Now that’s some eatin’. Fast foodies at Hardees today announced the Country Breakfast Burrito: two egg omelets filled with bacon, sausage, diced ham, cheddar cheese, hash browns and sausage gravy, all wrapped inside a flour tortilla that together packs 920 calories and 60 grams of fat. It is offered for a limited time only and will be sold for $2.69 by itself or $4.09 for a small combo, which includes hash rounds and coffee.
The “sandwich” accounts for approximately two-thirds of an average person’s daily caloric intake, according to the U.S. government’s Center for Nutrition Policy and Promotion. The Center for Science in the Public Interest, a Washington-based advocate for nutrition and health, has called the Hardees’ line of Thickburgers “food porn.” “A good rule of thumb is that if a burger needs a comma in its calorie count, it’s virtually impossible to fit into a healthy diet,” the group said.
This is no ordinary breakfast burrito,” said Brad Haley, executive vice president of Marketing for Hardee’s restaurants. “It’s an entire country breakfast in the palm of your hand.” Indeed, though it sounds more like a couple breakfasts for most people.
The food is definitely not what NASA would serve on space missions.
Still, Hardees says it isn’t trying to win a health food war and that people know what they are getting when they come into the store. The fast food chain offers the Monster Thickburger a 1,420-calorie sandwich is made up of two 1/3-pound slabs of beef, four strips of bacon, three slices of cheese and mayonnaise on a buttered bun. Hardees’ chicken salad — topped with onion rings and crispy chicken — has 1,100 calories and 83 grams of fat. The chain does offer some low-calorie options, including roast beef and chicken sandwiches.
What some one needs to do now is organize a Country Breakfast Burrito eating challenge to see how many of these babies one of those competitive eating professionals can eat in 12 minutes. You could tie it to Philadelphia’s Oink Bowl. Now THAT would be breakfast and entertainment.
