Top Seven Deadly Foods: Gross, or Tasty?

Photo: Gross Food Movement

A hot dog on a stick -- encrusted in French Fries? Or, perhaps, a peanut butter, banana and bacon donut? Do these offerings sound tasty, or just too ridiculous? Regardless, they're just a couple of the creations that define what some have termed the "gross-food movement."

The phrase comes from Gourmet magazine, in an article published in June.

"The Gross-Food Movement, as I hereby christen it, is a grassroots embrace of all things deep-fried, bacon-wrapped, and cheese-slathered," wrote Robert Ashley in the article.

Jessica Amason and Richard Blakeley, co-creators of the blog and book, "This Is Why You're Fat," noticed a trend in crazy food items and developed the website around the idea. The book will be released on Oct. 27, and it goes into more depth than the blog, including recipes and stories from the creators of these items.

"The items are really disgusting, enticing and hilarious," said Amason. "And people actually take the time and energy to make these things.

"It made sense that there be a one-stop-shop site for all of these gross items where users could submit their own [food creations]," she added. "The title was sort of just a cheeky joke."

Cheeky works: got a millon clicks in the first 24 hours after the site launched on Feb. 9. Some of the most deadly (or tasty) items include the "Deep Fried Brat Loaf," "French Fry-Encased Hot Dog on a Stick," and "Bacon Chocolate Cake."

One of the key attributes of the gross-food movement is size -- typically, the more, the better.

"Throughout most of human history, calories were scarce and hard to get," said Dr. David Katz, director of Medical Studies in Public Health at Yale University. "It's a new thing that we find ourselves in a world where physical activity is scarce and calories are unavoidable."

The following pages feature seven of the "grossest" foods that can be found on the blog "This Is Why You're Fat."

French Fry-Encased Hot Dog on a Stick

Who needs a bun when you can just wrap your hot dog in French fries? The French fry-encased hot dog on a stick is literally a hot dog wrapped in fries.

Health food it is not. Still, this creation may be less offensive from a nutritional point of view than some of the other offerings in "This Is Why You're Fat."

"Frying food packs in a lot more calories, and more calories are not necessarily a good thing," said Katz. But, he notes, "French fries are made from potatoes -- they're not as highly nutritious as other vegetables, but still vegetables."

And while the french fries in this creation are not the healthiest choice, Katz offers an alternative preparation that can make it marginally better for you.

"The peel of potatoes is where nutrients are more concentrated, and fry it in olive oil or canola oil," he said, adding that home gourmets would probably be wise to skip partially-hydrogenated soybean oil.

Pizza Burger

Having a hard time making up your mind between pizza or a burger? Then here's the "Pizza Burger," which combines both foods into one enormous concoction. You can probably find pizza burgers on the menus at some diners, but they don't come close to this -- a giant burger between two large meat pizzas, with eggs, bacon, and colby and pepper jack cheese added.

While the pizza burger may resonate with junk-food lovers, it is decisively less popular with nutrition experts.

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