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CNN Live Today

Supersized Meals Make for Supersized Calories

Aired June 18, 2002 - 12:25   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
KYRA PHILLIPS, CNN ANCHOR: Well, just can't resist those "biggie" fries and big gulp sodas, can you? Well, a new report may make you think again about this. It says that when people super-size their lunch, they are really super-sizing their waistlines. I guess we can probably figure that out.

CNN Medical Correspondent Elizabeth Cohen joins us now from New York with more of the side effects from these super value meals. But boy, they're so good, and they fill the tummy, don't they, Elizabeth?

ELIZABETH COHEN, CNN MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Not only do they fill the tummy, Kyra, but they make you feel like, wow, what a deal. I just gave a little bit more money and look at all the extra food we got.

Well, these nutrition advocacy groups have gotten together today to say, you know, what, you are getting a pretty good value, but you're not getting a good value for your waistline. You're getting a lot more calories, and I think some Americans don't really recognize that or they don't know the real numbers.

So let's talk about the real numbers. We have with us, actually, some food from Burger King. A regular medium value meal, and then a king size value meal. As they say in the south, "Biggie it up." So when you biggie it up, we'll show you what you get.

Here you go with a regular meal. What you have is a regular- sized Whopper and a regular size fries and a regular size drink. And that's a medium value meal.

Now if you come over here, what you're going to see on the other side of the table is a king size value meal. So for just an extra 87 cents, what you get is the biggest thing of fries I have ever seen, and an even bigger burger than the one for the other size meal. And you also get a really, really big thing of soda.

So for 87 extra cents, you get 440 more calories. That's a lot. That's the equivalent of about two candy bars. And all of that for just 87 cents.

Now there are a couple of other examples from this report. They talk about the Big Gulps, and those are the drinks that you get in convenience stores in cups. And you can either get the regular size or the double size. Well the regular size gulp, 89 cents, 150 calories. Double gulp is just 37 extra cents, and you get 450 extra calories. That's a lot.

Let's also take a look at movie popcorn. For movie popcorn, if you spend just $3.13 you get 400 calories. If you spend just an extra 71 extra cents, you get 500 extra calories.

So the message that these nutrition groups are trying to give is, yes, it may seem like a great value, just spend a little more money. Well, for a little more money you're getting a lot of extra calories.

What's interesting about this, Kyra, is that years back, fast food restaurants decided to try low fat and low calories options, and guess what, people didn't want them. Those things basically failed. However, these kinds of value meals, where you get a lot more calories, people love them. They've been big successes -- Kyra.

PHILLIPS: Well what about companies? What are they saying to all of this, and do they really make that much more -- I mean, do they make a good profit off doing it like this?

COHEN: Well the nutrition groups say that they do make a big profit, because for just a little extra cost they get to charge you -- while it may be, let's say, 37 cents, their costs are so much lower than that, that they are making money off of.

Well, when we called some of these groups, they said some interesting things. One convenience store that we called said, look, sure you could take a Coke and you can get an extra large Coke. But we also have bottled water. We also have skim milk.

People are responsible for making their own choices.

We also called Cinnabon, which has the mini Cinnabons and then the big size Cinnabons, and they said, look, these are fun foods. These are foods that people indulge in once in a while. People, of course, are aware that a larger size is going to get them more calories. People want to have fun, people want to enjoy their food. Why not give them the choice?

PHILLIPS: Yeah, that's true. A good choice, and it is very good. It's hard to resist.

Elizabeth Cohen, thanks so much.

COHEN: Thanks.

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