(AP) ST. LOUIS As if the Hardee's family of Monster Thickburgers didn't offer enough meat, the company's latest version adds steak meat on top of an already large slab of beef.
The meat-on-meat Philly Cheesesteak Thickburger, launched Tuesday, features one-third of a pound of Angus beef, along with both Swiss and American cheeses, green peppers and onions. And piled atop all of that is thinly sliced steak meat.
"We actually found in this case, the only way to make a burger taste like a cheesesteak was to literally put the steak on it," said Brad Haley, executive vice president of marketing for the St. Louis-based chain.
Not surprisingly, the sandwich isn't for the diet-conscious. It contains 930 calories, along with 63 grams of fat, and 24 grams of saturated fat. That's a full day's worth of the recommended amount of fat, and almost half the recommended 2,000 calories.
By Hardee's standards, it's not that extreme. The chain's Monster Thickburger has 1,420 calories and 107 grams of fat. Overall, Hardee's offers five sandwiches with more than 1,000 calories.
The Center for Science in the Public Interest, a Washington-based advocate for nutrition and health, said Hardee's continues to add unhealthy offerings at a time when the nation is suffering from an obesity epidemic.
"What's next — a pork chop on top?" CSPI senior nutritionist Jayne Hurley asked. "I'm always amazed — they can always go one step further than I can imagine."
Eh. Not everyone is on a diet. Clearly this isn't something that most people could eat everyday, but some people might like it and be able to eat the occasional one with no harm done. Different strokes and all that. If no one likes it, they'll stop selling it soon enough.
The problem, Tealeaf, is that people will probably like it. And people will probably gain weight because they don't realize just how bad it is for them.
I'm not sure why the news focuses on the nutritional content of fast food when nearly all restaurant foods are extremely high-fat/high-cal. On Hungry Girl's website there is a link to Chili's after they released the nutritional information on their full menu (instead of just the Guiltless Grill items as before), and it's filled with diet-bombs.
In comparision to many of Chili's items, the 930 calories in Hardee's Philly Cheesesteak Thickburger makes it a 'light' entree! We should all be aware that restaurants (fast food chains included) serve up big fatty meals, so this 'news' isn't really news at all...
I dunno. I don't think that most people are stupid or especially ignorant. Most people know when they are eating a big meal. And a big, fatty meal isn't neccessarily a bad thing, either. I eat that way sometimes. I just compensate for it either earlier or later.
Most consumers are adults. As such, it is their responsibility to choose how they want to eat. No food is of itself bad or evil (well, I guess we could argue about veal and whatnot).
Good point about their focusing on fast food when it is hard to go into a restaurant any more and buy a decent, normal meal! Without having to pay for and get enough to feed three people!! But it IS personal choice... we are a free market enterprise system... and people are dumb enough not only to buy it but to reject places where decent real food is sold!
But the monster thickburger... yeeks! Out of curiosity I bought one last time I visited Missouri. It was horrid! NOTHING on it but huge slabs of meat and cheese... NO lettuce, tomatoes, pickles or even a blob of mustard. It was the most dried out nasty thing I've ever tried to eat. I didn't eat it... LOL took it where I was staying and pried the meat out of it which I eventually ate but never would again LOL. Still I defend people's right to sell it!!
In my honest opinion, I think one of the biggest problems of obesity today is portion size. That's what people really need to educate themselves on. They need to start paying attention to portion size.
Like in the ice cream thread, for example; many people believe that "one serving" of ice cream is one bowl. They dish the ice cream out, fill a bowl with it and that's their serving size. Or at least that's what they believe. Same thing with hamburgers - the occasional hamburger isn't gonna kill ya. But it has to be of reasonable size, not big enough to plug a dam with.
That reminds me of this Saturday Night Live skit about a burrito. They put a taco inside of a tortilla inside of a gordita type bread inside of a PANCAKE and then fried it and it was layered with guacamole and salsa and then they put it in a tote bag!! There actually was more, but I don't remember it all. They just kept adding layers of food. It was SOOOO funny but just points out how out of hand the fast food industry has gotten with their ideas of clogging the arteries of Americans.
Here's my Hardee's anecdote: one time I ate TWO spicy thickburgers (you know the ones that Paris Hilton peddled) and two orders of fries. This of course was before I went on my diet, but let me tell you, I have not been to Hardee's ever since. And I used to skip class in high school and eat breakfast there every morning, so there's nothing but bad memories for me there. It's weird, out of all the times I cut classes, all of them but a handful were to go get food. I never realized that before . . .
That reminds me of this Saturday Night Live skit about a burrito. They put a taco inside of a tortilla inside of a gordita type bread inside of a PANCAKE and then fried it and it was layered with guacamole and salsa and then they put it in a tote bag!!
Damn, that sounds good.
lol
I've only been to Hardee's once. In Kentucky. That experience alone was enough to never step foot in a Hardee's again. And it had nothing to do with the food.
Oh lovely! Speaking of fast-food tyrants!
