What's the low-carb lowdown on KFC's bunless 'Double Down' sandwich?

  All the talk of the Internet for the past month has been centered around a brand new sandwich introduced at a popular fast food restaurant chain that features two pieces of chicken, bacon, cheese, and sauce. The media has predictably been scoffing at the fat content of the new “Double Down” sandwich from KFC, but low-carb forums like mine have had people asking whether this would be an acceptable food to eat when you are livin’ la vida low-carb. My low-carb blogging buddy Tom Naughton “Doubled Down And Lived To Tell” and I have literally received nearly 100 requests from my YouTube channel subscribers to do a review. So when Christine and I received coupons for a FREE “Double Down” in our e-mail box, we decided the time was right to head on down to our local KFC to see what all the fuss was about.

In Episode 88 of “Livin’ La Vida Low-Carb On YouTube”, we tasted the “Double Down” for ourselves on camera while sharing about the nutritional information on camera. Interestingly, despite all the negative press this sandwich without the bread has received, I was pleased to see some responsible journalists exposing the hypocrisy of the feigned outrage. This was my favorite line of Katharine Shilcutt’s Houston Press column: “So it’s a sandwich that doesn’t have any buns. Good for the Double Down! It simply replaced all that sugar and starch and overprocessed “flour” with a bunch of protein…It’s closer to actual “real” food than those buns were.” WOW! You gotta love it when you see quality writing like that coming out of the mainstream.

I consumed the grilled version of the latest KFC creation and according to CalorieKing.com the 8.9-ounce Grilled Double Down sandwich contains 460 calories, 23g total fat, 9g saturated fat, 1430mg sodium, 3g carbohydrate, 1g sugar, and 61g protein. The salt in this thing is very high and made it slightly undesirable to me along with the excessive spices. The carb counts were good ostensibly coming mostly from the “special Colonel’s sauce” they put on it. But the protein to fat ratio was very high–nearly three to one! Ideally you want your fat content to be 2-3 times the amount of protein you consume when you are on a healthy low-carb lifestyle. Low-carb doesn’t mean high-protein, but rather high-fat as a percentage of total calories.

Christine ate the slightly-breaded 8.5-ounce original Double Down sandwich with 540 calories, 32g total fat, 10g saturated fat, 0.5g trans fat, 1380mg sodium, 11g carbohydrate, 1g fiber, 1g sugar, and 53g protein. Obviously the carb counts on this will be higher than the grilled because of the breading, but the salt content is also elevated in this one. The protein to fat ratio is about two to one (better than the grilled, but still not up to snuff for a high-fat, moderate protein, low-carb nutritional approach). However, there is a half-gram of trans fat which would turn me off from consuming this one even if it had zero carbs. I know the government says to keep your consumption at 2g or less daily, but I’ve interviewed too many guests on my podcast who say even a little trans fat in your body is too much. The less the better.

Watch our latest video for a full review of KFC’s new “Double Down” sandwich:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NFfu3SL09eQ

Like we shared in April 2009 in our YouTube video review of KFC’s Kentucky Grilled Chicken, you certainly don’t want to make this sandwich a staple of your low-carb lifestyle. But the grilled version is a good option for people who are stuck looking for something to eat while traveling away from home. Make sure you have plenty of water around to help with the spiciness and saltiness because it will knock you down if you don’t. I enjoyed the flavor (although they could have backed way down on the salt and still made this taste good), but I personally prefer having a good fatty grass-fed beef hamburger with cheese on top instead to give me the high-fat nutrition my body craves. Now that’s some real food I can sink my teeth into!

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