Heath Shake? More like Death Shake!

[giza]

Thanks for pointing this out, lockemaison:



That's pretty much a day's worth of calories right there, in that one shake.

I'm amazed places can get away selling this stuff. I know that people have to take responsibility for what they eat, but I think there has to be some accountability for the companies that sell this crap, too. I'd be surprised if 1 in 100 customers who consume that shake have any idea how bad it is.

Comments

[toracub.livejournal.com]

I'd eat it even knowing that.

[giza.livejournal.com]

I guess that makes you the one guy who read the label! :-P

[filkertom.livejournal.com]

...

...

... I'm a big fat guy who got that way by eating too much, and that's way beyond the beyonds.

[furahi.livejournal.com]

But, if they publish the nutrition facts (and I mean easily accessible, not hidden behind a door or something like in that movie Supersize me), wouldn't you say it's up to the customer to care and not order it if it's that bad?

I mean, what if i know how bad it is and I want it anyway? Don't I have the right to eat shitty if I want to?

[giza.livejournal.com]

I do not know to what extent they are "published". I can't even remember when I was last in a Baskin Robbins.

Your icon kicks ass, though. NOM NOM NOM. :-)

[furahi.livejournal.com]

This has got to be the time that I've most appropriately used that icon too ;)

I don't mean Baskin Robbins in particular, I mean crappy food in general.

We constantly discuss the topic over lunch here; about whether bad food should be prohibited, restaurants taking accountability for selling it (which would more or less mean they would stop selling it anyway, since they are not going to pay for pace makers or open heart surgery ;P); and how that conflicts with the right of people that want to eat that food anyway to eat it.

Should they make you sign a waiver? Should they post pictures of fat people on the cup, like they do for cigarettes in some places?

The easy answer is they should make healthier food. To some degree that is possible, they can fry food with better oils, and not reuse the oil 1000 times; they can handle meat better --not to mention use better meats--, add less sugar to desserts.

But that's only possible only up to a certain degree. You can't make a Heath milk shake a lot healthier than what you're showing, and still have it be... well, delicious^*.
Take the deep fried Twinkie as an example, Twinkies are bad to begin with, then deep fry it and you make it worse... Yet, if someone wants a deep fried Twinkie, there's no way to get around it. I personally consider that is an abomination, the deep frying doesn't add anything that I appreciate to the Twinkie, but a lot of people like them and, while they probably shouldn't eat them, they have the right to do so.

Another solution is taxing crappy food, but that's not really fair either. It might encourage companies to find healthier ways to produce the same food item, but again you can only get so far with that...

I'm starting to ramble, so I better stop :P

^{Your mileage may vary, not everybody finds a sugar overload to be delicious}

[chipotle.livejournal.com]

This is really always the dilemma. The libertarian "you're responsible for your own actions" is appealing, but it tacitly assumes that you're able to make informed decisions about those actions -- and many people don't actually have that information readily available. And there's an assumption hidden even more deeply: that producers don't have a vested interest in keeping their customers from being informed. In many cases, they very obviously do have that interest, and there's no "market force" which can reliably compel them to release that information. (Which is why I don't buy into the really anti-regulatory ideas on the libertarian side.)

But, even if consumers are informed, a percentage of them are still going to go ahead and choose badly. You really can't do much about that. The Heath Shake you can make "healthier" by not serving it as a 32 effing ounce drink -- yet it doesn't seem very rational to tell Baskin-Robbins, "Sorry, you're legally prohibited from selling it in a cup bigger than 16 ounces."

[thraxarious.livejournal.com]

Libertarians are the most vocal when they're not being ousted from their homes by eminent domain from "Market forces".

People should be responsible for their own actions, but they should be given fair warning and encouraged to do the right thing. Sure, McDonnalds can sell the uber monstro krispy Kreme dipped burger bigger than your heart becomes because of Cardiomegaly. But, push and focus on eating right, don't just add one or two "lite" meal items.

Its just going to happen, you keep the product the same, but jazz some stuff up on TV and suddenly it sells more, even if it has the same risks to obesity and heart disease. Its Human nature.

[yakko.livejournal.com]

You can't make a Heath milk shake a lot healthier than what you're showing, and still have it be... well, delicious*.

This is the main reason why, although I'll try to eat healthier most of the time, I fail to compromise on certain foods. There's no such thing as good lowfat cheese, for instance. Well, as far as my tastes are concerned, anyway. The lowfat version always seems to taste awful and look like chewed plastic in runny water.

Yet I won't drink any milk that's not skim. Funny how my tastes work...

[taral.livejournal.com]

HOMG that's a lot of sodium.

[thraxarious.livejournal.com]

I'm surprised its just near 100%, most processed foods today have close to half or more of your daily intake in the containers they sell, and most are meant as one meal! To say nothing of side items you might want to add to something to actually you know... balance the food pyramid out.

Sodium is a big problem in foods in America. I actually turn down a lot of food because of its sodium content.

[giza.livejournal.com]

I recall reading somewhere (can't remember where, sorry!) that increasing potassium intake helps counteract increased sodium intake. That's why I eat 2 bananas per day.

[thraxarious.livejournal.com]

Thats what a lot of "Low Sodium" food does, though I found it hillarious when an Organic brand of chicken broth had far less sodium than a "Low Sodium" brand. I should go check them out...

[seeklynx.livejournal.com]

It is really something when you start to look at it for the first time.

A few years back i started to see my blood pressure creep up like many others in my family. Now I know I am fat and not so in shape but I didn't want to be on blood pressure meds starting in my 20s ( i know 2 people that are )

After a few weeks there was much i didn't want to try to eat because all i could taste was the salt.

Oh and the good news getting closer to the 30 mark and blood pressure in check.

[neillparatzo.livejournal.com]

I thought I remembered the Heath Shake from 20 Worst Foods in America, but it's not on the list. Maybe I read about it somewhere else.

[giza.livejournal.com]

Maybe on Consumerist (http://consumerist.com/5052633/baskin-robbins-death-shake-has-2300-calories)? And then you took a trip back in time? :-)

[neillparatzo.livejournal.com]

That's cool. I like The Consumerist. You have to admit, though, it's a slam-dunk companies-are-evil anti-glurge for which you already did all their homework for them. All they had to do was dollop on a paragraph of snark.

[rexxwolfe.livejournal.com]

Yeah Im with Giza here even if the label is easy to read the average person doesnt know or look . That reads almost like those hostess fruit pies in the US man i ate one of those and felt sick.

[rikoshi.livejournal.com]

Hey, at least it's high in calcium!

[giza.livejournal.com]

It's so the person's ribs don't break when they have CPR done on them following the heart attack. :-)

[film2edit.livejournal.com]

That's what my boyfriend said earlier. I told Chris, "I'll just have some milk."

[lockemaison.livejournal.com]

I knew you'd trip out over this thing

[doco.livejournal.com]

Pure olive oil has about 850 kcal per 100 ml.
32 "fluid ounces" are 946 ml in proper SI.
850*9,46=8,041 kcal.

See? It could be much worse. :P

[therustyhusky.livejournal.com]

That just reminds me of all those "specialty" coffee drinks that are so trendy now. I mean, a double caramel mocha frappuccino can't be much better than this abomination.

Whatever happened to a scoop of ice cream or a regular cup of coffee?

[giza.livejournal.com]

And the answer is: shareholder expectations.

Here's the problem: things like coffee became very cheap, because everybody offered them, there wasn't much to distinguish a cup of coffee, so prices had to go down to be competitive.

But that wasn't good enough for shareholders, they wanted profits! So businesses came up with different ways to "add value" so that they could charge more and make a bigger profit. This is how all of those insane coffee addons came about. Same thing for other commodity products such as cereal (think Frosted Flakes and breakfast bars here).

So yeah, there's a definitely "consumer beware" theme here, because as we can see, companies will sell you what they think they can get away with.

[rassah.livejournal.com]

Woot! I just found the thing I should eat before busting my butt excercising during Iaido and Kendo. That 3:30 hour class twice a week always leaves me tired as hell.
Oh, btw, those instant Udon bowls you can buy at Asian marts have 2800 to 3200 mg of sodium. I nearly tossed it in the trash whe I noticed it.

[thraxarious.livejournal.com]

I like the idea of a tax on items over a certain fat/salt/whatever content. Put that money into state funds to pay for health care and health programs designed around prevention.

Classify a meal item able to have at most 1/3 daily content of the 'bad' stuff if it fits the food pyramid properly. If it has to have more items to fill the pyramid, it must allow for those in its content. So many items are a 'meal' item, but if you look, Whoops! that can is actually 2 or 2.5 servings. If you eat the whole thing you actually are taking in a lot more fat, salt, and other things you should cut down on, maybe your whole daily intake.

with snacks and entres, again, fit it to our dietary health info, what we should be eating, over that, its taxed.

doesn't mean "cut out all this", also have it have to have the right bits of vitamins, fiber, and protien to get classifications. The idea should be to make it financially desireably to sell good food, instead of cutting the bottom out with crap and dessicated salt cheese powder.

[blueeyedtigress.livejournal.com]

Damn, that looks tasty! Mind you, it likely contains enough corn and wheat derivatives to make me seriously uncomfortable ....

Bottom line: I couldn't eat it now; I once would have, in spite of the labelling .....

[film2edit.livejournal.com]

I'd only do a shot or so of that. o_O

[giza.livejournal.com]

Like, with a needle in the arm?

That is SO hard core. ;-)

[cheetor.livejournal.com]

Duuuuuuuuude!!! thats Insane, its like, a heart attack in a cup..

[yakko.livejournal.com]

This reminds me of how someone described poutine:

It's a heart attack that you can buy at a restaurant. Fries, gravy and cheese curds.

[seeklynx.livejournal.com]

I must say that is shocking. I would never eat that even with out knowing that but now that i do.

[xshengx.livejournal.com]

I can has clogged arteries? D:

[dark0tigger.livejournal.com]

o.o I'm having a diabetic coma right now just thinking about having one of those.

[mindslide.livejournal.com]

I think they should make it federal law to provide nutritional info booklets in all states. Then, its up to the consumer to ask for a copy of it. In my state, while I'm not sure if its law or not, many places straight up do not provide nutritional information.

[thrashbear.livejournal.com]

I don't give a shit about "nutritional content" or lack thereof. If I want it, and I can afford it, I'll consume it, and accept the consequences. Something like this might be a once-a-month splurge, so in the overall health equation, it ranks pretty low on the scale. I do too much other unhealthy shit to worry about piss-ant stuff like this. I bet I'm not alone in this sentiment.

[wildw0lf.livejournal.com]

I stopped drinking those Dunkin Donuts' coffee coolatas once I realized how many calories were in those.

[kinkyturtle.livejournal.com]

I'd buy that, and drink a little of it, and put the rest in the freezer for later...

(Actually no I wouldn't. Coffee flavor, meh.)