Silly me – thinking the SFChron was the worst newspaper Stateside. Turns out the Houston Chronicle has a dedicated junk food reviewer. Apocalypse now?
Burger King: home of the ‘humongous’ (HOUSTON CHRONICLE)
This week I reached out for a new Tendercrisp Cheesy Bacon Chicken Sandwich, available for the dreaded limited time only, at Burger King. Normally, I’m leery of ordering something that’s not in the name of the restaurant. For example, Kentucky Fried Chicken has a new fish sandwich. That sounds like trouble. Church’s Chicken is playing Go Fish, too. Dairy Queen has a new Double Flamethrower Burger. Pizza Hut is clucking over chicken wings. Why can’t fast-food joints stick with what they do best? They should dance with what brung ’em.
So here’s Burger King, home of the Whopper burger, the high-kickin’ Whopperette Dancers and the weirdo, shuck ‘n’ jivin’, touchdown-scoring King — serving up a humongous chicken sandwich that is freaky delicious. Almost as freaky as a King with a plastic head peeping in your window. Here’s the blueprint of the Tendercrisp Cheesy Bacon Chicken Sandwich: a whole white-meat breast fillet, two slices of American cheese, one slice of pepper jack cheese, creamy cheese sauce, four half slices of bacon, lettuce and tomato on a corn-dusted, split-top bun. Why can’t they just say two whole slices of bacon? I don’t like halves, because my half is usually smaller than your half. Total calories: 800; fat: 47 grams; dietary fiber: 4 grams; carbs: 75 grams. Manufacturer’s suggested retail price: $3.89 (your mileage may vary). That’s 800 calories, 47 fat grams and 75 carbs before you dig into your extra-large order of fries and 55-gallon drum of Coke. Memo to self: Start diet tomorrow, after appointment with cardiologist. Burger King also has an Angus Cheesy Bacon Steak Burger that is surprisingly lighter on calories (740) and carbs (51), and gentler on the wallet at $3.69. The Tendercrisp piles on calories and carbs because the chicken is breaded and deep fried. The chicken sandwich also comes with lettuce and tomato; the steak burger offers veggies only on demand. Just ask nice. The Tendercrisp Cheesy Bacon Chicken Sandwich is a messy, two-fisted handful. It’s glistening hot from the fryer and drippy and oozy with three slices of cheese and cheesy sauce. Burger King likes to say “there’s cheese in every bite.” There’s also cheese on your chin and fingers, and your shirt and pants. Burger King is all about big food, from Triple Whopper tie-ins to King Kong to Enormous Omelet Sandwiches that look like the breakfast buffet at Shoney’s. You know my motto in the drive-though: Less is not more … more is more. You get more bang for your buck at Burger King. The Tendercrisp Cheesy Bacon Chicken Sandwich is a mouthful to say, and more than a Joan Rivers mouthful to eat. It’s got a big hunk of lightly seasoned and breaded chicken. The breast filet is fried golden brown and slathered with two kinds of cheese and then more cheese. There’s so much glop that the bread becomes warm and soppy. This ain’t date food, and it’s not a driving sandwich. I recommend this for dine-in, and only eat it in front of friends who’ve seen you wear your food before. And even though the sign says Burger King, this is an excellent foray into chickendom. Insider tip: A little barbecue sauce puts this sandwich so far over the top that Wendy’s and McDonald’s will take a new good, hard look at their poultry line. I’ve got a feeling that both the Tendercrisp and Angus Cheesy Bacon Steak Burger will lose their limited-time-only tags in short order. These are keepers.
Interestingly, black-oriented telly has more fast food commercials. A nugget for sure. (CHICAGO TRIBUNE) – Commercials on Black Entertainment Television, the nation’s first black-targeted cable channel, were compared with ads during afternoon and evening shows on the WB network and Disney Channel. Of the nearly 1,100 ads, more than half were for fast food and drinks, such as sodas. About 66 percent of the fast-food ads were on BET, compared with 34 percent on WB and none on Disney. For drinks, 82 percent were on BET, 11 percent on WB and 6 percent on Disney; and for snacks, 60 percent were on BET, none on WB and 40 percent on Disney. The study in a pediatric medical journal accompanies separate research: a study indicating kids consume an extra 167 calories, often from advertised foods, for every hour of TV they watch; and a report suggesting even preschoolers get fat from watching more than two hours of daily TV. The articles appear in April’s Archives of Pediatrics & Adolescent Medicine, a theme issue on media and children’s health released Monday. The studies clearly illustrate “that the media have disturbing potential to negatively affect many aspects of children’s healthy development,” Amy Jordan of the Annenberg Public Policy Center at University of Pennsylvania wrote in a journal editorial. “Such evidence offers increasing support for the American Academy of Pediatrics’ recommendation that children older than 2 years spend no more than two hours per day with screen media, preferably educational screen media,” Jordan said. Still, Jordan said the ads study doesn’t prove that a disproportionate number of commercials for unhealthy foods causes black kids to become overweight, and said more research is needed “to more convincingly directly tie exposure to effects.” Obesity affects about 18 percent of black children, compared with about 14 percent of white youngsters, according to 2001-02 data. The rate was almost 20 percent for Hispanics. New estimates coming later this week are expected to show the numbers have increased for both blacks and whites. BET spokesman Michael Lewellen said BET’s target audience is blacks aged 18 to 34 and said its programming “does not target children.” He also questioned the study’s methods since the researchers included ads shown during prime time, “when virtually all networks target adults.” The researchers examined ads shown from 3 p.m. to 9 p.m. for one week last July. Programming generally was music videos on BET; cartoons and talk shows on WB; and cartoons and kid-oriented shows, including “That’s So Raven” and “Kim Possible” on Disney. The same programming is offered during the school year, said Corliss Wilson Outley, a University of Minnesota researcher and the lead author. While Disney is not an advertiser-supported channel, the researchers counted company-announced sponsors of Disney programs as commercials. McDonald’s Corp. was the leading fast-food advertiser. Outley said black children are an attractive target for fast-food companies because many live in neighborhoods with easier access to fast food than healthier food. The goal is to “get kids hooked at a very early age” so they become lifelong customers, she said. McDonald’s spokesman Bill Whitman called the study “a bit misguided” and said McDonald’s doesn’t single out black children. “Our marketing strategy encompasses young people as well as adults and we do that through various media and marketing strategies that cross all demographics,” Whitman said.
Meanwhile our car seats are shrinking to restrain our fatty kids. 
Over 250,000 American children under the age of 6 are too heavy for car-safety seats designed for their age-group. Makers of car-safety seats are having to make sturdier models to ensure levels of safety for these seriously obese and overweight children are maintained. As the American obesity epidemic gains pace and spreads through all age groups, the number of children under 6 who are obese is growing at an alarming rate. Standard safety-seats are designed for children who weigh less than 40 pounds. Most of the children who were found to be over the limit were three years old. For a three-year-old to weigh over that amount he/she is either incredibly tall or seriously overweight. Researchers at a Safety Center, John Hopkins Hospital, said if a child weighs more than the seat’s weight limit the risks of injury during a car accident are much greater. Lead researcher Lara Trifiletti said she and her colleagues began to notice that more and more children were very obese and their car-seat technicians were finding it hard to provide car seats to fit them. Trifiletti worked at Johns Hopkins Hospital at the time of the research but now works at The Children’s Research Institute, Ohio University. Of the children found to be too heavy for their car seats, 190,000 were 3 years old. You can read about this study in the journal Pediatrics (April). 3-year-olds are not mature enough (or tall enough) for booster seats, which can be used for slightly older children (booster seats use the car’s seat belts). Five years ago 23% of American children between the ages of two and five were overweight, 10% were obese. The figures today are expected to be higher. In the nineties, new diet movements blamed the introduction of high carb diets during the seventies for the growth in obesity and overweight in the USA. Several options for weight control have been present in the USA for the last ten years. Different diets, such as Atkins, The Zone, The South Beach have been around for over a decade now. The increase in obesity over the last ten years has still been accelerating despite new diets being introduced and having had a while to prove themselves nationally. Many write in to Medical News Today stressing that the focus in the USA has been too much on what people should eat, rather than how much exercise people do. What’s the good of telling people to eat steaks and salads (low carb), or keep their total calories down, or eat less fat, or cut down on sugars, if they can’t keep it up for more than a year or so.
This can mean only one thing – we need super-sized ambulances for these fatties. Las Vegas’s local authority has become the latest in the US to put into service a new super-size ambulance, specially equipped to handle massively overweight and morbidly obese patients. The $250,000 vehicle, developed by the American Medical Response group, looks like a standard ambulance. But it is wider, with a specially large wheeled stretcher trolley. The vehicle, called a Bariatric Unit, also has a special ramp and a winch that can handle loads of 1,600lb (114 stone), and be operated by just one crew member. The Bariatric Unit was produced in 2003, and with obesity rising across America, it is suddenly gaining popularity. In the past six months, AMR has dealt with 75 calls involving patients who weighed at least 600lb, a spokesman said. Medical experts say ordinary ambulances cannot safely cope with such emergencies. Moving people of this size poses dangers not only for patients, but for ambulance staff and paramedics. Last month the new ambulance entered service in Louisville, Kentucky – sixth among US states in the national obesity league. More than 25 per cent of Kentucky’s adult population is considered obese. At the time officials said it would be used for doctor’s appointments and scheduled visits. But it is also now on standby for emergency calls. The new trolley can carry patients of up to 71 stone. But even it would have been pressed to cope with Jon Brower Minnoch of Bainbridge, Washington State, the heaviest human ever, according to the Guinness World of Records. Mr Minnoch’s weight is estimated to have reached 100 stone at one point. He died in September 1983 weighing57 stone.
What are you going to eat today?
SBlog 