Thread: Burger King

It's an interesting and important topic, Garza, and I appreciate your breadth of knowledge.

I've done enough research to know that I can take steps to provide food for my children that is relatively safe and healthy. More so than if I just went to the store and bought any old thing. I realize that there no guarantees. But we're certainly better off than if I left it up to the government. When it comes to food safety and healthy eating in general, that's about all I can do.

I'm grateful that we are in the position to buy and eat healthy alternates. And I'm not at all insensitive to the fact than many throughout the world -- and even in my own country -- are not. We're are truly fortunate.

You are doubly fortunate, first in having the range of choices you have, and, second, in the knowledge you have that 'any old thing' can be very unhealthy for you and your family.

Sorry for my sermon. I write about such issues so much that sometimes I don't know when to turn it off.

Originally Posted by Sam W

It seems that this week, in New York City, Burger King are launching a 2,500-calorie pizza burger. For those of you who aren't aware, the daily recommended intake for an average-sized male is 3,000 calories. It varies due to height, age, weight, and gender. However, that means that one of these burgers is almost the recommended intake for a healthy male. Surely there's something seriously wrong here? Is it any wonder people are obese when we continue to allow one item of food to be so ridiculously laden with calories?

Is there any defence for this? It's just gratuitous, if you ask me.

I haven't read this whole thread. But almost everyone seems to do something wrong. Smoking , drinking, dangerous pursuits, wasting petrol, wasting food and resources.

Society does seem to actively encourage piggery and obesity though. i.e. 2 packs of jaffa cakes for the price of one - you never see them advertise 2 packs of celery for the price of one, it just tends to be the crappy food.

At the end of the day, if people want to pay for something, there's a market for it.

Originally Posted by Blood

So everything is for reason! Why DO our teeth allow us to eat meat? That's the point.

That's one theory or school of evolutionary science. It's the "Adaptionist" school. Some scientist are still so-called Adaptionists but there are quite a number that aren't. There are other explanations for bauplan in evolutionary science - that have little to nothing to do with the origins of body design or anything else resulting from an intelligent reasoner.

The design of our teeth may simply have resulted from accident, for lack of a better term, and that design just proved more successful. In that sense the "reason" is due to the designs success and not to it's origins.

Most evolutionary science - and any mention of "genes" - in newspapers and televised news reporting, tends to be stuck in the 1930's hope of genetic determinism as well as advocating adaptionists views. Science does not even have an accurate definition of a gene, hence the reason Richard Dawkins wants to modify and sharpen that definition. And all evidence now suggests that our physical and behavioral phenotypes are a result of a much more complex process than simply "Gene X caused Y." Furthermore, it usually takes an accumulation of Gene X to cause or open the doorway for Y to result.

Wowee, you guys sure get excited about stuff. I kinda don't get why all the rancor--is someone forcing you to eat at Burger King, or....? That would totally suck!

Burger King is a multinational corporation with revenues into the hundreds of millions of dollars a year, so they must be doing something right--and apparently that involves selling fast food to people who are very eager to buy it. Whether those people are fat or stupid or not doesn't matter much to me, and I'm sure it doesn't matter to the BK execs and their dependents. Why should it? From looking at the Wikipedia article, they employ over 41,000 people worldwide. That's a lot of jobs--people being able to eat, own a car, have a nice place to live, etc.--because of Burger King. I don't like their food all that much, but that's beside the point.

Thankfully enough, there is no one to tell me that I have to eat at any particular place, and there is no one to tell me that I an forbidden to eat at any particular place. I really enjoy that. Also having tons of choice in the matter of what to have for lunch totally, totally rocks. I do wish that every person on Earth could be fortunate enough to have such a luxury of choice as I do! But I'm realistic enough to know that there's no practical way I can bring that about.

The member who made the observation that there's really no way to regulate food safety/wholesomeness on a large scale is of course correct.

Yes: There's no way to do that, and in my opinion, it's ridiculous even to try. People are gonna eat things that are bad for them, smoke things that are bad for them, and otherwise ingest, smear on themselves, or roll in things that are bad for them, regardless of how many laws are made. (I'm a Libertarian, by the way; In my opinion the fewer laws we have holding us down, the better.)

Those little hairy monkeys are just LIKE that, all right? Why worry about it?

Though there are fewer people who claim to religious belief with every day that passes, it does seem that the civilized portion of the human race has accepted without question the doctrine of "original sin"--i.e., that if you KNOW something, that makes you somehow evil and responsible for evil.

Example: It's wrong for you, civilized person, to eat at a fast food restaurant because you KNOW the food is not wholesome, and besides, here you are pigging out and over there somewhere a child is starving. For shame!!

But if that starving child is given the same fast food item that makes you evil, then that's good!! It's not bad for him, you're not poisoning him, you're HELPING him because he's hungry and you're not (but you're still evil, because you KNOW all these things and he doesn't; as long as he stays ignorant about the crappy food he's putting into his body, then he's ok).

The logic here is that human excess is somehow sinful. We claim not to believe in Divinity, and that the idea of sinfulness is vile and outmoded--but we nonetheless practice castigation of "sinners" with all the excess for which the human race is famous, the "sinners" in this case being NOT the huge corporation and its panel of executives (why should they care what we think, anyway?) but our own brothers and sisters, friends and neighbors; anyone who does not appear to accept that he or she, solely because of being born into a civilized nation, is sinful, evil, and wrong. We're condemning each other and making each other suffer, and meanwhile the rich corporations and corrupt politicians still do whatever they want, world without end, amen.

By the above logic serving meat for consumption/consuming meat is also sinful, unless you are a poverty-stricken, ignorant person who "doesn't know any better"--then it's perfectly ok. (etc)

Hm... that makes me want a drink.... might roll a big old blunt, too... back later!!!

Originally Posted by garza

There are thousands of sites on the subject on the Internet. Only a few of them are reliable. Many of the official sites are laughable. There are sites run by insurgent groups in Asia, Africa, and Central America that appear to have more reliable information than the official sites when you start looking into health statistics, detailed import export numbers, corporate ownership of local businesses, and such. We have, for example, one flour mill in Belize for wheat. It's owned by Archer Daniels Midland.

One of the required books for a past Africology class of mine, made comments on about the financial (power) profit in owning large whole sales food chains - or large grocery store chains. It was a an illuminating book in a number of ways. Like a Black-American might own a small corner store and employee two or three people, or more likely own a barber shop or something like that.

The City of Detroit is larger than Milwaukee and no longer has a single major grocery store in the whole of the city. In contrast, Milwaukee is rather unique in that it has Lenas grocery chain, a larger Black-American owned grocery chain with about 3 or 4 stores here in Milwaukee. Lenas was about to expand into Racine, Wisconsin, but for whatever reason opted out I think.

The point is... I never thought about pimping food as being as or more profitable than pimping crack or pimping women. Sounds safer and doesn't carry the troubles with the law by being an illegal activity.

We have a Sicilian family that got into pimping food a long time ago too. They own a few grocery stores in the "metropolitan Milwaukee area" but they operate restaurants and such, I'm told, out in Florida by a homie I have living out there.



Sendiks Food Market's - Milwaukee's hometown grocery store since 1926 :: History

At the turn of the twentieth century, the Balistreri Family of Santa Elia, Sicily immigrated to the United States and settled in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. The family began peddling quality fruits and vegetables by horse drawn wagon on the northeast side of the city and eventually opened fresh produce markets on Oakland and Downer Avenues. In 1949, Thomas Balistreri purchased property and opened a third Sendik’s fruit and vegetable market on Silver Spring Drive in the heart of Whitefish Bay. The store became known for honesty and integrity in treating customers and suppliers with courtesy

Why are a bunch of, from what i can gather, perfectly healthy people discussing the effects of food they would never eat on people who live lifestyles they don't condone?
If these people want to kill themselves, let them. They know the risks they are taking, and they have had just as many chances to live a long and productive life as the rest of us. I live in the UK, which means I have to pay for people with less sense than is necessary to survive, to destroy their own cardiovascular systems and then leave the NHS to pick up the pieces. They command no more respect from me than drug addicts.
what people eat should be entirely up to them, and any change in this freedom would be far too 'nanny state' for me. But, by the same token, I think help should only be offered to those who are willing to help themselves. If you get fat, its your problem, and if you're eating 2,500 calories in a single meal, you should be prepared to exercise it off or deal with the consequences. Doctors should be saying to people, "forget the gastric band - you have two choices: an agonising death before you reach middle age, or two hours a day on a treadmill."
That's the choice that the rest of us have, and judging by the comments, everyone on this thread is doing just fine.

Well, my only beef with the fast food industry is, because they need so much beef they virtually control beef production. You can attribute just about everything that is wrong with our beef supply to them. But there isn't much that can be done about it. The only way it can change is if consumers demand a better, safer product and that's not likely to happen. Most people just aren't aware of how horrible commercially raised beef is -- the disgusting way it's raised and processed, that it's poisoned with antibiotics and hormones, the negative environmental impact etc. So as long as people remain blissfully ignorant, nothing is going to change.

I thought Sam would get a kick out of this.

Just another reason for Wisconsin women to grow bigger than the cows out in the field.

I'm sure there will be a lot of happy Milwaukee cops though.

Dunkin' Donuts plans dozens of Milwaukee restaurants - JSOnline

Dunkin' Donuts plans a large expansion in Milwaukee and is looking to open dozens of restaurants in Wisconsin, the company announced Tuesday.

The Canton, Mass.-based company doughnut seller signed a franchise agreement to open 36 locations in central and southern Milwaukee and additional restaurants in southeast Wisconsin, the franchise company said in a news release. Dunkin' Donuts has two current Milwaukee locations listed on its website.

rivwst - Dec 07, 2010 11:04 AM

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"36 locations in central and southern Milwaukee"

Umm, is that a typo?

Sharif Durhams | JS Staff - Dec 07, 2010 11:18 AM

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@rivwst It would seem like a typo, but it's not. I double and triple checked with the woman who put together Dunkin's news release. I'm speaking with another figure with the company soon and will update the story.

Originally Posted by JosephB

Well, my only beef with the fast food industry is, because they need so much beef they virtually control beef production.

This is a meaty sentence.

Originally Posted by Like a Fox

This is a meaty sentence.

Ha ha. Beefy, to be more specific.

I don't really care about the BK pizza. If people have yet to figure out how they are getting fat, then I suppose it's best they just die of health problems linked to their diet, because people that stupid are not all that useful. I really hate when people say 'This fast food industry made me fat!" No go, fatty. You made yourself fat. You gave yourself diabetes, and all those other horrible diseases. I don’t recall the friendly people at your local BK putting a gun to your head. And if they did, then I suggest you call the Better Business Bureau or something. As for blaming it on adds and whatnot, it’s still a no-go, even where kids are concerned. Here’s a though; instead of blaming your crap parenting skills on Burger King and McDonald’s, try growing a pair and being a parent. You know what my mom told me when a I wanted fast food because of the toy or because I just wanted the food? She told me no. That’s all you have to do, parents. Just tell them no. Anyways, if you are too much of a failure at life to tell you five year old no, then I guess pick the lesser of two evils and get them milk, apples, and chicken nuggets instead of a burger and fries.

And it’s totally crap saying that the people that eat that way are too poor or too stupid to know any better. I live in what is supposed to be one of the poorest, dumbest cities in IL, and all of the people here know that the stuff is bad, and still eat fast food anyway. Also, if they were really poor, they wouldn’t be eating BK every night, or every other night. It might not be insanely expensive, but it sure isn’t cheap. A meal for just two people averages around $15.00. To eat there seven days a week, for just two meals a day, would cost twice what my mom and I pay a week in groceries. The most we ever eat fast food is maybe once a month, because it’s obvious that it’s bad for you, and that it’s not cheap.

What I really want to know is, if everyone in government is so worried about the obesity and health problems in the U.S., why don’t they do something about the price of the supposed healthy and all natural foods? My mom would love to buys these things, but when the healthy or all natural foods and products cost more than the unhealthy stuff, what are people on a budget supposed to do? But, than being said, we still know that the food we eat is our problem, for the most part. My mom and I aren’t obese, but we could both stand to lose some weight. And we’re both fully aware that it’s our fault that we’re the way we are. We don’t fall to the floor in a fatty heap cursing everyone else for our choices.

So, BK wants to put out a burger pizza. Yippidy-doo. If you have a grain of intelligence, you won’t decided to make every Friday BK pizza night. If you do decided to do this, then I can only pray that you exit this world choking on it, because you just aren’t the best at making choices.

I agree with many of these comments - it is the consumer's responsibility to eat healthy and make healthy choices; fast food restaurants do prey on working families, busy moms and screaming kids to advertise high-calorie messes they like to call food. It's terrible and we, the population as a whole, tend to accept it as normal.

I'm a working mom, I don't have time to tend a garden or anything like that, but I do cook at home and trips to fast food are reserved for times when we don't have much of a choice, like traveling. But it's hard to be healthy, it's expensive to be skinny, it's costly to be green. I'm sure there are organic veggie growers out there crapping their pants, but the truth of it is, fresh food, good food, organic food, all costs more than canned, packaged and preservative-ridden processed crap. The majority of America is fat - if rich people are fat, it's because they choose a sedentary lifestyle and to eat unhealthy food; poor people are fat because ramen noodles and macaroni and cheese are the cheapest eats on the shelf.

Yes, yes I'm generalizing, but I'm just trying to point out that even though some people would like to make healthier choices for their families, sometimes you are just at the whim of circumstances and price.

Many people choose fast food simply for the ease. I know when I'm on the road I generally hit fast food places, and a lot of times with friends you're less likely to go for the salad and more likely to split a BK pizza or some fries. As the above posters have said, though, the choice still is up to the consumer. If you're always travelling and always eating out, travelling isn't a good excuse anymore. As far as blaming the fast food company, I don't think that's reasonable. Their job is to make money, ours is to take care of our health. Better not sell sweets anymore, or baked goods. Or water, I've heard it's bad to drink too much at once. We wouldn't want anyone to have any health problems from water, would we?

I think a lot of the problem with the high prices on healthier and organic food is just that it is so much more labor intensive. It's hard to produce, and a lot more of the processed stuff is produced. Processed, preservative ridden stuff can afford to be cheaper because there is so much more to sell.

Caitlinflavurd - I've spent only a few weeks in North America over the past 20 years, but from what I have read the 'healthy and all natural' foods you are talking about are the packaged products promoted at so-called 'health-food' shops.

The true 'healthy all natural' foods are not expensive. Dried legumes, such as red kidney beans, black beans, black-eye peas, and such are relatively inexpensive and are very healthy. Green leafy vegetables such as spinach and collards can be bought fresh off the farm at local farmers' markets in season, along with carrots, onions, broccoli, cauliflower. Call or go see you local county extension agent to find out what vegetables are available at different times of the year. Your county agent works with the local farmers and will know where and when you can get fresh produce at the best prices.

In the supermarket look through the frozen veggies for no-name-brand products when there are no local vegetables available. Avoid most tinned goods. They tend to be high in sodium and fat. Study labels before you buy.

To stay healthy on a budget, stay out of the health food shops, buy local produce, and read the labels on everything you buy at the supermarket.