A race to the bottom: Burger King launching grilled hot dogs as old-school fast food chains desperately explore the marketing limits of processed junk food

Wednesday, February 24, 2016 by: Daniel Barker
Tags: Burger King, hot dogs, junk food marketing

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(NaturalNews) With the rise of social media, the global domination of the internet, and the way that we have access to more and more information at our fingertips, fast food chains have come into a bit of trouble over recent years. They still have the edge when it comes to convenience, but as we start to care more about what we put into our bodies, as well as the health implications of fast food, chains are having to come up with different marketing tactics to push sales.

As can be seen by Burger King's recent decision to branch out from burgers to hot dogs ...

Hot dog king?

According to The Detroit News, the Miami-based chain is planning to put hot dogs on menus across the U.S., starting this week. This is a bit of a strange move, with the chain having focused on providing a variety of burgers for 62 years, and establishing itself as the second largest fast food chain in the U.S., second only to McDonald's, according to Encyclopedia.

However, Burger King claims that this isn't actually a big change from the normal, with their ability to flame-grill meat meaning that flame-grilled hot dogs are not a huge jump. The president of Burger King North America insists that, "this is probably the most obvious product launch ever" – yet a lot of people are scratching their heads about this latest marketing ploy.

Burger King plans to offer hot dogs at each of its 7,100 U.S. outlets – which is the largest number of locations of all fast food chains in the U.S. There are others who sell hot dogs, such as Sonic Drive-In, but the colossal number of Burger King restaurants means that this move makes them the largest provider of fast food hot dogs in the U.S.

It seems that the two largest fast food giants, Burger King and McDonald's, have been going head-to-head for quite some time, and the decision to push this new processed junk food product out through Burger King stores comes just after McDonald's launched its all day breakfast options.

Health implications of processed and fast foods

The hot dogs are going to be provided by Kraft Heinz who owns Oscar Mayer, an established provider of processed and fast foods. The problem with these foods is that they have massive impacts on our health – yet their convenience generally wins out, meaning that people with their increasingly busy lives will always turn to fast food restaurants.

But according to Healthline, the health implications of fast food are catastrophic. The caloric intake that comes from just one fast food meal is way above what you should be aiming for in one meal, and most of them are packed full of carbohydrates. Your body breaks carbs down into sugar, and when you eat large volumes of carbs, you cause a spike in your blood sugar that can alter your natural insulin response. Frequent spikes in blood sugar can contribute to type 2 diabetes.

Meanwhile, the added sugars that are often incorporated into fast foods offer no nutritional value, but add extra calories. These add up to an increase in weight, which contributes to heart disease. The salt in fast food is also damaging to your heart health – causing you to retain water and suffer from higher blood pressure, which increases your risk of heart attack, kidney disease and stomach cancer.

This isn't the first time a fast food chain has taken a risk with a new menu launch, and it won't be the last. It is possible that the new hot dogs at Burger King will totally flop. However, it is yet another example of fast food chains trying to market to the masses and pump us full of processed junk food that is doing serious damage to the health of millions of Americans.

Sources include:

DetroitNews.com

Encyclopedia.com

Healthline.com

Science.NaturalNews.com