(Originally written June 13, 2013)
Twas a sad day for burger fans as the only Wendy’s in the college town of Brandon, Manitoba announced that it would be discontinuing its dinosaur-sized burger. As The Canadian Press reports, “Barb Barker, an administrative assistant for the Wendy’s outlet in Brandon, said Wednesday night that they have stopped selling their T. Rex burger, consisting of nine quarter-pound patties held together by nine pieces of processed cheese and a flimsy bun.” Unfortunately, this occurred before I could pay a visit to Brandon.
“For obvious reasons, Wendy’s of Brandon neither condones nor promotes the idea of anyone consuming a nine-patty hamburger in one sitting,” said Barker, reading from a prepared statement. Wait, she means that it’s not fair to charge $21.99 for a sandwich, right? And what if I were to consume it in two sittings? Would that be OK?
If I was a strict adherent to any kind of diet, the answer would be no. The CP reports that with “around a whopping 3,000 calories, the T. Rex burger had more calories than many people consume in a day. To the dismay of dieticians, it also contained roughly 200 grams of fat — triple the daily allowance — and an eye-watering 6,000 grams of sodium, enough to last the average adult four days.” So I won’t put any salt on my fries. No Biggie.
But not surprisingly, human nutritional science professor Carla Taylor is not amused. “Food is something I don’t think we can treat in this way,” she told The Canadian Press. “We need to get appreciating good food … of appropriate portion size.” (Hey, it’s appropriate to me!) Rather than take the nine-patty challenge, Taylor offers an alternative: “I think the better challenge is to look at how to eat healthy every day and think long term about how the foods you’re putting in your mouth are impacting on your health.”
Yeah, but where’s the beef in that?
Burgers, Bacon & Beer 