Carl's Jr. Salt-Bomb Wins Vote for Most Disgusting New Fast Food

Driving home from our son's wedding in Northern California last weekend, we were hoping to find fast, healthy food offerings near the freeway. Foolishly hoping, it seems. 

Healthy options were scarce, and limited to sugary yogurts and a few sandwiches on whole grain bread (Starbucks), and several carb-and-salt-heavy 6-inch subs loaded with fresh-like veggies (Subway). 

Culinary weapons-of-human-destruction were easy to spot, though, at all the usual fast-food suspects... and were garishly hawked by Taco Bell, Jack-in-the-Box, McDonald's, and Carl's Jr, among others.

We voted Carl's, Jr's brand-new (introduced on October 22) Double Loaded Omelet Biscuit our most disgusting fast-food sighting of this road trip.  And for good reason... 

Brad Haley, chief marketing officer for Carl’s Jr., boasted "The new Double Loaded Omelet Biscuit, packed with three different breakfast meats... We make them fresh every morning by folding crumbled sausage, chopped bacon, diced ham and shredded Jack and cheddar cheeses into an egg omelet. Then we stack two of them inside one of our signature Made from Scratch Biscuits that we make by hand and bake fresh every morning. That great combination of eggs, sausage, bacon, ham and cheese – times two – will be sure to fill you up in the morning in an absolutely delicious way.”

Mr. Haley failed to mention the 1,960 mg of sodium (salt) in one of these drippy concoctions. That's equal to the salt in 15 small orders of McDonald's fries.  Equal to the salt in 9 servings of Doritos Nacho Cheese tortilla chips. 

He also failed to mention the 820 calories (equal to 4 two-packs of Reese's Peanut Butter Cups)  and 58 grams of fat (equal to 2 Big Macs) found in Carl's Jr.'s oozing Double Loaded Omelet Biscuit.  

And, of course, he failed to mention more than 100 chemicals, emulsifiers, additives, fillers, and artificial flavors and colors included as ingredients in this salty-fatty food bomb. 

Clearly, and by a wide margin, Carl's Jr.'s fevered bid to build and proudly sell an astonishingly unhealthy breakfast product wins our vote for the most disgusting fast-food last week along Highway 101.  

My question continues to be... why the heck does our government allow this and similar addictive, poisonous fake foods to be sold to hook the American public into ruining their health?   

Why does our government, which is tasked to protect Americans, allow mega-corporations to deliberately fatten and poison people in order to fatten corporate profits?

Related Reading
"Salt Sugar Fat" - Stunning Big Food Tactics to Hook, Trick, Harm Americans

Walmart, Target Fatten Profits by Fattening Football Fans, Children

Walmart, Target Fatten Profits by Fattening Football Fans, Children

This recent Walmart "Game Time" ad colorfully promotes a party meal of:

• Red Baron Pepperoni Pizza, frozen
• Lay's or Doritos "Party-Size" Bag of chips
• Great Value Chicken Wings "Sections," frozen  
• Gatorade Sports Drinks, 8 20-oz bottles
• Velveeta (a "Pasteurized Recipe Cheese Product) 
• Nabisco Ritz Crackers, Oreo and Chips Ahoy! cookies in "Family-Size" packs
• M&M's Peanut Candies, 42-oz package
• Football-topped cupcakes

And Ro-Tel, canned tomatoes and green chilis (plus salt. calcium chloride, citric acid, and unidentified "spices") presumably to be mixed with Velveeta, and then dipped with Doritos chips.  

Walmart's fun "Game Time" meal is a time-bomb of salt, sugar, and fat cleverly engineered by industrial mega-corporations to maximize sales and profits.  

(For details, read  "Salt Sugar Fat" - Stunning Big Food Tactics to Hook, Trick, Harm Americans.) 

Problem is... that time-bomb will detonate in your body. In most countries, this highly-processed industrial-concocted "meal" would be viewed as an inedible morass of amped-up salt and sugar flavors. Disgusting fake food. 

This "meal" is guaranteed lethal to your health. A diet of salt, sugar, and fat, laced heavily with hundreds of chemicals...preservatives, fillers, emulsifiers, artificial colors and flavors... has been scientifically linked over and over to diseases including diabetes, heart disease, even cancers.  

A massive new study by the American Association for Cancer Research found that 25% of cancer diagnoses are directly related to "poor dietary habits" and "obese or overweight," usually stemming from poor diet and exercise.  

I don't mean to call-out Walmart as singularly responsible for ruining Americans' health. Most major U.S. food retail corporations are to blame for fattening profits by selling products that fatten customers.  

Take, for instance, this Target ad, which was wrapped around a late August "Back-to-School" promotion.  

The Target ad prominently pushes the big three of highly processed, intentionally addictive U.S. junk food favorites of children... Kraft macaroni & cheese, Coca-Cola soft drinks, and Doritos chips.  

Convenience foods for cheap prices.  At back-to-school time when time and money are scarce for lower-income parents.  

The solution?  Don't buy this junk.  And as much as possible, don't buy from corporate retailers who sell this junk.  Buy from farmer's markets and green grocers.  Buy from stores that specialize in higher quality products. In my neighborhood, that includes Sprouts, Whole Foods, and often, Trader Joe's.  

Remember..  Products that don't sell will be dropped by markets and ultimately discontinued by manufacturers.  And retailers with sale drops will respond by changing their product lines.

We, the consumers have all the power.  Let's use it to dump highly processed fake-foods from our football parties, from our childrens' palates, and from our tables.  

Let's use our power as consumers to take back our health.

Related Reading

"Salt Sugar Fat" - Stunning Big Food Tactics to Hook, Trick, Harm Americans

Soy Sauce Fakes: How to Avoid Industrial Corn-Syrup Soy Sauce

Taco Bell Salad: Why No Warning Label for Lethal Salt Content?

Starbucks: Trying Harder than Taco Bell to Do the Right Thing

Give Starbucks credit for offering options to the public for better quality fast food. 

Starbucks really does try harder than most fast foodies to offer some fare that's healthier, and less laden with sugar, fat, and salt.  

I'm not talking about Starbucks' endless array of delectable cakes, muffins, pastries, doughnuts, and super-sized cookies, of course.  Coffee culture will always serve sweet bakery goods with aromatic java, thankfully regardless of the Food Police.  

Consider Starbucks' newest menu offering, the Vegetable & Fontiago Breakfast Sandwich,  a 470-calorie vegetarian meal made of:

• a fried egg
• a fusion of Asiago and Fontina cheeses
• small amounts of fresh spinach and caramelized onions
• sun-dried tomato spread
• all on a multigrain ciabatta roll

Contrast that with Taco Bell's new breakfast concoction set to debut on March 27:  a sugary waffle, tucked taco-style around a greasy sausage patty, topped with scrambled eggs, then drizzled with Taco Bell's orange liquid cheese.  Optional "syrup" packet for dipping. No nutritional info has yet been released publicly, for good reason. Although anyone ordering this fat-sugar-salt bomb is unconcerned with balancing their diet... 

I tasted Starbucks' Vegetable & Fontiago Breakfast Sandwich, and thought it satisfying and delicious with Mediterrenean flavor. The bread was fresh, the cheese was evenly melted, and the veggies and sauce tasted tangy, not dull.  

This is hardly farm-to-table fresh produce, mind you, much less organic or non-GMO foods. The pale-yellow egg was obviously pre-formed. And at 910 mg of sodium, this new menu item contains nearly 40% of recommended daily salt intake for an adult. 

Cooking this breakfast at home, using organic produce, farm-fresh eggs, and artisan cheese and bread, is certainly a better and more additive-free choice.  But on busy weekdays, who has time for toiling in the kitchen?

Give Starbucks credit for offering the public options for better quality fast food.  

U.S. public health would be greatly improved if all fast food mega-corporations... especially Taco Bell, McDonald's, and Carl's Jr/Hardee's... made more serious attempts at higher quality menu options, as does Starbucks.  

I say, when faced with a choice, take your fast food business to Starbucks. Let's reward those corporations trying harder to do the right thing nutritionally. 

Taco Bell Salad: Why No Warning Label for Lethal Salt Content?

"Beware the killer salad" sounds like the title of a bad movie or shrill invective from yet another annoying Food Puritan. 

Hear me out, though.  For children, aging seniors, and sensitive and ailing individuals, heavy doses of some fast and processed foods can be downright deadly. 

Take, for instance, Taco Bell's Fiesta Taco Salad, my 86 year old father-in-law's favorite go-to fast food.

He relishes the dish because it tastes delicious to him. Because it satisfies his hankering for salty and savory. Because a "salad" seems healthier. Because eating fast food dotted with shreds of tomato and lettuce feels more nutritionally virtuous than quaffing other Taco Bell choices. 

Recently, Dad was diagnosed with congestive heart failure, and experienced pulmonary edema (i.e. fluid in his lungs).  After a five-day hospital stay, he's home and on the fragile mend. But he must make vital lifestyle changes, especially a rethinking of his food choices.  

Salt is his nemesis. He must radically curtail his salt intake or fluids will again overtake his lungs and hijack his health.    This for a man who's enjoyed blessedly robust health for 86 years. Who's never needed to learn about nutrition, or been advised to cut back on... well, anything. 

He believes that cutting back on salt means not salting food at meals, and using less salt in cooking.  Like most Americans, Dad is blissfully unaware of massive amounts of salt hidden in fast, processed, and restaurant foods.  

Sure, he understands that his beloved nacho-flavored Doritos are salty. But a salad?  Salads are good for you, right? 

Under the guise of healthy, restaurants and fast food outlets rely on public ignorance to push a panoply of salt-laden "salads" dripping with fatty condiments and sugary-filled dressings.  (See KFC, Jack-in-Box, McDonald's: Legal Deception on "Healthy" Choices .)

And, for Taco Bell's Fiesta Taco Salad, nestled in a scrumptious, deep-fried pastry shell.   The Fiesta Taco Salad - Beef boasts 1,590 mg of salt, equal to:

• 10 orders of McDonald's small fries, or
• 5 Jack-in-the-Box crunchy tacos,or
• 3.5 large servings of movie theater popcorn

If Dad now regularly partakes of his favorite Taco Bell Fiesta Taco Salad, his health will deteriorate. And yes, he has been cautioned by doctors and nurses that too much salt intake can be deadly for congestive heart failure patients.  

 For children, aging seniors, and sensitive and ailing individuals, heavy doses of some fast and processed foods can be downright deadly. 

I ask you....

Why are these salt-bomb weapons of human-health destruction not required to carry warning labels? 

Why are industrial mega-corporations allowed to knowingly hawk unhealthy food products to the public, with no accompanying public warnings?

How is this different than legally mandated warning labels for cigarettes or alcohol? 

"Beware the killer salad" may sound like the title of a bad movie or shrill invective from yet another annoying Food Puritan. But for some people, deceptively salty, sugary, fatty fast-food salads can prove lethal.  

U.S. Food Supply Ranked Subpar to Other Major Nations

Attention Congress and USDA/FDA leadership: the U.S. tumbled embarrassingly into 21st place in OxFam's worldwide ranking of 125 nations' healthy, plentiful food supplies and policies. 

Iceland, Australia, most western European and all Scandinavian countries all scored well above the United States, which barely edged out Estonia, Slovakia, Hungary, Israel, and New Zealand.  

Oxfam's in-depth survey, taken from October through December 2013, tallied data on food reality worldwide using four categories. The U.S. ranked admirably in two categories, average in one, but fared shamefully low in one... 

Afford to Eat, or the price and price volatility of food - U.S. ranked 1st  overall in  food affordability, mainly because food prices nationally are extremely stable and relatively inexpensive.

Food Quality, or the availability of clean water and nutritious foods - U.S. ranked 4th overall in this category, despite ranking a painful  41st in access to clean drinking water. 

Enough to Eat, or hunger within the country - U.S. ranked 35th overall among 125 nations. Although few U.S. children were underweight due to lack of food, many are malnourished. 

Unhealthy Eating, or frequent consumption of non-nutritious foods - U.S. ranked 120th among 125 nations, indicating that U.S. eating habits are causing obesity and diabetes among Americans. 

These shocking results shout that most Americans have access to both healthy and unhealthy foods, and are choosing unhealthy foods for both adults and children.

The U.S. is ranked the fattest and most diabetic nation among all major countries. The U.S. populace ranks as healthier only than Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Mexico, Fiji, and Jordan. in obesity and diabetes, two lethal health conditions.

Critics firmly believe that American health has plunged radically in recent decades due to the extreme prevalence in the food supply of fast and casual foods larded heavily with salt, fat, and sugar, and of industrial-manufactured "fake foods" riddled with salt, fat, sugar, chemicals, additives, fillers, and artificial flavors and colors.  

(Click here for "Salt Sugar Fat" - Stunning Big Food Tactics to Hook, Trick, Harm Americans.)

Why do Americans have extremely easy access (and thus, temptation) to unhealthy foods, especially when compared to the other 124 nations? 

One main reason: lack of political will in Washington D.C. to stand-up to corporate political donors and lobbyists in order to bring  the U.S. food supply up to international standards by mandating...

• Manufacturers to offer a higher percentage of food products with more nutritious and better quality ingredients
• Restaurants and fast food purveyors to eliminate and/or minimize purposely addictive levels of salt, fat, and sugar 
• Markets across the country to prominently display and emphasize a plethora of fresh, healthy products, rather than continue to exclusively push industrial-made chips, cookies, candy, ice creams, cereals, crackers, hot dogs, baked goods, frozen fare, etc, etc etc.

Congress, are you listening?  USDA and FDA leaders, are you there?  Are you working for the health of our nation, or for mega-corporate interests and your donors and political patrons?

Before answering that query, remember the warning of famed British historian and Oxford professor Arnold J. Toynbee (1889 - 1975) who observed and believed that the health of a nation is only as good as the health of its diet, and that a downward spiral in the quality of a nation's diet foretold a nation's cultural and political death spiral.

If unchecked, this U.S. tumble in Oxfam's data-driven survey of healthy diets around the world will be more than an embarrassment. This terrible tumble could be warning of a permanent downward spiral of our nation. 

Dieters as Profitable Yo-yos: Corporate Lures, Bamboozles

Americans have been bamboozled by leading diet corporations. Hookwinked. Tricked. Lured into bleeding endless streams of cash into the coffers of companies who profess to help us become healthier.  

Turns out top diet conglomerates don't want you to become lean. At least, not for very long... After all, once you're slim, you no longer need their pricey services. They lose a paying customer. 

So what's a clever, profit-hungry corporation based, in part, on the diet industry to do to bring once-chubby customers back?   Believe it or not, if you answered "Make 'em chubby again," you're correct.   

If you responded "Trigger yo-yo dieting instincts by igniting cravings for salt, sugar, and fat," you win the prize. 

Seriously... the corporate owners of several huge diet companies quietly also control major makers of ice creams, candy bars, junky breakfast cereals, mayonnaise, margarine, sausages, frozen pizzas, and all manner of fake, industrial-made foods.    

Once you graduate from chubby to lean or grow from lean to chubby, industrial fake-food corporations don't want to lose your business.  So they cynically diversify their portfolios to include both diet companies and junk food companies, and constantly lure Americans into unhealthy yo-yo- dieting, hence a continuous flow of hefty corporate profits.

Take Jenny Craig Inc, owned since 2006 by Nestle, which reported worldwide sales of $92 billion and profits of $10.6 billion in 2012.  Besides "weight management" company Jenny Craig, Nestle owns or controls hordes of less-than-healthy foods including:

• Dreyer's, Haagen-Daz (in U.S.), Drumsticks, and six other ice cream makers
• Baby Ruth, Butterfinger, Nestle Crunch, KitKat, 100 Grand, and many more candy bars
• Hot Pockets, DiGiorno frozen pizzas, Stouffer frozen entrees, Lean Cusine
• Trix, Cheerios, Golden Nuggets (in U.K.), Nesquik powdered chocolate drink

Consider SlimFast, maker of "meal option" shakes, snacks, and packaged foods meant to help people better manage their weight.  SlimFast was quietly acquired by Unilever in 2000.  Other food companies owned or controlled by Unilever include:

• Ben & Jerry's, Breyer's, Klondike, Popsicles, Fudgsicles, and Heartland lines that dominate European ice cream sales
• Hellman's and Best Foods mayonnaise and other products
• Country Crock, Brummel & Brown, Imperial, I Can't Believe It's Not Butter, and many other margarines
• Many European makers of mayonnaise, mustard, catsup, other condiments.

Weight Watchers was sold in 1999 to wealthy private investors, and went public in 2001. Half of Weight Watchers shares are controlled by a stealthy private equity firm, The Invus Group. Five of nine Weight Watchers Board of Director members are also key leaders of The Invus Group.  

While little is publicly known about Invus' client list, its website also describes a successful investment in and turn-around of Keebler, which was later sold to Kellogg.  Keebler is the largest cookie and cracker manufacturer in the United States. Among Keebler highly processed products are Cheez-Its and Wheatables crackers and eight varieties of Chips Deluxe cookies. 

Yes, Americans (and Europeans, too) have been bamboozled by some leading "weight management" corporations into believing that they have our health at heart. 

Lured  by advertising and enticed by store shelves, newly-lean food aficionados again buy and feast on foods rich in sugar, salt, and fat.  First a little, then a lot.  Candy bars, ice cream, cookies, cheesy crackers, junky cereals, mayonnaise, margarine, sausages, highly processed frozen fare... 

(Read "Salt Sugar Fat" - Stunning Big Food Tactics to Hook, Trick, Harm Americans.")

And so the yo-yo dieting cycle continues. Lean, chubby, lean, chubby.  And the same industrial food mega-corporations profit handsomely from both unhealthy sides of the cycle.  

Only the consumer gets hurt... financially and personally.  Hurt by their own human weaknesses and natural reactions.  Lured like a hungry mouse to a cheese-laden trap.   Seduced into an endless culinary cycle of temptation and guilt, binge and purge, sin and redemption. 

It's a brilliant bamboozle, worthy of the sharpest flim-flam artists in American retail history.  A type of bait-and-switch trick that's engineered to be nearly irresistible to a public enamored of its junk food habits. 

And as long as consumers continue to take the fake-food diet-industry bait, this destructive, greedy cycle will continue to flourish. 

Carl's Jr, Hardee's: Sex, Lusty Decadence with Salt, Sugar, Fat

Carl's Jr has finally abandoned all pretense of its former image of offering a panoply of heart-healthy (but quite delicious) fast food options.  

Instead, the 1,400-location western-states fast-food purveyor is gleefully appealing to the lustiest cravings of the I-don't-give-a-damn crowd.  (Carl's Jr also owns the 1,900-location Hardee's chain.) 

"Eat Like You Mean It!" crows Carl's newest round of TV ads, featuring gorgeous models seductively downing sloppy burgers the size of a small child's head. Or shaggy, shirtless surfer boy-men gazing at ocean waves while enjoying an oozing sandwich bigger than some beach balls.   

"All of our products are indulgent, decadent," commented Carl's Jr CEO Andy Puzder to the Los Angeles Times. 

Decadent, indeed! Check-out this remarkably lascivious 60-second fantasy commercial by barely clad super-model Kate Upton:



In case sex isn't enough to lure you to sabotage your health with their addictive calorie-and-cholesterol traps, Carl's Jr has upped the sugar, salt, and fat ante with greasier, tangier, sweeter menu offerings that must set new records of culinary extremism, even among industrial fake-food corporate giants. Among Carl's Jr's concoctions in 2013 are their... 

• Six-dollar Guacamole Bacon Burger (1,120 cal; 2,160 mg of salt; 81 grams of fat)
• Green Burrito Taco Salad (960 cal; 2,000 mg of salt; 60 grams of fat)
• "Low Carb" Breakfast Bowl (900 cal; 2,050 mg of salt; 73 grams of fat)
• Double Six-dollar Burger (1,522 cal; 2,574 mg of salt; 110 grams of fat)

If it's a sugar rush you crave, look no further than Carl's Jr's newest ode to the indulgent, anti-health-food agenda... the Strawberry Pop-Tart Ice Cream Sandwich, which the industrial mega-giant rolled out in commercials invoking sacred deities and featuring majestic classical music. 

With about 13 teaspoons of sugar (51 grams) comprising more than 200 of its supposedly 320 calories, Carl's Jr's Strawberry Pop-Tart Ice Cream Sandwich is truly for the I-don't-give-a-damn-about-diabetes crowd. Be decadent... order two! Live like you mean it!

As if to emphasize the special decadence of this attention-grabbing confection, Carl's Jr introduced it by advertising that "For a limited time, guests can receive a free Strawberry Pop-Tarts Ice Cream Sandwich with the purchase of a Super Bacon Cheeseburger combo at participating Carl's Jr. restaurants."    

The limited-time Super Bacon Cheeseburger features six juicy strips of bacon along with the usual high-calories, high-fat, high-salt fare. What the heck after all that! Why NOT add a Strawberry Pop-Tart Ice Cream Sandwich or two? 

Seriously... does it really matter after a certain decadent, indulgent point? 

I do vaguely remember Carl's Jr, though, when a large portion of their menu... mainly charbroiled chicken sandwiches and generously-stocked salad bars... featured heart-healthy symbols of the American Heart Association. 

Guess those fell by the fast-food wayside years ago, when Carl's Jr stopped giving a hoot about offering a plethora of genuinely healthy options to their customers....rather than only caring about gigantic profits at the expense of American public health. Or caring about you and your family's health. 

Dissecting Wendy's Baconator Burger at International Bacon Day

To mark International Bacon Day, September 18th, Wendy's exuded via email this week:

"Celebrate International Bacon Day with the spokescheeseburger for bacon, Wendy's Baconator. And to make things extra festive, Wendy's is kicking things off with our new collection of bacon-themed desktop, mobile and tablet wallpapers. Download one now!

"... check out the all-new Baconator fan page on Facebook. Who better to recognize bacon greatness than the Wendy's Baconator with its six strips of Applewood Smoked Bacon?"

Never one to miss a sacred, food-related holiday,  I thought I'd learn more about what one enthusiast dubbed "the tastiest sandwich known to man."   After all, the vibrant, healthy actors in Wendy's commercials make savoring the Baconator seem like a hoot-and-a-half to snack on (up to midnight!):



Ingredients of Wendy International's profitable pride and U.S. fast-food joy, the Baconator Double, are:

• Two quarter pound beef patties (seasoned with salt)
• Six slices of bacon (cured with  water, salt, sugar, sodium phosphates, sodium erythorbate, sodium nitrite)
• A "premium buttered, toasted" white bread bun 
• Two slices of American cheese (includes sodium citrate, salt, sodium phosphate, artificial color)
• Mayonnaise (includes high fructose corn syrup, distilled vinegar, salt, calcium disodium EDTA)
• Catsup (includes high fructose corn syrup, corn syrup, salt)

The white-bread bun boasts a long, long list of chemical mystery ingredients. Optionals include the healthier stuff: tomato, lettuce, red onion, and crinkle-cut pickles (preserved in salt, vinegar, lactic acid, sodium benzoate, natural flavors, polysorbate 80). 

Nutritional count for Wendy's Baconator Double is:

• 970 calories (more than two deep-fried Twinkies)
• 570 calories from fat
• 210 mgs of cholestrol (equal to four cups of ice cream)
• 40 grams of carbs
• 2,020 mgs of sodium, which is salt (more than two large tubs of popcorn at Regal movie theaters) 

Hmmmm..... never mind! 

It's well-known that I love scrumptious food. And I love a celebration... any fun, life-affirming celebration.   But I'd also like to live a long, healthy life. 

Too many Baconators, and the only healthy result would be the fat corporate coffers of Wendy's International, Inc., parent company of Wendy's and Arby's, a modern industrial corporation that sold $3.4 billion of fast food in 2010. 

I think I'll mark International Bacon Day with a delicious strip or two of bacon on a salad, instead.

KFC, Jack-in-Box, McDonald's: Legal Deception on "Healthy" Choices

We're livid when car dealers attempt to lure us with bait-and-switch scams. We speak our minds forcefully when we get suckered into any fraud, major or miniscule, be it from useless coupons or crummy products to services that don't deliver.

Sears was actually forced by the FTC, in 1974, to "cease and desist" using  deceptive tactics to draw customers into stores, then "switch their focus to products other than the advertised bargains." For the sake of sales and profits, of course. 

So why, then, do we allow fast food mega-corporations to deliberately fool us with the specter of fresh, healthy salads, when most of their mouth-watering "salad" concoctions are among the highest-calorie, saltiest, least healthy menu items? 

Make no mistake: their ruse is long-pondered, finely-plotted corporate-level sales strategy. 

Busy, beleaguered parents or grandparents of young kids are far more likely to order from McDonald's, Arby's Taco Bell, Jack-in-the-Box, KFC, and the like if they can order healthier for themselves. Or believe they are ordering healthier... The reality is jarring:

Fast Food Purposely Saltier in U.S. to Boost Sales

The purpose of industrial food corporations is to make profits from hawking edible products. Period. 

Health and public good are irrelevant concepts to this singular goal... unless hefty sales will result, of course.

In U.S. fast food, the lure to reeling in rich profits is salt. Loads and loads of salt. As much as it takes to ensure big bonuses for fast food executives. Sort of like using special lures to bait fish... 

Pizzas, burgers, fries, breakfast concoctions, even salads served in the United States are intentionally loaded with more salt than that sold by the same fast food companies in Great Britain, Australia, Canada and often France and New Zealand, per the Canadian Medical Association Journal (CMAJ).

This week, the CMAJ released results of their salt comparisons in 2,124 fast food samples: