy disaster. At 420, it has more calories than a McDonald’s Egg McMuffin with hash browns and nearly as much sugar as 5 bowls of Froot Loops. In fact, it’s the highest-calorie doughnut out there—neither Krispy Kreme nor Tim Horton’s have one that tops 400 calories. Speaking of numbers, here’s another: The Blueberry Butternut has 44 ingredients, including Eat This, Not That! must-avoids like propylene glycol (aka an ingredient in anti-freeze), preservatives and artificial flavors. And how many actual blueberries? Zero. **Eat This Instead!** **Dunkin’ Donuts Lemon Donut** 260 calories, 15 g fat (7 g saturated), 29 g carbohydrates, 10 g sugar This has an equally-long list of artificial ingredients, but it’s one of the lowest-calorie options at Dunkin’ Donuts. **_Eat This, Not That!_** **_:_** [_The 9 Best Flat-Belly Superfoods_](http://www.eatthis.com/9-best-flat-belly-superfoods) ### Worst Breakfast Burrito **Taco Bell A.M. Crunchwrap — Sausage** 710 calories, 47 g fat (14 g saturated fat), 1,260 mg sodium, 51 g carbohydrates **That’s the Calorie Equivalent of:** Two regular dinnertime Taco Bell burritos, eaten for breakfast! Taco Bell? For breakfast? The news made everyone laugh last year. But the joke’s on you: Most items are more than 500 calories. For the Sausage Crunchwrap, the Bell found a way to stuff sausage and hash browns into this carb vessel, plus shredded cheddar cheese, a pile of eggs and 50 other ingredients, many unpronounceable. The Breakfast Wars are most brutal to your belly. **Eat This Instead!** **Taco Bell A.M. Grilled Taco — Egg and Cheese** 170 calories, 9 g fat (3 g saturated), 330 sodium, 15 g carbohydrates If you’re south of the border, order the Egg and Cheese sandwich, sound advice at any fast food chain in the A.M. hours. This one has 12 grams of tummy-filling protein. ### Worst Breakfast Sandwich **Hardee’s Monster Biscuit** 710 calories, 47 g fat (18 g saturated), 2,160 mg sodium, 40 g carbohydrates **That’s the Sodium and Fat Equivalent of:** A 6″ Meat Lovers Personal Pan Pizza from Pizza Hut! In one sandwich! This Monster monstrosity has three kinds of pork and more than a day’s worth of sodium. From the bottom up, you’ll find ham, and then cheese, and then a sausage patty, and then more cheese, and then a folded egg, and then bacon, all between a fatty biscuit. A close second for Worst: The Jack in the Box Loaded Breakfast Sandwich, which has the same ingredients between sourdough bread, for the same amount of calories—but with far less sodium. **Eat This Instead!** **Hardee’s Frisco Breakfast Sandwich** 360 calories, 11 g fat (3 g saturated fat), 1,100 mg sodium, 44 g carbohydrates Every single breakfast option at Hardee’s has too much sodium—unless you order the grits—but at least this one also has 19 grams of protein. ### Worst “Healthy” Breakfast **Dunkin’ Donuts Multigrain Bagel with Reduced Fat Strawberry Cream Cheese** 500 calories, 17 g fat (6.5), 650 sodium, 78 g carbohydrates **That’s the Calorie Equivalent of:** A Bacon McDouble at McDonald’s, yet without the benefit of its significant protein! The worst part about this breakfast is that scores of health-conscious eaters (who somehow wandered into a Dunkin’, perhaps for the coffee) order this thinking they’re making a smart choice. No matter how healthy the bagel or its toppings may appear, there is just no escaping the fact that this one is bogus. In fact, you’re unlikely to find any bagel combination at chain restaurants that register less than 400 calories, because most have refined carbs and low-grade fats. **Eat This Instead!** **Dunkin’ Donuts Egg and Cheese English Muffin Sandwich** 240 calories, 7 g fat (3.5 g saturated), 490 mg sodium, 32 g carbohydrates With 12 grams of protein and less sodium than in years past, this is a Dunkin’ Do. **_Eat This, Not That!:_**[_The Surprising Nutrient That Helps You Lose Weight Fast_](http://www.eatthis.com/how-to-lose-weight-eating-resistant-starch) ### Worst Pancakes **Denny’s Peanut Butter Cup Pancake Breakfast** 1,670 calories, 105 g fat (33 g saturated), 2,765 mg sodium, 148 g carbohydrates, 64 g sugar **That’s the Fat Equivalent of:** 33 McDonald’s Hotcakes stacked high! Wait, doesn’t this belong on a list of the Worst Desserts in America? IHOP has New York Cheesecake Pancakes. Perkins sells ones called Apple Pie. But Denny’s Peanut Butter Cup Pancake Breakfast out-sweets them all. They’ve stuffed two buttermilk pancakes with chocolate _and_ white chocolate chips, and then topped it with hot fudge and peanut butter sauce. The result is a dish with more sugar than 5 servings of Edy’s Ice Cream. (Throw in eggs, hash browns and two sausage links, and the sodium count soars, too.) Craziest part: They offer maple syrup on the side. **Eat This Instead!** **Denny’s Build-Your-Own-Grand-Slam** with 2 Pancakes (370 calories) and 2 egg whites (60 calories). ### Worst Breakfast Omelette **IHOP Chorizo Fiesta Omelet** 1,300 calories, 106 g fat (34 g saturated, 1 g trans), 3,220 sodium, 33 g carbohydrates. But if you also order the accompanying side of pancakes and syrup, it’s 1,990 calories and 42 grams of saturated fat. **That’s the Sodium Equivalent of:** Eating 273 Cheetos for breakfast IHOP was one of the last chains to release its nutritional numbers, and given the national-debt-level calorie counts of much of its menu, we can see why. This overstuffed omelette is bursting with chorizo, roasted peppers, pepper jack cheese and onions and then smothered in sour cream and chili sauce. Throw in the three additional pancakes, and you’ve got a “healthy” meal with a day’s worth of calories. **Eat This Instead!** **IHOP Simple & Fit Vegetable Omelette** 310 calories, 12 g fat (4.5 saturated), 750 mg sodium, 6 g carbs ### Worst Breakfast in America **Cheesecake Factory Bruleéd French Toast** 2,780 calories, N/A fat (93 g of saturated fat), 2,230 mg sodium, 120 g sugar **That’s the Saturated Fat Equivalent of:** 6 Sonic cheeseburgers, and the calorie equivalent of 40 Dunkin Donuts’ Munchkins. Speaking of dessert for breakfast! This “rustic” dish will rust your arteries. It has a full day’s worth of sodium, more than a day’s worth of calories, three to four days worth of sugar and a week’s worth of saturated fat. Cheesecake Factory won’t reveal the total fat count—maybe because they can’t count that high? Meet the absolute Worst Breakfast in America. **Eat This Instead** **Cheesecake Factory Plain Omelette** 490 calories, other nutritionals N/A **_Eat This, Not That!:_**[_8 Most Addictive Foods in the World_](http://www.eatthis.com/most-addictive-foods-in-the-world) _This_ [_article_](http://www.eatthis.com/the-worst-breakfasts-for-your-waistline-2015) _originally appeared on_ [_Eat This, Not That!_](http://www.eatthis.com/) ## Transcript [ MUSIC ] Know more. Live better. [ MUSIC ] My cousin told me about how she had gone gluten free and it really helped her. So, I decided I would try it, and it really made a difference in my life. If you, pay attention to food labels, you probably noticed the words gluten free showing up more and more. Gluten is a protein found in wheat, barley, and rye, and a growing number of people say they're trying to avoid it. But for many of them, that may be unnecessary. [ MUSIC ] Gluten is in all kinds of foods, everything from beer and baloney to pasta and waffles. Going gluten- free is clearly beneficial for those who have a condition known as Celiac Disease. Disease. For them, gluten damages the lining of the small intestine, impairing the body's ability to absorb nutrients. The condition is diagnosed with a blood test and biopsy. It's estimated to affect a bit less than 1 % of the US population. But what about the remaining 99 % of us? Well some who don't have celiac disease, say they have trouble digesting gluten. While there's no standard medical test for this problem, going off gluten may make sense if it helps them feel better. As for claims that a gluten free diet is effective against arthritis, autism, diabetes or other conditions, there is little evidence. Nor is there proof that shunning gluten can help control your weight or make you healthier overall if you don't have Celiac disease. Still, a gluten- free diet can be beneficial if it forces you to cut back on refined carbs such as pastries, cookies and white bread and on calories over all. But read labels carefully on gluten free breads and other products Some can be higher in calories and lower in fiber and B vitamins than the conventional versions. Because gluten is in so many foods avoiding it takes lots of effort. Unless you absolutely have to stay away from gluten better to devote that time and energy to eating a healthful diet overall which includes lots of fruits and vegetables. And for that No label reading required. Helping you be a healthy skeptic, I'm Robert Davis. 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