Heart Attack Grill, owned by Jon Basso, brags about some of the highest caloric, artery-clogging food. They even enlisted Blair River (a 572-pound obese man) as their spokesman. River, 29, has now died from pneumonia — a death connected to his obesity by critics.
Basso plays up the attraction of the unhealthy by wearing a doctor’s lab coat and his waitresses are dressed as nurses. Signs at the restaurant read “Caution. This establishment is bad for your health.”
Basso praised his former spokesman, insisting that “a man is how he leaves the world after he’s been here.” In this case, it was being a spokesman for unhealthy eating at a restaurant that offers meals with more than 8,000 calories.
River is still featured on the website, which jokes about the risk of “mild death.”
The menu features such things as “Quadruple Bypass Burger” and “Flatliner Fries.”
Source: Washington Post
i wish he woulda et rick perry
Sometimes I wonder if industrialized agriculture is making more food with less nutritional value and unintentionally contributing to type II diabetes?
The other day, I found the garden fork. We have the land area for a rather decent family garden.
Physical fitness improved, food improved?
My niece and her husband have swelled over the years to an unreasonable obesity, given their educational background and professed concerns. When you visit, everything revolves around all the places they have to eat. Much the same is true of all the people I left back in Michigan. It used to be one does not put on “a few hundred pounds” with age. And not one of them were raised in a climate of fitness, so there’s not even the notion that there’s anything worth doing.
It’s something one embraces from today until the end of days, a series of daily choices that lead to fewer, better calories, more activity, and a deepening engagement with one’s overall health. The challenge is supremely difficult in a world where we are bombarded by messages of food, most of which is crap.
I am lucky to live in paradise where I can get fresh produce on the cheap year round. Meat (mostly chicken) is now reduced to a flavoring. Most of the diet is plants now. No breads or pastas. And very little sugar, just what is in fruit. If you have not tried quinoa, I highly recommend it. Very high in protein. Mixed with corn and water, and it sustained natives in the high Andes for thousands of years. It gives an old world flavor to whatever I’ve put it in. It can be used savory or sweet.
You reap what you eat. I learned last year that I am diabetic (Type II). I was almost 50 lbs overweight. My eye sight was shifting. It was scary. I was 48 at the time and told my self, “Hell no, you ain’t goin’ out like that!” I did an entire 180 degree turn. I loss the weight by walking and doing yoga. Now the diabetes is under control. My husband says I cook better now than I did before I was sick.
Btw, I was only on insulin for a month. God do I hate needles. Thank God though for treadmills (it was sitting in the family room collecting dust) and walking trails (can’t wait for spring to get here). I feel so much better. Eating healthy is not a bore. I do not miss the fried foods. I also do not miss the red meat. I eat a lot of seafood and poultry, wheat bread, spinach pasta, brown rice, fruits, nuts and veggies. I season my food with fresh herbs and have toned down the salt. I eat dessert in moderation. I do not feel deprived. In fact, I enjoy eating so much more now. And yes, I do go out to restaurants which are now offering many more healthy choices.
So be good to yourself. Go healthy. As the saying goes, “all things in moderation.” You do not have to eat the whole pack of cookies or a whole slice of cake or pie, get it? This guy didn’t have to die at 29. Sad!
rafflaw, My sister that lives in Evanston was just complaining about that this the other day. Dallas has many more salad places, but it is true that when I visit Chicago or Philadelphia, I choose to eat badly.
Gives new meaning to the phrase “truth in advertising.”
Swarthmore Mom,
there is plenty of healthy food available in Chicago. Just because we are known for deep dish pizza, it doesn’t mean that you can’ easily eat good, healthy food. There are many organic and locally sustained restaurants and markets in the Chicago area.
Well SWM,
Really….. I suppose Mexican can be healthy……… I think I eat healthy for me… No more than 1 pound of red meat a day generally…. yesterday…. I ate fried fish…
Dallas has far more healthy choices than Philly or Chicago. I always heat unhealthy food when I visit those cities.
There is a large macho element in this country that is disdainful of the risks of high calorie, high fat and high salt eating. Much of it resides in the South, but even enlightened Cities like Chicago, Cleveland, Pittsburgh and Philadelphia eat stupendously unhealthy food. I can remember one night in Cleveland, when my wife and I arrived in town late and went to the only late night area for the dinner we had missed. The place we stopped in, I don’t remember its’ name, was swerving cheese steaks with french fries included under the huge hero roll. The calories and fat content had to be stupendous. The early deaths of my parents, my brother’s heart related illnesses and 40 years of high blood pressure and heart disease have taught me the value of a healthy diet and exercize.
Temptation,temptation!!
“Basso plays up the attraction of the unhealthy by wearing a doctor’s lab coat . . .”
With that in mind, segue into this latest mindless, medical miasma:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/health/8360667/Millions-of-surgery-patients-at-risk-in-drug-research-fraud-scandal.html
The lab-coat lunacy did not die its appropriate death at the stroke of midnight on New Year’s Eve.
It’s followed us right into 2011.
Heart Attack Grill indeed.
Are there any doubts that he at least got the costume right?
eeeewwww…..that looks like nasty processed american cheese…..unhealthy is 1 thing, that simply does not even look tasty….
Soon up on the menu at heart Attack Grill:
The Blair River Limited Edition Burger. A full pound of meat.
Only 572 will be produced.
Well, color me SHOCKED! Uh, no, not at all actually.
eniobob,
I do most of my riding when the weather turns warmer here, but I hope to get out soon. You are right that dieting is usually not enough. You need a lifestyle change at the same time. Walking is great and as you stated,the price is right.
Exercise,exercise,exercise and watching what you eat is key,I walk about (2) miles every other day,If I’m not mistaken,raff rubbed it in one day and he was saying how nice it was this particular day and he was going bike riding so he knows from where I’m coming from.
Walking is free and it works.
The risk of “mild death”!?? What is mild about dying? These guys are so engrossed on making a buck, they don’t care who dies in the process.
I have not yet begin to eat….ask not what you can do for your food but what your food can do for you…. I think that is how that goes….