In the past decades, Americans in particular have been made more and more conscious of their average weight and the health risks associated with obesity. There have been a number of movements that have spread the message about the dangers of obesity and brought this problem to the nation's attention, with the most notable of recent times being Michelle Obama's campaign to fight childhood obesity.
With all this publicity for obesity going on, there is an extreme on the other end as well. The Heart Attack Grill, which is currently located in Las Vegas, prides itself on serving calorific foods to its diners who are dressed as patients in gowns and are waited on by scantily clad nurses. With names for the food such as the single, double, triple, and even quadruple bypass burgers, as well as butter fat shakes and an unlimited amount of "flatliner fries", fries which are deep fried in lard, it is evident that this establishment plays up the idea of obesity as the image of America.
When ABC News interviewed Jon Basso, the founder and owner of the Heart Attack Grill, his side of the story sheds some light onto why he decided to open up his business. Basso tried to spread the same message of the dangers of obesity before and owned many Jenny Craig centers as well as many personal fitness studios but didn't find them to be effective enough. He believed that if America was going to get out of its obesity epidemic, that it would take some serious shock therapy to make people see what was going on and that was his purpose for creating the Heart Attack Grill.
Do you think Jon has a valid point or do you think he is only contributing to the obesity epidemic?
Link to the ABC News piece on the Heart Attack Grill: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hqf_SIQ3JAk
I think he does have a good point. When I first started reading this I thought that the concept of the heart attack grill was sinister. But after thinking about it, it is a really good way to make people aware of what they are eating can do to them. Jon also can't get in trouble by his customers saying he's hiding the unhealthiness of his food. But he is being completely straight forward with what is in his food. I think this is great and hilarious idea
ReplyDeleteI would have to also agree, although the idea of a fast food industry having this particular way of exposing how obesity is a danger to the nation, Basso has made it perfectly clear with these food titles that the food produced is not only unhealthy but can also eventually lead to possible health issues or death, hopefully with his explanation people can begin to open their eyes to the seriousness of the issue.
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