Heart attack food? Compared to what?

This is a direct response to an angry Shine posting on KFC's new 'Double-Down' sandwich, which consists of (according to the KFC website) "two thick and juicy boneless white meat chicken filets, two pieces of bacon, two melted slices of Monterey Jack and pepper jack cheese and Colonel's Sauce."  On paper, that does sound pretty bad.  It's a bacon sandwich on chicken instead of bread.  But once I started looking at the nutrition information, it is, comparitively, right in the middle of the fast food pack.  For the purposes of comparison, I found the closest thing I could at a few other major chains -- I was looking for anything that contained a chicken filet (KFC offers both fried and grilled, so I'll look at both), bacon, and some sort of cheese and/or sauce component. 

Here's what I found, starting with the Double-Down. KFC has released 3 major components of nutritional info for it so far, and I'm assuming there will be more details once release day is upon us.  The 'fried' version contains 540 calories, 32 grams of fat, and 1380mg of sodium.  The fat and sodium content is high, but as you'll see soon, not all that uncommon.  The 'grilled' version of the Double-Down contains 460 calories, 23 grams of fat, and 1430mg of sodium, which is basically an entire day's worth of sodium in a single sandwich-type object.

Now let's look at its fast-food cousins, shall we?

Burger King offers two similar sandwiches, the Tendercrisp and the Tendergrill.  The Tendercrisp is "a premium white meat chicken filet with crisp breading, fresh lettuce, red ripe tomatoes, and mayo on a corn-dusted bun."  It contains 800 calories, 46 grams of fat, and 1640 mg of sodium.  The Tendergrill is "a juicy grilled chicken filet on a corn-dusted bun, topped with crisp lettuce tomato."  (That 'crisp lettuce tomato bit is copied and pasted directly from the website)  It contains 490 calories, 21 grams of fat, and 1220mg of sodium.  Note that this sandwich has neither bacon nor cheese.  Since Burger King has a tool that lets one add and remove items from their sandwiches, I decided to play around a bit and get BK's Tendercrisp as close to a Double-Down as possible.  I took away the lettuce, tomato, mayo, and bun, added a second chicken patty, bacon, cheese, and 'Stacker Sauce,' which I figured would be the closest possible cousin to Colonel's Sauce.  My TendercrispDouble-Down, or 'TCDD' came in at 890 calories, 55g fat, and 2690mg of sodium.  If you don't believe the visual below, go try it for yourself.

For McDonald's, I used their Premium Chicken Club sandwiches, both crispy and grilled.  Each features a honey wheat roll, bacon, swiss cheese, lettuce, tomato, and mayo.  The crispy comes in at 630 calories, 28g of fat, and 1360mg of sodium.  The grilled contains 530 calories, 17g of fat, and 1410mg of sodium.

Wendy's closest equivalents are the Ultimate Chicken Grill and the Chicken Club.  The UCG doesn't normally contain cheese or bacon, but it's available upon request, so I added it, bringing the grand total to 500 calories, 19 grams of fat, and 1630g of sodium.  The Chicken Club contains 620 calories, 20g of fat, and 1490mg of sodium.

Finally, Arby's, which offers a roasted or crispy Chicken, Bacon and Swiss sandwich.  The crispy comes in at 590 calories, 27g of fat and 1560mg of sodium, while the roasted contains 470 calories, 19g of fat and 1370mg of sodium.

Let's compare, shall we, first the fried offerings, and then the grilled/roasted offerings.

Fried
KFC -- 540 calories, 32 grams of fat, and 1380mg of sodium
BK -- 800 calories, 46 grams of fat, and 1640 mg of sodium
TCDD -- 890 calories, 55g fat, and 2690mg of sodium
McDs --  630 calories, 28g of fat, and 1360mg of sodium
Wendy's -- 620 calories, 20g of fat, and 1490mg of sodium.
Arby's -- 590 calories, 27g of fat and 1560mg of sodium

The Double-Down from KFC is actually the lowest in calories out of all of these, though McDonald's has the lowest sodium content and Wendy's has the least fat.  The regular Tendercrisp sandwich from Burger King has the highest calorie, fat, and sodium content of any of the regular sandwiches.  If you got the equivalent of a Double-Down from BK, you'd be consuming 350 more calories, 23 more grams of fat, and almost twice the sodium.

Now let's look at grilled options.
KFC -- 460 calories, 23 grams of fat, and 1430mg of sodium
BK -- 490 calories, 21 grams of fat, and 1220mg of sodium
McDs -- 530 calories, 17g of fat, and 1410mg of sodium
Wendy's -- 500 calories, 19 grams of fat, and 1630g of sodium
Arby's -- 470 calories, 19g of fat and 1370mg of sodium

KFC is, again, lowest in calories here, but McDonald's wins in terms of fat grams, and Burger King actually has the lowest amount of sodium in the grilled category.  Wendy's has the highest calorie and sodium counts, and KFC the highest fat count.

So what does this all mean?  Well first of all, the major difference here is that most of these sandwiches are on buns rather than having the meat itself serve as the bun.  Until more detailed nutritional information comes out about the Double-Down -- saturated fat, etc -- it can't be said for sure, but is it really all that much worse than anything offered at any other major fast food chain?  None of this stuff could be considered health food -- all these calorie and fat counts are just for the sandwiches -- it's not even factoring in fries. Who the heck goes to a fast food restaurant for a sandwich and doesn't get any darned fries (or, in the case of Wendy's, a broccoli-cheese baked potato...mmm).  Yes, this is coming from a woman who once polished off an entire triple Baconator, but I also eat like a sensible, healthy adult 95% of the time.  Will I try a Double-Down?  Heck yeah!  It looks delicious!  Will I eat them on a regular basis? Of course not!