Post Punk Kitchen Forum

Sorry if this already was posted, I searched and couldn't find anything. I am venturing out of the Playground to report that...

http://abcnews.go.com/blogs/headlines/2 ... ack-grill/

Man Suffers Heart Attack at Heart Attack Grill

A man suffered an apparent heart attack while eating a “Triple Bypass Burger” at the Heart Attack Grill in Las Vegas.

...

Husband sent this "to refill my vegan smugness bar."

Sad. Did you tell your husband you don't feel smug about someone having a heart attack?

He was eating a triple bypass burger which contains:
Three half-pound hamburger patties with buns dipped in lard, half of an onion cooked in lard, a whole tomato, 15 pieces of bacon, cheese, and special sauce.

Apart from the heart attack, which does make me very sad, everything about this restaurant makes me sick. My boyfriend said he's seen this place on TV and that after your meal the "nurses" will roll you out to your car in a wheelchair and check your blood pressure.

Also:


Um..

I think anyone who has ever heard of this place before knows it was only a matter of time.

How the heck do you go from owning a Jenny Craig franchise, quitting because you think you "weren't reaching people," then opening up this restaurant to serve 6,000 calorie burgers?

I'm not sure, but I'd think dollar signs to figure into that equation somewhere.

Yeah I'm guessing not 'reaching people' meant not enough people signing up for it. It is definitely about $$$.

I can't believe I'm defending this place, but people have heart attacks in restaurants every day. I think this restaurant is taking advantage of everything wrong with our food system, but I hate whenever a news story comes out about it. It's tasteless and wrong on every level, including the way it contributes to how messed up our discussions about health and food are.

It is just the over the topness of it. There is personal responsibility but it tries to glorify overconsumption to the extreme. What other burger places has 15 pieces of bacon in a burger? That isn't even the largest burger, looks like the quadruple bypass has 20 pieces.

Although the part that tops it all is saying that those over 350 lbs eat free.

Well yeah people have heart attacks every day, but at a place ballsy and crass enough to make light of heart attacks by all this heart attack gimicky stuff that everyone's having a good chuckle about? I feel bad for the guy, but the restaurant's bad press? Deserved.

What's so sad about this is that this was a man eating alone on Valentine's day at a place with super-fried food and sexy waitresses. I can't imagine having a heart attack and feeling that my life were about to end in that setting.

As for the restaurant, I think there's something to be respected in that they openly acknowledge how terrible their food is for your health. Unlike other unhealthy burger joints (McDonald's comes to mind immediately for me) that deceptively advertise their food as being eaten by young, attractive, thin and upper-middle-class-looking people, this restaurant is just being honest and saying "treat yourself, but be careful because it's definitely terrible for you." I wonder if they have a separate menu for the petite waitresses to eat from, or if they all share one burger between rushes.

I'm not really defending the restaurant, but the fact that he had his heart attack there and not somewhere else is a coincidence. But every time bad press about this place comes up, people pat themselves on the back because they would never eat there. And then go eat someplace with the same lack of nutrition and excess of meat, fat, and salt, just with smaller portions. No one looks at this and decides to eat veg. They just decide to eat a smaller portion of this same problematic food.

Yeah, I think this is pretty stupid. It's almost like a headline that reads "Man dies of cancer at The Cancer Grill." These diseases take decades to manifest. Articles like this are mostly just a way for everyone to pat themselves on the back and say, "At least I'm not doing something THAT bad for myself" and to enjoy some perceived poetic justice.

Of course I only wish the worst on a restaurant like that, but these articles will probably only serve to get more people to try the place as a novelty.

Well there is also some evidence that eating a meal with red meat (or saturated fat in general?) can dramatically increase your chances of a heart attack following the meal. And I don't think the problem is just with this restaurant but restaurants like this in general. Basically anything on Man vs Food.

As much as this is terrible, and the restaurant is sick, it is kind of refreshing to see somewhere advertising how bad that kind of food is for you. Too bad they are making it way worse by their purposefully over the top portions and grease. I hope the guy recovers and is not dead, and may mend his eating habits to live into the future.

I don't see the relevance of this unless it applies to people without heart disease. A healthy person just isn't going to keel over dead from one horrible meal. Unless you have evidence otherwise?

I'm guessing that you would have to have some form of heart disease already for the increased risk. Although looking around for the answer, there is some indication that a particularly fatty meal can inhibit normal dilation of the arteries which could be a reason. I also had initially read something that indicated saturated fats but it seems that a heavy meal was the indicator.
http://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/412231

This article talks more about the recent studies and ways to counteract the risk (ie exercise)
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB1000142 ... 88922.html

"Even in healthy people, eating a fatty meal can impair the proper functioning of cells that line the blood vessels, potentially making them more susceptible to atherosclerosis, the condition leading to heart attack or stroke, according to research by Michio Shimabukuro, a professor in cardio-diabetes medicine at the University of Tokushima in Tokushima, Japan. The magnitude of the cellular dysfunction can accumulate if the fat from one meal hasn't been fully absorbed before the next meal is consumed, he says. The changes to the blood vessel appear specifically triggered by fat content; a high-sugar meal doesn't appear to have the same impact, says Dr. Shimabukuro."

I told the bf about this and read to him what was on the burger, he had me stop at the onions cooked in lard.

This makes me sad on a number of levels. Sad for the dude, and sad that this place exists. And sad but not surprised that it was more profitable than being in the health/wellness industry.

I just imagine a bunch of Rockettes in a circle around a burger.

It's got a whole tomato? Disgusting!


Ideally, then, one would own both establishments and just keep sending their customers back and forth between the two. Guaranteed income for ever, until the customers all keel over dead anyway.


And now I know what to name my restaurant! People will be lined up down the block to get their hands on my food.

People can do whatever they want. And I applaud the people who go there.

But that doesn't stop me from thinking these people are idiots.

I actually don't have heart attacks every day.

Maybe I'm special?

I'm naming mine "The Erectile Disfunction Cafe." People will be limply hanging around the block.

Well I think the point is that we can assume that this guy eats that kind of food on a regular basis which is what led to the heart attack, although we don't know really if that assumption is true.

One of these just opened in my city, down the street from my nursing school ironically enough. I have a pretty sick sense of humor, but I fail to see how heart attacks are funny. I have a friend who ate there recently, and he said it was a very creepy and uncomfortable experience. I guess they are missing the mark as far as atmosphere goes.