Is Burger King trying to kill us????

[hypernova]

As you all know, in the last few years, many of the restaurant chains have been introducing healthier options.  Salads, yogurt desserts, etc.  McDonald's, Wendy's, and many of the slower restaurants.

But what about Burger King?

It seems as though BK was walking along that road of where their future lay with the others, and while all the other restaurants strayed off the path, trying to offer better options to their customers, especially in such a health conscience time, BK said screw that.  America is fat.  Those other restaurants have responded, in order to keep up their sales.  However, while the other restaurants took a different road, BK stayed on the same path...in fact, it almost seems like it either turned around, or just started walking backwards.  While McDonald's is offering an oriental chicken salad, BK is offering the Enormous Omelet sandwich.  While Wendy's is offering children more choices instead of fries and coke, BK is offering the multimeat breakfast sandwich (had sausage, ham, AND bacon-forgot the name.  Meatnormous Breakfast Sandwich, maybe?)

Now, BKs new Stacker line is just over-the-top I think. 

"The BK Stacker is simple and built with the very ingredients our restaurant guests love best

[NightGod]

I tried that Meatnormous Sammich (wtfever it was called) one morning after a late night bender. Now, I can eat alot of food-maybe not competition level eatting, but I can pretty much eat more than anyone I know if I set my mind to it or am extremely hungry (both of which applied the morning I got that Sammich).

I still barely finished the thing and felt overfull for about 5 hours afterwards-that thing was just brutal. I have enemies I wouldn't wish that monstrosity on.

[MikeDeuce]

Ehh, there's a reason it's called junk food. Americans need to start accepting the liability of their own decisions. Survival of the fittest and all that.

And FWIW, BK sells a Veggie burger, McD's doesn't

http://www.bk.com/#menu=2,42,-1

Although if I ate meat, I'd be all over In 'n Out:
http://www.supersizedmeals.com/food/article.php/20060125050438458

edit:

The stats on the BK Stackers Quad are hilarious:
http://www.bk.com/#menu=3,1,-1

Calories: 1000, Total fat: 68g, Saturated fat: 30g, Trans Fat: 3g, Cholesterol: 240mg

You might want to give the BK veggie a chance if you are ever stuck at a BK...

Calories: 470, Fat: 20g, Saturated fat: 5g, Trans fat: 0g, Cholesterol: 20mg. Not bad for junk food.

[NightGod]

And people wonder why I only eat fast food when I'm too drunk or hung over to make a better decision...

These days I'll literally go hunger before I stop at a fast food joint and if I'm with friends and they go, I *might* get some fries (if it's McDonald's-those things are salt covered crack cocaine, I swear) or onion rings from BK, usually I just get a drink.

[tylerdurden]

I wouldn't say every fast food establishment strayed from the idea that Americans are fat so why not help them add to the padding. Have you been to a Wendy's lately and ordered a combo meal? They did away with the biggie size promo and very quietly they've increased the size of their combo options. A "medium" size combo is now the equivalent to the old biggie size. Order the large combo and you will get a heart stopping tub of fries and a 44oz vat of your favorite drink.

[monkeybomb]

This thread made me hungry.

mmmmmmmmmmmmmmm...Burgers

[jbox]

Can I get fries with that...

[Vigo]

For the first time in my life, I believe that there is a burger made to my taste. I love the BK stacker!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

We have a freedom to choose what we eat, and as long as there are no major suprises as to how healthy it is, that is fine. It is pretty obvious how unhealthy the bk stacker is.

I am in good health, I just make sure that I eat as much healthy stuff as junk food and I am fine. The minute somebody tells me that I can't eat bacon because it is unhealthy, then I will have a complaint...


If you want to pick a fight with a food, pick on diet cola. That crap is so fricken unhealthy it shouldn't be made. Not only is it taste worse than regular cola, It is proven that it will cause more weight gain than regular cola. It also contains artifical sweetners which have been shown to cause cancer in labratory tests.

[NightGod]

I love my Diet Coke-the Phenylalanine helps your body absorb caffine faster. Yum!

(and, honestly, I prefer the taste of it-full sugar pops are too syrupy for my tastes anymore-I drink maybe six full sugar drinks a year-usually RC or a Pepsi/Mt.Dew suicide because I occasionally get the craving for one)

[Vigo]

Hey, more power to you, I know a dozens of people who love diet cola, and I warn them of the consequences. If you can stay healty keep on chugging, but if you start needing a diet, I suggest the diet cola be the first thing to go.

I really can't knock anybody for for what they eat or drink if they are willing to accept the responsibility of what happens to their body. I eat more than my share of junk food, and if someday I get fat, I know it was my fault.

But I do love those BK stackers!! They are so dense and gooey!

[NightGod]

Honestly, I am in the process of losing weight, and I've a) cut back severely on my Diet Coke intake (used to drink about a 12 pack every 2-3 days, plus 2 or 3 32 oz refill mugs a day, now I drink maybe a 12 pack a week and a 32 oz cup a day) and b) jacked up my water intake (I drink about a gallon and a half to two gallons a day now.

That's in addition to alot of other things (like cutting out fast food and doing that crazy exercise stuff). It's amazing how easy it is to make small changes that add up when you're in a society that splurges like we do.

[Sizzler]

If you want to pick a fight with a food, pick on diet cola. That crap is so fricken unhealthy it shouldn't be made. Not only is it taste worse than regular cola, It is proven that it will cause more weight gain than regular cola.

I drink a three liter of soda a day.  You're telling me that it's been proven that consuming zero calories of diet soda will cause more weight gain than 1200 calories of non-diet soda every day?

I'd like to see that study.

[Vigo]

Its not the calorie intake, its the aspartame in the diet soda that prevent calorie breakdown in your body.

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,159579,00.html

http://www.mercola.com/2005/jun/30/diet_sodas.htm

http://www.mercola.com/article/aspartame/weight_gain_myth.htm

http://www.nancymarkle.com/fatter/

[Sizzler]

That study does not back up your claim that drinking diet soda WILL cause more weight gain than drinking non-diet soda.  The study talks about obesity RISK and you'll see that the RISK is about 10% higher for diet soda drinkers than for regular soda drinkers.

Additionally, there are a ton of other factors involved, which if you get behind the dramatic headline, even those articles admit.   Just because there are more homocides during the summer doesn't mean that consuming ice cream makes people murderers. 

No matter what you claim and what the Fox headline claims, there is nothing in that study that tells me that addiing 1200 calories of non diet Coke to my diet will definitely result in lower weight than the current zero calories of diet soda.   Sorry.

Its not the calorie intake, its the aspartame in the diet soda that prevent calorie breakdown in your body.

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,159579,00.html

http://www.mercola.com/2005/jun/30/diet_sodas.htm

http://www.mercola.com/article/aspartame/weight_gain_myth.htm

http://www.nancymarkle.com/fatter/

[Vigo]

Fine, thats your decision, and your body your putting that diet cola into. Just don't go blaming the company if you ever have any health problems in the future, cuz I warned ya.

I personally don't like to consume any unnatural chemicals that is put into that diet crap. Nobody can ever convince me that drinking chemicals on a daily basis is not going to kill me.

Doesn't it seem a little suspiscous that our countries weight gain is congruent to the rise in preservatives and chemicals used in our food? Let me hint everybody in...we are the only fat country, and we are the only country to use so much artifical chemicals in our food. The biggest culprit of which is artificial sweetner.

So it isn't proven that artifical sweetner causes cancer, but studies have shown it. They give lab rats enough artificial sweetner to equal a couple diet colas a day (scaled down to their body size respectively), the rats have a much higher cancer rate than the ones of the control group and the ones that they give enough sugar that equals a couple regular colas a day. Thats enough to convince me not to eat it.

If you look at cancer rates of different countries, you will find our cancer rate is higher than other countries with much higher air and water pollution but have natural foods.
CHEMICALS ARE NOT HEALTHY FOLKS...They make it harder to lose weight, and put you at risk of cancer. buy foods where you can pronounce the ingredients, wash off fruits and vegetables. Cook foods from scratch rather than having instant meals every night. I can gurantee this will make you much healthier.


So the study doesn't Prove that it causes more weight gain, but studies can never say that they proved anything. If studies show that I'm at higher risk of weight gain, I'm not going to take the chances.

No matter what you claim and what the Fox headline claims, there is nothing in that study that tells me that addiing 1200 calories of non diet Coke to my diet will definitely result in lower weight than the current zero calories of diet soda.   Sorry.

Read the third article that is posted, you will see reasons why the zero calorie choice can be harmful due to the aspritame.


My suggestion would be to cut the cola completely though, 3 liters a day??? Holy crap??? How can you think that is the healthy option???

[jbox]

People who drink diet cola are probably unhealthy because they think they can weasal out of eating junk food. *shrug*

But people who want to jump up and down about those nasty chemicals should probably go have a lie down and some aspirin- oh wait, maybe some ibuprofen- ack, I mean some di-hydro-oxide- sodium chloride- egads, they's everywhenereho!     

[Vigo]

I use asprin ibuprofen etc etc, and yes I do eat foods with preservatives in them, I'm just control the amount I use.

If you seriously think that diet chemicals don't do anything negative to your body, you seriously haven't done any research.

Any chemical consumed in large quantities can have a negative effect on your body, drinking too much diet crap is like a long term OD.

People, research this stuff...Its not good for you. I certainly would like to know when there is so many diet products out there, why are people only getting fatter. 50 years ago, a fat person was only seen in the circus. Let me clue you people in. Coke was a regular drink, and mcdonalds hamburgers were very popular. the only difference is that you can get chalked full of aspritame, and mcdonalds hamburgers have so many preservatives that they could last a nuclear fallout.

Has anyone bought a loaf of walmart white bread? I have a loaf that is over two months old. It isn't molding! (I also have a serious mold problem in my house), I have mold that will grow on my walls before they will touch a loaf of bread!!! WTF!? That food ain't natural!

[Ken Layton]

That burger looks delicious! I want one!

[ChadTower]

I drink a three liter of soda a day.  You're telling me that it's been proven that consuming zero calories of diet soda will cause more weight gain than 1200 calories of non-diet soda every day?

Don't know about that one but you may want to look up studies linking synthetic sweeteners to Alzheimers.

Vigo has a bit of a point but is pointing in the wrong direction.  Common sense leads one to look at the societal differences between now and 1950 in order to figure out why people are so fat now.

How many people made their living sitting in a chair, rather than out building or manufacturing or some other physical task, for 45-60 hours a week in 1950? 

How many make their living sitting in a chair now?

That's the major difference.  Sometimes the easy answer is the best one.

[thebrownshow]

I love the people who think they have anyone to blame but themselves for their own health.  It's absolutely hysterical.  Chad's right, I started putting on weight like crazy when I got my job, I sit at a computer for 8-10 hours a day and used to eat like crap.  So now I wake up earlier and counteract that lack of activity with a run before work.  It's all about balance.

Now if you'll excuse me, I'm going to go to BK and order that burger and run an extra mile tomorrow morning.

[shardian]

I sit at a desk all day, along with about a 40 minute each way commute. I am mentally exhausted at the end of the day, and that is FAR worse than being physically tired. I don't feel like doing anything other than sitting on my butt and staring at a wall. It is very hard to get motivated to do anything. If I could make the same pay doing a mildly physical job, I would take it in a heartbeat. The best job I ever had is and will most likely always be the produce department at Kroger.

[Chris]

Any chemical consumed in large quantities can have a negative effect on your body, drinking too much diet crap is like a long term OD.

And hey, water in large quantities can cause drowning!

[pointdablame]

oh no... BK made a big sandwich and is forcefully cramming them down the throats of every American man, woman, and child.

Oh no... wait... they're not.  You can eat whatever the hell you want, including fast food 5 days a week if you're an idiot.  I don't get why people complain about this stuff... just don't eat it yourself.

The fact is, BK did this because PEOPLE WILL BUY IT.  Just like previous to this, people would buy 2 double cheeseburgers and eat both instead of one of these things.  Who really cares??  its a person's choice to become a fat slob, and they have no one else to blame.  The creation (or deletion) of this item on the BK menu will do NOTHING to the health of America.  If the didn't sell it, fat people would just buy *more* food to become full.  If they only sold healthy stuff, people would go elsewhere for their guilty pleasures.

I probably eat fast food once or twice a week, and I'm maybe 10-15lbs above my ideal weight.  Am I magic? no... I just have some common sense and don't sit down all day like Chad mentioned.  Fast food doesn't make people fat... eating too much of it, and too much food in general, combined with no exercise makes people fat.

[cdbrown]

I sit at a desk all day, along with about a 40 minute each way commute. I am mentally exhausted at the end of the day, and that is FAR worse than being physically tired. I don't feel like doing anything other than sitting on my butt and staring at a wall. It is very hard to get motivated to do anything.

  But once you get over that hurdle, you'll find that you won't be as mentally exhausted each day and will look forward to some physical activity.  Just do something regularly and you'll feel better.  How about doing something before work?  I now ride to and from work (10km/7mi) each way and feel more alert the whole day.

Get moving, get the heart pumping, the body will produce all those good natural chemicals and you'll be much better off.

I like having fast food every now and again because it generally tastes good - maybe once a week .... maybe.  I know it's no good for me and that's why I have it occasionally.  Blaming BK or McD for not providing healthy alternatives is just rubbish - go somewhere else if you want healthy - they never claimed to be healthy, they claimed to be very tastey and good value for money.  If I want a fresh salad I'll make it myself, if I want a greasy burger then I'll hit BK.  Take some responsibility for what you (and your kids) put in your mouths.

[MaximRecoil]

First of all, you have been duped. There is no "obesity epidemic" in the United States. The obesity statistics did suddenly jump by about 29 million people overnight in 1997 though, simply because the government arbitrarily redefined the words "obese" and "overweight".

The method now used for determining so-called "obesity" is the "Body Mass Index". The main problem with this is that it doesn't distinguish between muscle tissue and fat. It also does not take into account age, gender or race. Do you realize that if we all started working out we would make the obesity statistics worse by these laughable standards? Muscle weighs more than fat.

From the CDC:

If an athlete or other person with a lot of muscle has a BMI over 25, is that person still considered to be overweight?
According to the BMI weight status categories, anyone with a BMI over 25 would be classified as overweight and anyone with a BMI over 30 would be classified as obese.

It is important to remember, however, that BMI is not a direct measure of body fatness and that BMI is calculated from an individual

[gnateye]

As you all know, in the last few years, many of the restaurant chains have been introducing healthier options.  Salads, yogurt desserts, etc.  McDonald's, Wendy's, and many of the slower restaurants.....  While McDonald's is offering an oriental chicken salad...

im definitely not in favor of fast food, all you have to do is watch 'supersize me' or read 'fast food nation' to know the effects of too much fast food (liver issues, kidney issues, high blood pressure, head aches, tummy aches, panceantitus, high triglycerides, etc etc etc) and its also a know fact that most, if not all, fast food chains use chemical enhancers to make us feel fuller when we are done, but to think for a second that now McD's is tryin to help us be more heathly is just falling prey to their propaganda. no, i repeat NO FAST FOOD IS GOOD FOR YOU. its amazing the amount of calories and sodium in some of those burgers but have you looked at the nutritional info for the new salads and mickey Ds? or the supposedly healthy yogurt parfait? they are just as bad as everything else, well maybe not as bad as those crazy burgers but still way over waht is recommended for daily intake:

asian salad (with crispy chicken): 370 calories, 17 grams fat, 65 mg chloresterol, 1030 mg sodium!!!  
yogurt parfait: 160 cal, 2 grams fat, 5 mg chloresterol,  85 mg sodium.

the parfait isnt nearly as bad as most things, but its a lesser of 2 evils.

heres a link to the mcdonalds nutritional info page:
http://app.mcdonalds.com/bagamcmeal?process=menuitems

i wont even get into the diet colas, its the hardest addiction to kick, harder than ciggerettes in my opinion....

[ChadTower]

No one needs gov't stats or definitions to know that most people in the US are fat now.  All you have to do is go out on a hot day and look at all the disgusting landwhales walking around, leaking foot fat out of their sandals, dripping sweat in a Hansel and Gretel return path, complaining that the walk from their chair to their car isn't air conditioned and takes more than 25 steps.

I do agree that the BMI is outdated and completely ignores above average muscularity.  I am overweight now but even when I was 13% bodyfat I was obese by the BMI index.

[thebrownshow]

Shardian: excercise in the mornings before work.  That was my problem too.  When I started running I couldn't run a block, a month later I was running two miles.  Just stick with it.

By the way, that burger is awesome. 

[cdbrown]

im definitely not in favor of fast food, all you have to do is watch 'supersize me' or read 'fast food nation' to know the effects of too much fast food (liver issues, kidney issues, high blood pressure, head aches, tummy aches, panceantitus, high triglycerides, etc etc etc) and its also a know fact that most, if not all, fast food chains use chemical enhancers to make us feel fuller when we are done,

If you ate large amounts of the exact same food day in and day out I'm sure you would see similar problems to what supersize me has shown.  One guy in Aus took the challenge of eating the large meal deals at McD every day to see for himself, but he had different varieties of what was on offer (before the healthy option came about).  But he exercised. Guess what - he was more healthier, had lower cholesterol, blood pressure etc than before.  He didn't want to step foot into another McD after that but he showed it's not all bad, have a varied diet and get some exercise and you'll be fine.

[Vigo]

I just think that people just don't understand all the weird crap that is in food today, and that we don't know enough about it to really understand what it does in our bodies.

Artificial sweeteners and preservatives aren't some scary bedtime story, we are finding that these foods are linked to health conditions like cancer, and as chad mentioned Alzheimer's.

And yes, a lot of the equation is that people don't exercise, that's true, we have grown so accustomed to sitting that in a few years babies will start being born with evolved extra appendage that looks like a swivel chair.

I do have to mention though my wife's school in taiwan, they went from monday to friday from 8am to about 9pm. They have such a stong education program there. Anyway, at her school, they didn't have recess, and they only had PE a couple years out of their whole k-12 experiance...enough lack of physical work that it would make a doughboy out of anybody. Oh, they are fed well too, and since their night school classes start about 45 minutes after their daytime classes, they have to drive over to the classroom, and pick up some fast food on the way. Daily.

They are still a country of stick people. I went over there, and they think I'm fat. I am only five pound over my recommended weight. They just eat natural foods. Their fast food is like a fresh soup and some fried egg.

I really have to say, I was not blaming food until I went to taiwan, changed my who perspective on what Americans eat. I started eating a lot more natural, preservative free foods, and I just feel better. (but of course, this isn't a replacement for exercise)


Ok, I made my point, take of it what you will, but I'm not going to really wanting to start a debate over it.

  Have a good day everybody!

[Chris]

Ok, I made my point, take of it what you will, but I'm not going to really wanting to start a debate over it.

Too late... once you started in with the "Let me clue you people in" attitude you got one.

[MaximRecoil]

No one needs gov't stats or definitions to know that most people in the US are fat now.

That's a useless statement. I look around and most people I see are not fat. My observations cancel out yours. Should we start taking pictures of random crowds of people?

Here is one of the first Google image results for "crowd". Surely, since you used the word "most", we could expect at least 51% of the people in that picture to be "fat". Well? Where are they? What about here? I see two women who would be called "fat" in that picture, but there are a lot more than two people in the crowd. How about this? You find me a picture of a crowd of Americans where most of them are "fat", hell, even one where a large percentage of them are "fat" ... and make it a random picture, not a Weight Watchers' meeting or something like that.

This American "obesity epidemic" bandwagon got rolling via the media, who got their information from the useless "statistics" pertaining to the matter.

[Vigo]

First of all, you have been duped. There is no "obesity epidemic" in the United States. The obesity statistics did suddenly jump by about 29 million people overnight in 1997 though, simply because the government arbitrarily redefined the words "obese" and "overweight".

Hey Maxim, I just have to ask, How old are you, cuz if you are 40 or older, you will have seen a good image of how people have gotten fatter over these few decades. chad's point is on the mark, don't look at statistics to show how fat people are, use your eyes. 50 years ago about 1 out of every 100 people had a weight problem, now it is about 3 out of 5. Ask anybody who is older. They will be able to verify this. They will say that when they saw a fat person, they all stopped and stared.

oh well, take it easy dude.

[ChadTower]

MaximRecoil, if you're going to be a tool at least prove that that photo is recent.  If it is old then it doesn't fall within the relevant timeframe of now.

Trust me, go anywhere, nearly everyone is fat compared to how they would have been even in 1980. 

[cdbrown]

I don't think posting a picture of a bunch of young people at a party (which looks like it was taken about 20 years ago) would be any indication apart from that all the thin people were at the front of the stage.  A crowd of McD regulars or non-exercise types and the results may be different.

[MaximRecoil]

To you people nitpicking over the pictures, I was using ChadTower's flawed "logic" of "look around". If we are going to do that, we might as well get a better view. Now, you guys obviously have better pictures that show "most" people being "fat" since you didn't like mine, so let's see them.

[ChadTower]

Okay, I'll run with the "look around" concept.  I just took a pic of some women standing around the parking lot by the smokers' spot.

[cdbrown]

you may want to gouge your eyse out though

http://images.google.co.uk/images?client=firefox-a&rls=org.mozilla%3Aen-GB%3Aofficial_s&q=fat+people&hl=en&btnG=Search+Images

[MaximRecoil]

Brilliant. Allow me to quote myself:

and make it a random picture, not a Weight Watchers' meeting or something like that.

I like your Google search terms there Cdbrown, "fat people". Try "skinny people" next to get another irrelevant result. Then try searching for "midgets" to show that most Americans are midgets...

[ChadTower]

He DID try skinny people but they were all hidden behind the fat people.