[S]ome of America's favorite chains have gone above and beyond the call of duty and concocted thoroughly repellent dishes that make the Double Quarter Pounder look like a celery stick. These companies have offered Americans these revolting meals despite the fact that roughly one-third of the country is now obese, a deplorable state of affairs that accounting firm Pricewaterhouse Coopers estimates costs the U.S. health-care system $200 billion a year in wasted spending.
In listening to the continuing Sturm und Drang surrounding the debate over what to do with our sorry-ass health care "system", I've been struck by what seems to be a missing component that really isn't debatable. While a health care system is considered by most to be something designed to deal with the body once it becomes ill, all of us have the means at our disposable with which to render any health care system less relevant to our own lives. I'm referring, of course, to the choices we make- how we deal with stress, our diet, how much we exercise, and the care and attention we pay to our own well-being. If you think about it, we hold the power to control most of what impacts our day-to-day health. Yes, I recognize that, genetics being what they are, some things are simply pre-ordained to a greater or lesser degree. Nonetheless, when you consider that diet and exercise can greatly impact one's risk of getting certain cancers, it stands to reason that a little more thought and action and a lot less shouting might just be what the doctor ordered.
I'm not going to get on my soapbox and discourse on the merits and superiority of any particular diet. I'm as prone to being "bad" as the next person. My girlfriend can attest to the reality that I have a sizable sweet tooth, and one that I have no problem indulging. Here's the thing, though; being healthy doesn't have to mean living an ascetic existence...though there might in fact be some benefit to that. Somewhere along the line, Americans seem to have lost the ability to exercise moderation. When companies like KFC can, with no sense of irony, advertise their "Famous Bowl", an amalgamation of "mashed potatoes, corn, fried chicken, gravy and cheese to create a 720-calorie horror that contains 1 1/2 times your daily fat allowance," have we not lost our grip? If this isn't a clear example of a company placing profits over health, I'm not sure what would be. Not that I'm advocating KFC go veggie, but when you begin wondering what Americans are becoming progressively more obese, it doesn't take a rocket scientist, eh?
Ah, but it only gets worse....
Simply put, the Monster Thickburger is a fat, sloppy middle finger aimed at nutritionists everywhere. Clocking in at an artery-blowing 1,420 calories and 107 grams of fat, the Thickburger premiered in 2004, when McDonald's and Burger King were starting to sell out and offer their customers salads. In defending his decision to sell such a gaping monstrosity, Hardee's CEO Andrew Puzder played George W. Bush to McDonald's and Burger King's John Kerry, essentially calling them out as wimps who didn't have the balls to dramatically shorten their customers' life expectancy with just one meal. Specifically, he said the Thickburger was "not a burger for tree-huggers" but rather "for guys who want a really big, delicious, juicy decadent burger."
Yes, America, nothing says "fork you, Liberal treehuggers and nutrition Nazis" like choking down this artery-clogging monstrosity. And when you land on that crash cart because your arteries are 95% clogged and your heart just exploded, you can head off into the Afterlife secure in the knowledge that you sure showed 'em, eh?
We've become a nation that expects quality health care to be something that drops out of the sky when we need it. What we've lost sight of along the way is the control and influence we can exercise over our health simply through the choices we make. If we continue to dig our graves with our teeth and cement our destiny with our sloth, no amount of health care, quality or otherwise, will make a difference.
You can have my Monster Thickburger when you pry it from my cold, dead fingers....
