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The U.S. public is becoming fat, dumb, and blind, which is good for business!
Companies can stuff more processed food into mouths and then, when these people come down with a chronic illness, a drug company will have a medication for that… and then another medication to offset the side-effects of the first drug.
Dairy Queen, the fast-food chain owned by Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway, announced last week that it will expand its menu options to include five new “Stackburgers,” including one that will weigh a half-pound with three patties of beef.
The company released an image of the hulking, triple-stack burger with cheese oozing down the side next to an ice cream cone. The company is looking to build on its record year in 2021 when its annual revenue jumped to $224.7 million, or 18 percent.
The other new offerings include:
- Two cheese deluxe — it’s made with melted sharp American and white cheddar cheese.
- Bacon two cheese deluxe — it’s made with sharp American and white cheddar cheeses and applewood smoked bacon.
- FlameThrower — it’s made with DQ FlameThrower sauce, pepper jack cheese and jalapeno bacon.
- Original cheeseburger — it’s made with sharp American cheese.
- Loaded A1 — it’s topped with A1 steak sauce, creamy peppercorn sauce, applewood smoked bacon, sharp American cheese and crunchy onion rings.
Dairy Queen trained its focus on chicken and beef burgers. CNBC reported that DQ first modified its chicken strip offering before taking on the burgers. The company also tested a revamped, airy bun.
“I would say it’s one of the first true menu strategies that we’ve had within the Dairy Queen system in a very, very long time,” Troy Bader, CEO of Dairy Queen, said.
The Trends Journal has long reported about the health crisis in the U.S. based largely on the average diet. The problem attracted new attention due to the COVID-19 outbreak and the increased risk that obesity carried. (See “BERKSHIRE BILLIONAIRE WHO MADE A FORTUNE INVESTING IN COMPANIES THAT CONTRIBUTED TO U.S. OBESITY EPIDEMIC ‘APPALLED’ BY THOSE WHO REFUSE COVID JAB” and “FATTENING UP: FAST FOOD SALES SURGE.”)
TRENDPOST: The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recently announced that obesity in the U.S. is impacting national security.
A WRAL report last week said each branch of service has its own standards when it comes to weight, but men cannot weigh more than 267 pounds and women cannot exceed 184 pounds for the Marines and 250 pounds for the Air Force.
“Overweight and obesity among active duty service members has risen 73% between 2011 and 2015. These individuals are less likely to be medically ready to deploy,” the CDC said in a report.
The problem is not isolated in the U.S.
The World Health Organization said the number of those around the world considered obese in 2030 will more than double the amount in 2010.
Money Talks
Bader, the CEO told The Minneapolis Star-Tribune that the company earns its money from royalties paid by franchisees of its 7,000 restaurants, and it has an operating margin of around 50 percent.
The chain said it is working on building from its COVID-19 success, where customers would line up at drive-throughs and keep social distance at the height of the outbreak.
The paper said families visited more often during the outbreak and bought larger-sized items.
“What did we do as parents when kids didn’t have all the activities they normally had? We wanted to treat them,” he told the paper.
TRENDPOST: Since the start of the ill-advised lockdowns that removed children from schools, sport leagues, and other activities, the Trends Journal warned that the youngest will suffer the most both mentally and physically. (See “LOCKDOWNS CREATING CHILD OBESITY CRISIS.”)
Last year, Dr. Sandra Hassink, director of the Institute for Healthy Childhood Weight, voiced considerable concern about food insecurity due to extended lockdowns forcing kids to eat cheap junk food with little to no nutritional value. “I sometimes think of this as the footprint COVID-19 will leave on our population—increased obesity, food insecurity, and chronic disease.”
Researchers from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee pointed out last week that obesity affects nearly one in five children in the U.S., with higher rates among communities of color. The lockdowns are expected to increase the number.
“We had already considered childhood obesity to be an epidemic. Then came this pandemic and those two things kind of collided. All of a sudden children are home all day, they’re sedentary and bored. And when they’re bored, they’re grabbing for a snack more,” Julie Snethen, a professor and director of the PhD program at the UWM College of Nursing, said.