bbq wrote:Full episode if you dare to watch:
Thanks for that. It is disturbing stuff.
Jon Basso, the founder of Heart Attack Grill, actually makes sense in a perverse and probably amoral way. He says that the death of the obese spokesman for his restaurant caused him to take "absolutely no" pause. I think he's putting on a show when he says that, but even so, that's quite a statement. He's basically saying that he helped the guy to eat himself to death when he knew better, and has no second thoughts about it, supposedly. As disturbing as that is, he actually has a very clear point: everybody knows better, yet so many people continue self-destruct. The clip shows a guy with scars from open-heart surgery eating a "bypass burger" at the restaurant. Nikocado's friend is morbidly obese, and stuffing the same in her face there.
On the other hand, does exposing this behavior as self-destructive in this incredibly graphic way change anything? I'd say no. It's basically a freakshow that doesn't teach people anything about changing their diet and lifestyle. Everybody knows that smoking, alcohol and greasy burgers are bad, but that doesn't get you very far when there's so much conflicting advice on what's good.
I was wondering if the Heart Attack Grill has been sued. They've had several people actually suffer a heart attack on the premises, and two of their obese spokespersons die. I guess Basso's "message", as he keeps calling it, makes perverse sense also in that if his business gets sued for causing heart attacks, what about McDonald's and the rest of them? They're serving the same stuff, just in somwhat less insane portions.