Colonel of Truth

Grams of Fat

At 540 calories, KFC's Double Down is still 90 calories lighter than McDonald's Premium Crispy Chicken Club Sandwich. But with a whopping 1,380 milligrams worth of salt (more than a half-teaspoon), it chews up almost all of the American Heart Association's maximum recommended adult intake of less than 1,500 mg of sodium per day.

When released in the US, an NPR intern was asked to try it. Maybe they felt she was healthy enough to survive unscathed. After taking her first bite, the avowed fried chicken lover needed a minute to clear her throat and gather her thoughts: "The cheese is freaking me out. There's nothing holding this together! This is not a sandwich."

And that's part of the pitch. The only buns associated with the Double Down are the ones inside the promotional pants the company paid college co-eds to wear as on-campus “human billboards”... Sweat pants, not hot pants: all the better to hide the freshmen fifteen.

The controversial concoction's reputation reached Canada before the sandwich itself, which first went on sale Monday 10/18/10.

Ontario's Health Promotion Minister caused a stir when she said the province may review the sale of the Double Down, a position she quickly reversed when it became the political hot potato of the week at Ontario's legislature... Three Conservative members stood outside their chamber, sharing a Double Down in a stunt to protest what they said is the Liberals' "obsession with managing people's lives."

Premier Dalton McGuinty said he wants to assure people "there is not a colonel of truth" to reports the government planned to investigate the Double Down... Which was either a Canadian Press mistake for a "kernel of truth" (a core accuracy at the heart of a claim or narrative which also contains dubious or fictitious elements) or evidence of a healthy sense of humor by the politician, the reporter, or both.