Stat man Nate Silver ranks the unhealthiest fast food around

Chris Spags Founder and Editor

I ate a KFC Double Down this weekend and, contrary to all the media that floated around about it being the downfall of humanity, it really wasn’t that bad. I didn’t feel gross eating it, it was tasty, whatever, no problem. Here’s more about the debate about the KFC Double Down. Renowned statistician Nate Silver broke down the unhealthiest sandwiches around and the findings are a bit surprising.

the unhealthiest fast food sandwiches 8152 1271694786 2 Stat man Nate Silver ranks the unhealthiest fast food around

This graphic uses the KFC Double Down’s combined fat, sodium, and cholesterol intake as the baseline for the test. From the words of Mr. Silver:

[I]t’s the burgers that dominate this category, with Wendy’s Triple Baconator (2.45 DDs) and Hardee’s Moster Thickburger (2.24 DDs) in a league of their own and more than twice as bad-for-you as the Double Down. Even an ordinary Whopper with Cheese (1.10 DDs) is slightly worse than the Double Down.

However, this is not the best barometer to use when taking a look at the Double Down’s place within the annals of arterial rape. While these sandwiches above may be overall worse than the Double Down, they also have more calories. This means that they may also have more benefits, including protein, fiber, and iron. So Silver created a second graph analyzing the Double Downs Per Calorie, more reflective of the Double Down’s true potential as a destroyer of fitness dream.

So there you have it. As a whole, the Double Down is NOT the worst thing you can eat. But when you break it down at a caloric level, the Double Down may very well be the worst thing you could possibly ingest that isn’t a vat of lard mixed with hobo blood. Surprisingly tasty, though. Have to give it that.

Double Down by the Numbers: Unhealthiest Sandwich Ever? [FiveThirtyEight]
8 fast food items that will ensure you die of a heart attack [Guyism]

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