Sometimes I just have to shake my head... I was driving down the street when a spied a Burger King about a block away. It had one of those signs where they can promote a particular item or special, and this is what it had written on it:
"Ultimate Double Whopper: Eat Like a King!"
Right, I thought... more likely it should have read "Eat Like a Pig!".
I came home and decided to look up the nutritional (Ha!) info on this kingly bit of food and here's what I found:
Calories: 1,250
Carbs: 55 grams (26%)
Protein: 69 grams (33%)
Fat: 84 grams (40%)
Nice, huh? It's the highest calorie item on their menu. We're talking half the amount of calories the average man should be eating per day in one burger. Keep in mind that most people are going to order a side of fries with that, and the large size adds 500 calories to the tally for a total of 1,750 calories!
Keep in mind that during my recent fat loss regime that's what my target was for the entire day.
On a side note, I checked out Burger King's "French Toast Kid's Meal" as I was curious how many calories might be in that. I mean it's for kids, right? So it shouldn't be THAT high in calories...
Try 670 calories.
Do you know how many calories Burger King's much-advertised "man-sized" Enormous Omelet Sandwich contains?
740 calories.
So here we have the difference between an item meant for a child and a big, hungry man standing at only 70 calories.
That's just bloody wrong, folks and it downright pisses me off.
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Article comments
— go to most recent comments1 - JELIEL
INSANITY.
Great post.
2 - Cerulean
That's pretty bad. They also spray their burger patties with hydrogenated oil and use hydrogenated oil to bake their hamburger buns, neither of which is necessary.
If you want to you can write to the CEO of Burger King:
Gregory D. Brenneman
Chairman & CEO
Burger King Corporation
5505 Blue Lagoon Dr.
Miami, FL 33126
You can find out more bad things that fast food companies do at:
http://advertpro.webspawner.com/cgi-bin/banners.fpl?
3 - Eric Berlin
The picture of that burger is truly disturbing!
Great post -- I'm trying to Eat Fresh for lunch these days...
4 - Cerulean
Not to mention that creepy puppet king!
5 - andy marsh
so, in other words...fast food is bad for you? Damn...I didn't know that!
6 - Screen Rant
Apparently it's not a case of knowing that fast food is bad for you so much as it is of knowing how bad it is.
You might think you're giving your kid a treat for breakfast that you know isn't healthy, but would you even begin to think that something being sold for breakfast for a child contains more than HALF the calories he/she needs for the day?
Vic
7 - Screen Rant
BTW, I say "apparently" because of the runaway obesity numbers in the U.S. for both adults AND children.
Vic
8 - BK owner/operator
Never has the phrase "No good deed goes unpunished" been more true than trying to provide healthier, lower calorie, lower fat items on Burger King restaurant menus. For example, we've been (trying to) sell veggie burgers for several years - don't sell one per day. The people who protest our better selling items just don't buy the "healthier" items.
This isn't anything new - BK had salad bars in their restaurants in the early 1980's. Every attempt to sell healthier items has been met with customer's refusal to purchase.
People who buy big burgers/big calorie food allow me to employ people, pay the bank loans, generate tax revenue, and make the mortgage payment on my house.
Here's how you can change things, rather than just being pissed off: Buy what you think is a good thing. Convince other people, who believe as you do, to "vote with their wallet".
Capitalism means providing goods and services that people want to, and do purchase. That's the most powerful economic concept the world has ever known.
9 - Eric Berlin
Those salad bars were fantastic -- I loved them. I've wondered why they've disappeared nearly across the board. Didn't a number of franchises have salad bars during the 80s?
10 - Screen Rant
"Here's how you can change things, rather than just being pissed off: Buy what you think is a good thing. Convince other people, who believe as you do, to 'vote with their wallet'."
Um, isn't that what I'm doing with this post? And yes, I do that on my blog site as well as when I talk to people. I actually own a copy of "Super Size Me" that I pass around to friends.
I understand what you're saying, I really do, and you're right. If the stuff didn't make money they wouldn't be selling it. I suppose the same thing is true for low-tar cigarettes and their lack of sales compared to the real thing.
I guess if I was to just come out and say it... We've turned into a nation of fat, lazy pigs, who want to eat what we want, as much as we want, whenever we want and who cares if I'm 100 pounds overweight and my 9 year old weighs as much as a normal adult.
I'm truly disgusted by it.
Vic
11 - bk owner/operator
Salad bars were in virtually all Burger King restaurants in the early 1980's. There's no mystery why they were removed - not enough people made the purchase to make it possible to break-even (which is the first hurdle), no less make a profit keeping them. They were very serious money losers.
Learning from that, we've tried to "limit the losses" from doing healthy-items, but the introduction of low-calorie bagguete sandwiches two years ago nearly put me out of business.
12 - Mark Sahm
Your mouth must be this big to eat that burger.
13 - Eric Berlin
Okay, THAT was disturbing.
14 - Victor Plenty
As humans we have options sharks don't. Take a bite. Chew. Swallow.
Then put the rest of your Ultimate Double Whopper into the refrigerator. You can have another bite tomorrow. An intelligent human with decent willpower can survive for half a week on one of these things.
Thanks, Burger King!
15 - bk owner/operator
Vic, I appreciate that you may be trying to "raise awareness" in via your post. But I can't pay my bills, provide people with jobs, etc with internet posts. I have to sell product to stay in business.
Don't make focus of your indignation on what people are doing that you don't like. Don't end up at being disgusted.
Convince people what "action steps" need to be done to accomplish something more than just being pissed.
16 - Mark Sahm
It was S-Rant's using "man-sized" as an adjective that inspired me.
But I agree that the idea of a veggie burger at BK is silly. If you go at all, you go there to get something tasty, not to do some type of compromise for a diet's sake.
17 - Tan The Man
"Calories: 1,250"
WOW... that's more calories than I eat in one day.
18 - Screen Rant
"Don't make focus of your indignation on what people are doing that you don't like. Don't end up at being disgusted.
Convince people what 'action steps' need to be done to accomplish something more than just being pissed."
I did exactly that on my "Last 10 Pounds" blog where I documented my fat loss to around 8% body fat. Another reason I'm "pissed" is because this runaway obesity is adding more to my monthly health insurance bill as people have to get hospitalization and treatment for obesity related diseases that would never have cropped up had they not gotten to that point.
As to earning a living, I understand that, but that doesn't justify anything as far as I'm concerned. There are plenty of lines of work/business out there to get into. I sell an eBook that helps folks get in shape. I could probably start up a company to sell high fat/high carb/hydrogenated oil/fructose syrup-injected foods to kids, but I'd rather not.
Vic
19 - bk owner/operator
O.K. I'm convinced that your concept of what people should eat: Never create another job for another American, unless it passes muster with the non-job-creating-pissant-asshat-nonproductive-semi-smartass-
Screw it: You're really not worth answering anymore ....
20 - thegc
can you so no? are you such a drone that you can't decide what you want to eat whether it's healthy or not? It pisses me off too...it pisses me off that people complain about fast food like someone is forcing it down their throat.
21 - Mark Sahm
Someone out there will be getting a burnt Croissant'wich tomorrow morning.
22 - todi
helpful
23 - Cerulean
BK Owner Operator,
Why don't you address the point about hydrogenated oil. It's banned for human consumption in Denmark and Germany. Canada is moving towards banning it. Burger King fries their fries in it, sprays in on their hamburger patties, bakes it into their buns and makes it the second ingredient in their Sundae Pie. It is very bad for people.
Even if consumers want to eat fries and burgers, they aren't bargaining on this extra toxin. Why does Burger King do this? They don't have to. That isn't a question of giving the people what they want. Also, the super sized sodas, that was foisted on people who grew addicted to it. That is greed.
You're living in the fattest nation on earth. Everywhere you look you see fat people. You are part of creating that.
24 - Bob A. Booey
BK owner/operator:
I kinda liked those low-fat gourmet chicken baguette things. They did pretty badly huh?
Why did they almost put you out of business? Out of curiosity since I'm always interested in people's business fortunes. Thanks.
25 - Nancy
The corporations add these fats for a very, very good reason; two good reasons, actually: 1) most flavor is concentrated in the fat. Adding fat = adding flavor. 2) most recent data shows that high-fat consumption is addicting: the more fat you eat, the more you want to eat, to the point where even drugs designed to stop the appetite will not work. The benefits of this to corporate profitability are obvious. Get 'em hooked on highly flavorsome, highly addictive foods, which they have to buy from you, & it's perfect! BTW, I in NO way implicate individual franchise owners in this. I'm fingering the corporate fatcats at the top.
However, this article does make me feel a lot better about the juicy, dripping, natural-sugar-laden but fat-free fresh peaches I "cheated" with for breakfast!