It’s been nearly one year to the day since I came across an image of the Arby’s Meat Mountain, an ungodly ridiculous sandwich on Arby’s not-so-secret menu that contains (deep breath): two chicken tenders, roast turkey, ham, corned beef, brisket, steak, roast beef, cheddar and swiss cheese, and, of course, bacon. At the time I was in recovery from a streak of particularly brutal fast food reviews and could not fathom scaling Meat Mountain myself. Part of me knew there was a good chance I would never be the same after reaching that summit.
A recent article from Mel magazine all but confirmed those dark thoughts. A thorough analysis by Ian Lecklitner of every item on the Arby’s menu revealed that the Meat Mountain is built with a whopping 120 ingredients. I get that it takes a hell of a lot of stuff to build a mountain, but even by processed food standards, that seems excessive. Mel lists them all, and gives context to to all the ingredients people might find unfamiliar or difficult to pronounce, like sodium erythorbate, sodium diacetate, sodium lactate... seriously, there’s an astounding amount of salt in this behemoth of a sandwich. According to the nutritional facts, the Arby’s Meat Mountain contains 3,536 milligrams of sodium, which is 1,236 more milligrams than the FDA recommends per day. Surprisingly, the Meat Mountain contains only 1,275 calories, which, while still a horrifying number, is far fewer calories than I expected. Though I don’t doubt that we’ll see the 2,000-calorie barrier broken in my lifetime, I’m happy that fast food science hasn’t gotten there just yet. I hope to have a few more decades on this earth before it does. For a fascinating read, head here.