Fast-food industry is fattening up its fare & America is eating it up
Surely every American old enough to place his own Happy Meal order knows there’s an obesity epidemic in this country. Despite this — and despite piles of research on the evils of diets high in saturated fat and sodium and low in fiber — American fast-food chains continue to roll out bigger, fatter, more decadent fare. Consider this summer’s debut of Burger King’s BK Stackers, which include a Quad Stacker option of four slabs of beef, four slices of cheese and up to eight slices of bacon — “smothered,” as the company puts it, in a creamy sauce.
Welcome to America, where EVERYONE gets to choose how they die. Unfortunately, the only choice is heart disease, since the rest of the options are still subject to random blind chance and genetic predisposition.
Of course, if heart disease is your chosen method of demise, then say hello to your weapon of choice: the Burger King BK Quad Stacker, 1000 calories and 68 grams of fat (30 grams of saturated fat) of artery-clogging goodness. Yessirree, a steady diet of these beauties, and even if you don’t for some indecipherable reason die from clogged arteries, you’ll be well on your way to being able to wear only size XXXXXXL polyester stretch pants. Before you know it, it’ll take a forklift just to get you from your bed to the shower in the morning.
God, I just LOVE America, don’t you? Where else can you gradually commit suicide through the simple act of repeatedly eating at Burger King? And it’s not like the BK Quad Stacker is an isolated example…or even the worst offender.
This burger might better be called the quadruple-bypass special,” says Jeff Novick, director of nutrition for the Pritikin Longevity Center. “Fast food like this is great if you’re in a hurry — to die.”….
For its part, Burger King says it is simply giving the public what it wants.
“We’re satisfying the serious meat lovers by leaving off the produce and letting them decide exactly how much meat and cheese they can handle,” says Denny Marie Post, the corporation’s senior vice president.
And in case the kids fail to notice the sandwich, Burger King also sells collectible figurines of the cartoonish characters featured in the BK Stackers’ TV ads.
Cool; you get toys. So when y’all are hooked to an IV drip as you fight for your life because your major arteries are 93% occluded and you weigh in at a not-insubstantial 347 pounds…well, at least you’ll have something to play with, eh?
Nice. And very thoughtful of Burger King…don’t you think??
The sad thing is that the BK Quad Stacker isn’t even the worst and most egregious example of rampant nutritional excess. Not even close.
In fact, there are worse burgers out there — notably Hardee’s 1,420-calorie Monster Thickburger, which has 107 grams of fat.
Nor is the nutritional affront limited to burgers. Subway’s 12-inch Double-Meat Classic Tuna Sub packs 1,580 calories and 110 grams of fat, Denny’s Extreme Grand Slam Breakfast has 1,270 calories and 77 grams of fat, and Blimpie’s BLT has 1,180 calories and 64 grams of fat.
Would you like fries with that??
The Center for Science in the Public Interest — known for exposing the unhealthy content of everything from Mexican food to alfredo sauce — labels such excessive fare “food porn” and argues that a lot of diners may not realize just how fattening the food is.
“To those who say we don’t need calorie counts on menu boards, I say, ‘Have you met the Thickburger?’ ” says executive director Michael F. Jacobson. “A good rule of thumb is that if a burger needs a comma in its calorie count, it’s virtually impossible to fit into a healthy diet.”
Have you met the Thickburger? Hell, too many Americans want to become one with the Thickburger and it’s brethren in the Order of Culinary Russian Roulette. Moderation is for losers….
Doesn’t exactly build confidence in the future of our children’s generation , does it?
