America's appetite for junk food has taken on terrifying new proportions in the form of the highest calorie hamburger ever marketed to a nation already sick from overeating. The "Monster Thickburger" is nothing less than a "monument to decadence", declares Hardee's, the chain pandering to the country's worst instincts for greed and gluttony. | It's called giving your customers a choice. |
The burger, which packs a bulging 1,420 calories and 107 grams of fat per portion, also bucks the trend of fast-food restaurants offering healthier alternatives. "It's not a burger for tree-huggers," said a Hardee's executive, rejoicing in their defiance of the fad for salads and "Atkins-friendly" menus. "It's a lot," one bloated diner said after surviving the challenge of eating one in Pennsylvania. "It tastes better than you might suspect. But I think it's a special treat more than a regular meal." The Monster Thickburger consists of two slabs of Angus beef (664 calories) and four rashers of bacon (150 calories) with three slices of processed cheese (186 calories), plus mayonnaise (160 calories), sandwiched between a sesame seed bun (230 calories) spread with butter for a final 30. The equivalent of two Big Macs, it costs $7. For around $2 more, you can throw in a medium fries and a soft drink and consume an adult's recommended daily intake of calories at one sitting. The burger requires "two hands, a firm grip and a serious appetite", Hardee's boasts. It is also a "heart attack in a bun", say nutritionists. The company is not as widely spread in America as McDonald's or Burger King. But by gambling on bigger burgers, it is earning notoriety - and market buzz. However, it also increases the company's exposure to the threat of lawsuits from customers blaming its food for their obesity, diabetes, heart problems or other conditions linked to poor diet. Attempts to sue McDonald's for health problems have so far failed, but the litigation threat is still taken seriously. Hardee's previous attempt to seduce big eaters was the plain Thickburger. "If the old Thickburger was 'food porn', the new Monster Thickburger is the fast-food equivalent of a snuff movie," the Centre for Science in the Public Interest commented. |