A profound example of all that is good in America...

Someone I know once catagorized the cracker barrel resturant chain as an example of "all that is wrong with America" - to which I replied that I thought it was an example of all that is right with America.

Today, via Consumerist (the anti-corporate blog I love to hate) comes another great American acheivement in food-delivery technolgy - the Hardee's Country Breakfast Burritto.

It's getting attacked by the usual group of haters, specifically the Center For Science in the Public Interest (the group that has labeled, at some point, pretty much every food ever made as bad for you) because it is close to 900 calories and has 60 grams of fat.

Now, unless you have unusually good genes and run a marathon every day, you shouldn't eat one of these on a regular basis. But my guess is that most people don't.

You could presumably eat one of these and still keep with in caloric guidelines, if you had one for say, brunch, and then had a salad for dinner. But more likely, you might splurge and have one of these for breakfast as a treat once in a while, but mostly eat healthy the rest of the time. And one extra-large meat-filled burritto isn't going to destroy your diet if you watch what you eat most of the time and exersize regularly.

Are there some fatasses who will eat way too many of these? Yes, but they would find something else to eat if Hardee's didn't make this fine product. But I think part of the beauty of America is that resturants have the freedom to offer products like this, and people can decide if they want it, and how frequently they want to eat it.

I've been, in the last few years, trying to control my weight - I've dropped a fairly significant amount of weight, and while I wouldn't mind losing a few more pounds (I still have a bit of a belly, I'm between pants sizes, and according to government scales I'm on the line between normal and overweight), I've been able to keep my weight pretty steady - despite the occasional splurge (including, one flea-market morning, a 4-egg, meat-laden omelet with toast and hashbrowns at a local diner) - probably because I watch what I eat most of the time and usually make it to the gym.

The Consumerist blog has the usual dialog that you get any time fast food excess is mentioned - some people saying that people should be allowed to eat what they want, and who cares if they die of a bacon-soaked heart attack at 50, and others saying that it causes an excess cost on society because society as a whole ends up paying for healthcare.

If anything, it makes me dislike the idea of government or single-payer healthcare more - because once government is paying for healthcare, it now has a reason to justify intruding into every aspect of people's personal life, and telling them what they should eat, who they should sleep with, and what activities they should or shouldn't do.

But I'm glad, right now, to live in a country where I can buy a giant egg-and-meat filled burrito if I so desire. Too bad the nearest Hardee's to me is in Pasadena, MD, a good hour's drive away.