UPDATE Obesity Alert

from the Sun-Sentinel

Surely every American old enough to place his own Happy Meal order knows there's an obesity epidemic in this country. Despite this -- and despite piles of research on the evils of diets high in saturated fat and sodium and low in fiber -- American fast-food chains continue to roll out bigger, fatter, more decadent fare. Consider this summer's debut of Burger King's BK Stackers, which include a Quad Stacker option of four slabs of beef, four slices of cheese and up to eight slices of bacon -- "smothered," as the company puts it, in a creamy sauce.

The behemoth sandwich contains 1,000 calories and a whopping 68 grams of fat, including 30 grams of saturated fat. According to nutritionists, that's about half the calories and 1-1/2 times the saturated fat the average adult should consume in an entire day. For its part, Burger King says it is simply giving the public what it wants.