966 calories - and counting?
Now here's a fast-food meal that will make YOU a whopper, runs the Daily Mail's headline. The paper states that Burger King's latest - a 966 calorie Smoked Bacon and Cheddar double Angus burger - has been blasted by health critics. Too right it has.
At a stroke, as they say in Westminster, the high street chain has run a coach and horses through the government's promise, made 24 hrs earlier, that people on the high street can be reassured that its Responsibility Deal with the food industry is working. Further proof that responsibility appears not to be in the forefront of the food industry's mind is Tesco's decision to sell £1 bars of Kitkat for 20p in order to lure customers back into their stores after Christmas! The chain also decided to put Easter Eggs on its shelves on Boxing Day [although it upset one customer who criticised her store for forgetting that chocolates for Valentine's Day should have been its priority!]. Finally, another Responsibility Deal backer, McDonalds has proudly added to the calorie count by declaring that 100 million additional customer visits darkened its doors in 2011. Big Macs are now available in 384 round-the-clock franchises that operate seven days a week. Enjoy.
But take heart if you are reading this in the UK. USA media are amazed that the National Obesity Forum is carping at a 966 calorie item. They suggest that we might be quite lost for words when presented with the 1,000+ calorie burgers that ring the tills across the Atlantic. How long will it be, one wonders, before these gut-busting meals pop up here because our government has lost any stomach to take on Big Food?