Watch out for exotic new food creations that could pack on the pounds

While health, nutrition, and slow food advocates are educating Americans about eating healthier, others are making even more new grossly fattening food.

On Wednesday, KING-TV’s New Day Northwest host, Margaret Larson, and her guests made and gushed over an ice cream pie.

Instead of pie crust, which is bad enough for calories, it has a crust made of a thick layer of chocolate chip cookie dough that was baked. Then, a thick layer of hot fudge was topped with an ample layer of ice cream. Next, more hot fudge was drizzled on, and it was topped with whipped cream and drizzled again with hot fudge.

One-piece must have more than 2,000 calories.

Then I read about Little Caesers wrapping a deep-dish pizza with 3½ feet of bacon. And, more bacon is sprinkled on top.

That’s what prompted me to write this article.

The bacon-wrapped crust will be available for a limited time, starting Monday, Feb. 23. It’ll cost $12. A single slice of bacon-wrapped pizza will contain 23 grams of fat and 450 calories, according to USA Today. A slice of regular deep-dish pepperoni has 18 grams of fat and 390 calories.

While indulging in foods such as these once in a while isn’t going to do harm if you eat a healthy diet, for people who are overweight and can’t control their eating, new treats like these can be devastating.

And on the bacon craze, bacon is a food you shouldn’t eat very often if it’s preserved with sodium nitrate.

Processed meat contains nitrates, preservatives that, when absorbed by the human body, convert into N-nitroso, a compound that could cause cancer.

The American Cancer Society recommends consumers limit their intake of processed meats such as bacon, sausage, lunchmeats, and hot dogs. It suggests choosing fish, poultry, or beans instead of red meat.

See my article, “My Advice on National Bacon Day? Don’t Eat Bacon Cured With Sodium Nitrate,” for details.