Worst Junk Food in America, Ranked

Sometimes junk food is amazing. Sometimes it's, well, junk.

A good burger with a side of perfectly crispy fries is a thing of beauty. Ideally, the fries should be not-too-greasy and not-too-salty, just salty and greasy enough.

No one does fast food better than America, but some fast food joints don’t know where to draw the line. There is such a thing as too much of a good thing, pushing normal, tasty junk food over the edge into the, “ew, why?” category. Remember that time Dominos made an Oreo cookie pizza? If you thought that was bad, these 15 junk food items are even worse.

15. Denny’s Fried Cheese Melt

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A good, old-fashioned grilled cheese isn’t exactly healthy food, but it’s not an egregious affront to your arteries either. That’s until Denny’s got ahold of it. In 2010, Denny’s came up with the Fried Cheese Melt — and it’s exactly what it sounds like: An order of fried mozzarella sticks smothered in gooey, yellow American cheese, sandwiched between two slices of sourdough.

It was served with an order of chips too, as if the 895 calories and 34 grams of fat weren’t bad enough. If anyone considers the side of marinara sauce a vegetable, you’re wrong. Not only are tomatoes actually fruit, but the sauce tosses in extra sugar for the heck of it.

14. Taco Bell Cap n’ Crunch Delights

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We love grilled cheese, but something made out of Cap n’ Crunch at a taco joint is questionable, to say the least. They came up with this stroke of stupidity in 2015. The treats were similar to donuts but smothered in sickly-sweet icing and sprinkled with crushed Crunch Berries cereal.

Remember those tubes of sour candy powder that were literally just straight sugar? Yeah, these were like that, only for a breakfast snack.

13. The KFC Double Down

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KFC, we have to hand it to you, you have a way of turning something that’s not-so-bad into a heart attack without it seeming all that horrifying. One of the most extreme creations the fried chicken chain has come up with is the KFC Double Down.

It was first unleashed on diners in 2010, advertised as a sandwich without the bread. This was way before the keto craze, so the bread was replaced, not with a low-carb wrap or lettuce, but with two fried chicken filets. In between them rested a heart attack: two types of cheese, secret sauce and crispy bacon.

12. Arby’s Meat Mountain

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Arby’s is known for serving up heaping portions of meat, but they really made a name for themselves in 2014. That year, they announced a sandwich called the Meat Mountain. For only $10, you could purchase a single sandwich with just about every type of meat on the menu: chicken tenders, turkey, ham, corned beef, brisket, Angus steak, roast beef, bacon, Swiss cheese and cheddar.

If you were really brave, you could also add a fish fillet. It has protein, we’ll give it that, but probably more than the average person needs to consume in a week. If you want to try it, just ask. The infamous Meat Mountain still lurks on Arby’s secret menu.

11. Burger King Mac n’ Cheetos

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Burger King likes to take creative license with junk food too. They were among the first to team up with a chip company to design a mash up of a popular snack food with a popular entree: In 2016, they brought Mac n’ Cheetos to the table.

They really should have left it in the fridge, because it was not appealing. The dish smashed fried chunks of mac and cheese into the shape of giant Cheetos, then dipped them in Cheeto dust for authenticity and flavor. A few months later, they also added Cheetos Chicken Fries to the menu.

10. Pizza Hut’s Hot Dog Stuffed Crust Pizza

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Pizza and hot dogs are American classics, but is it really necessary to put them together? Pizza Hut thought so. We can see the appeal of stuffed crust pizza, but hot dog-stuffed pizza is a step too far. That’s what they invented in 2012 in the U.K.

They also came up with a U.S. version in which the rim of the pizza was made of mini hot dog bites. Was the grease from the gobs of melted cheese and pepperoni not enough?

9. Dunkin’ Donut’s Glazed Breakfast Sandwich

Dunkin’

A donut shop isn’t the ideal spot to find a balanced breakfast to begin with. Dunkin’s regular breakfast sandwiches could be worse for your waistline and the chain decided to take that as a challenge.

In 2013, they added a breakfast sandwich that used glazed donuts as the bread, with bacon and eggs in the middle. Most junk food items are mouthwatering, but this particular one is too much.

8. Friendly’s Grilled Cheese Burgermelt

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We love hamburgers. Nice, normal hamburgers. Once again, a burger chain couldn’t leave well enough alone. They took a perfectly good burger and ruined it by going too far. In 2010, Friendly’s introduced the Grilled Cheese Burgermelt.

Truly a junk food item in a class of its own, the sandwich ditched the buns of a regular burger and replaced them with two entire grilled cheese sandwiches. So much cheese. So much bread. So much butter. So much regret.

7. Burger King Bacon Sundae

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We love bacon as much as the next guy. Same goes for ice cream. Can you see the disgusting direction this is going? In 2012, Burger King thought, “If salted caramel was a hit, why not a more extreme mashup of sweet and savory? Ice cream and fried meat? Let’s do it.”

To make matters worse, it wasn’t just vanilla ice cream and bacon. The dish was an entire sundae, complete with thick, melted caramel and chocolate sauce. Jack-in-the-Box also toyed with a bacon shake.

6. The Bacon Bun Burger

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Speaking of bacon, it gets worse. Better? We can’t tell anymore. Our eyeglasses are spotted from all the grease. This is more of an at-home invention than anything else, but it has also appeared on the menu of food trucks and carnival stands: The Bacon Bun Burger.

Anyone who thinks carbs are the worst thing for your health is dead wrong. A sesame bun would be so much better than meat wrapped in more meat. In case you need to hear this, a lattice made of bacon does not count as bread. We don’t support doctors judging their patients for their dietary choices, but this is one time we might take their side.

5. Pizza Hut Stuffed Cheez-It Pizza

BJ’s

Calling the Stuffed Cheez-It Pizza a pizza is a stretch. It was more like a calzone if a calzone were made of a Cheez-It crust. Calzones are already supreme, Italian-inspired comfort food. The addition of bright orange cheese crackers wasn’t necessary, but it wasn’t as nasty of a creation as some of the other extreme junk food items invented over the years.

4. KFC Doughnut Zinger Burger

KFC Doughnut Zinger Burger

At this point, the Colonel is mostly the Colonel of coronary artery disease. In 2021 in South Africa, KFC released very limited-edition menu item that was just about as unhealthy as it gets. Their spicy Zinger chicken flavoring is to die for as it is, as is their Zinger spicy chicken sandwich.

They couldn’t leave it be. They replaced the buns with glazed donuts. Yes, spicy chicken with glazed donuts. We can get behind chicken and waffles, but this? Stop it.

3. Little Caesars Bacon-Wrapped Deep-Dish Pizza

Little Caesars

Deep-dish pizza is never good for you and Little Caesars already manages to make junk food feel even junkier. There’s a certain smell that every Little Caesars has that reminds us of an unwashed arcade. Mediocre, questionably flavored pizza aside, Little Caesars went ahead and invented a true crime against humanity: The Bacon-Wrapped Deep Dish.

It was only available in 2015 for a few months and all we can say is, hallelujah! It was a heart attack in a box, with a full 3.5 feet of bacon embedded into the crust and added bacon crumbles on top. People loved it so much that the dish resurfaced again in 2016 and 2019. For the sake of our survival, can we skip any more sequels?

2. Guy Fieri’s Cheesecake Challenge

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Guy Fieri is cool and all, and we stand by the statement: “Never trust a skinny chef.” Still, even a food wizard can go too far. He has a thing for inventing over-the-top junk food concoctions, particularly ones of extreme size. “Guy’s Cheesecake Challenge” can be found at his restaurant, Vegas Kitchen and Bar and we’re not sure anyone could eat the entire thing successfully.

If you’re feeling brave, just put half a cheesecake on a plate, smother it in hot fudge, then dump half a bag of pretzels and potato chips on it. We’re almost surprised it doesn’t have bacon as well.

1. Deep Fried Butter

Wikimedia Commons

State fairs invented this one. They have a thing for deep frying anything that can be deep fried, but we wouldn’t have expected a stick of butter to be an option. State fairs proved us wrong. Batter a stick of butter and fry it, then sell it for $7.99? Why not?

Common sense and self-preservation is why not. You’d never unwrap a stick of butter and take a bite for a quick snack, so why does deep frying it change anything? It doesn’t. What’s next, deep-fried plates? Deep-fried chairs? Just deep fry the entire parking lot, why don’t you?