The Heart Attack Grill and the Obesity Issue

Heart attack on a plate anyone? I was watching Food Network's "The World's Weirdest Restaurant" the other day and saw them introduced the "Heart Attack Grill" in Las Vegas. It is a hospital-themed restaurant that serves obscenely high calories and trans-fat food. Before customers walk in the door, there are signs that say the restaurant's food is bad for health. Once the customers walk in, they see all waitresses dress as 'nurses'. The 'nurses' will put a patient gown on each customers and treat them as 'patients'. After the 'patients' order their 'prescriptions', a tag is wrapped around the 'patient' wrist which shows the food order. A 'doctor', the owner, will come around and check the 'patient' heartbeat with a stethoscope. The restaurant menu is simple as it mainly features so-called 'bypass' hamburgers. Customers can choose from single, double, triple or quadruple patties 'bypass' hamburgers. Each burger is cooked in pure lard and even the bun is smeared with lard. Fries are served in 'all-you-can-eat' style and deep-fried in lard. The largest burger is the quadruple bypass burger, which has 8000 calories! Sound like a heart attack already as a regular Big Mac only has 576 calories.

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It is ironic how the restaurant staffs dress like nurses and the owner dresses like doctor, yet they serve some of the most unhealthy food on earth. Their marketing strategy is deplorable, as evident that their slogan "taste worth dying for." The restaurant has questionable gimmicks, like whoever weights above 350 lbs gets to eat burgers for free. Also the restaurant has festivities such as 'Valentine's day massacre', when the customers get to eat, drink for all the fatty 'goodies' for free on the Valentine's day. A customer at the restaurant suffered a heart attack while eating a 6000 calories 'triple bypass burger!' The owner of the Heart Attack Grill, Jon Basso, used to be in the fitness business and even owned a Jenny Craig weight loss center. However, he soon figured out that it is more profitable to help people gain weight than losing weight and opens the Heart Attack Grill. Basso claims that his restaurant is honest and people know the risk of eating such unhealthy food.

His restaurant has garnered international attention, as the customers are flying into the doors. It glorifies everything unhealthy, from fatty burgers, fries and shakes, to even filter-free cigarettes and beer. The restaurant even had a spokesperson, a 570 lbs man who were on a few commercials. He died of a young age of 29 due to pneumonia. The owner Jon Basso even claims he is responsible to his spokesperson's death. He said 'he would have survived the pneumonia if he was not 500 plus pounds.' However, the owner says he will not stop expanding his business because 'he already has blood on his hands.' Shortly after its spokesperson death, the restaurant in Arizona was shut down and moved to Las Vegas possibly due to pressure of the communities. I feel sick to stomach that someone is cashing in on an idiotic gimmick while patting himself on the back for his 'honesty.' At the same time, the restaurant will not make any money if no one visits. What we eat is a choice and each choice has consequences. It is the American's obese diet, the celebration of gluttony that is 'responsible' for making that 'phony doctor' a rich man.