My parents have always been the type to monitor what my brother and I ate. We never had Gushers or Cheetos in the house, let alone took family trips to KFC. Going to a friend’s house whose parents allowed that was the best thing in the world. My brother, however, was not sure why we never visited “the best restaurant ever” before.
After sleeping over his friend’s house, my brother came back and reported to our family that he had eaten at the best restaurant ever. We were thrilled to hear this! It was good news that he actually enjoyed eating somewhere, as my brother was a fairly picky eater. “We went to a place called KFC!” he said.
My parents thought this was the funniest thing ever. My brother was left wondering why we had never eaten there as a family before, and as a young kid, I had a vague idea as to why.
Looking at some of KFC’s newest menu items, I am entirely able to understand why my parents never took us there. And after doing some research, I am very thankful that they never did.
As delicious as this may look, the nutrition facts are disturbing. One of their Original Recipe Chicken Breast pieces has over 1,000mg of salt
The KFC ‘Double Down’ is a sandwich with two chicken filets as the bun with bacon, two types of cheese and sauce. This has over 600 calories. Not only does this sandwich have an immense amount of calories, it has over 30g of fat.
KFCs in other parts of the world have adapted this sandwich in ways they saw fit. In the Philippines, they have a hotdog in-between two chicken filets. In Korea, they have a burger in-between two chicken filets. Intense.
I’d say it makes sense as to why my parents didn’t encourage us to eat at KFC. I asked my Mom for her reasoning as to why we never went: “I never viewed them as a restaurant to seek out. There is too much salt, fat and grease for my taste.” I’m with her on that one. My Dad simply said, “the food sucks.”
I don’t think that there is anything wrong with having a little KFC every once in a while, but I’m glad it wasn’t my family’s go-to destination for a Sunday dinner. I think if I did grow up eating KFC every now and again, it wouldn’t have made much of a difference in the grand scheme of things, but not eating it gave my brother the joy of experiencing it for the first time with his friend and I think that counts for something… maybe.