DROP THE CHALUPA.

Okay, so the Chihuahua's adorable and the commercials deserve an award. But a pretty face and a clever story line only go so far.

And that's not nearly far enough to make Taco Bell Chalupas look good.

The Chalupas' guts are pretty much the same stuff Taco Bell's been pushing for years: beef, chicken, or steak, with iceberg lettuce and cheese (that's the Chalupa Classic), plus salsa (the Santa Fe), cheese sauce (the Baja), or tomato and sour cream (the Supreme).

The gimmick is that each variety--with its own sauce--is stuffed in a piece of folded deep-fried flatbread that's soft on the inside ... which may describe what your coronary arteries will look like after you eat one.

The Steak or Chicken Classic will do the least damage--310 calories, almost 500 mg of sodium, and 16 grams of fat, four or five of them saturated. That's `just' a quarter of a day's sat fat ... and it doesn't even include any trans fat from the frying oil. The Beef Supreme delivers half a day's sat fat.

Pick up a Chalupa Value Meal for about four bucks and you'll get two Chalupas, a hard-shell taco, and a large soda. You'll also get 970 calories, 56 grams of fat, and 20 grams of sat fat.

Is that a great drop-dead deal or what?

Taco Bell: [phone].