I think my favourite might have been the McGangbang (a McChicken sandwich inside a double cheeseburger)… hideous!

Claire – that website in priceless. Find of the week for me. Funny and disturbingly compelling.

I've checked that potpie and you're right, indeed it weighs 500gm. The question is now whether the Men's Health writer was overdramatising, or in fact reflecting an eating psychology which indeed does treat a "pie" as a one-person event regardless of size.

As for those delicious Oreo shakes, I have definitely known people whose uncontrollable eating behaviour would support consuming something like that a number of times a week (or think office-worker foodhabits like saccharine coffee-chain frippyfrappysyrupygrandynotcoffees with a side of megamuffin… every day for brekky or morning tea).

More issues I'd love to develop, but I think I'll have to save those for another article

@Claire: thanks for that link!

…back to my noodle example (I'm not letting this one go!). It is devoid of any nutrition whatsoever, except for carbs and fats. I remember a particular Japanese-sounding brand of instant noodles in the 90s. I used to buy them on the odd occasion as they were relatively healthy, lower in fat (saturated or otherwise), higher in protein, etc. Well, the nutrient composition of this product has changed beyond recognition in the last decade – what once went into a typically healthy pseudo-Japanese ramen now reads no differently from a greasy wheaten lump manufactured by cheap labour in a dodgy third-world backwater, which I think it actually now is. All in the name of globalisation.

Further, I presume Mrs (Ms?) Callender's potpie would contain some broccoli, perhaps some carrot or onions, and with a little luck, some cheese. Your yumcha example would contain meat, veg, a few carbs, fats, etc. In other words, something resembling a balanced meal.

"Dotty"

I would want further and better particulars on the potpie, for example, weight, ingredients, etc. It's a main course, so it must weigh at least 500 grams if it's going to feed two people, right?

To be honest, I think the world (fit Americans included) is just piling on the bandwagon to sink the boot into American blubber. I bought a pack of instant noodles on the weekend (don't crucify me, at least not yet). It weighed 85 grams, and wouldn't you believe it, it was around 30% fat, with 60% of that being saturated fat. Yep, based on my modest estimation above, my noodles outpunch and outclass the potpie pound-for-pound. That's what happens when you deep-fry a noodle cake in a nourishing palm oil-based slurry. And these noodles and their relatives (believe it or not, some even less healthy) fill up at least six whole shelves in my local supermarket! But I don't see anyone lining up to take a shot at the noodle manufacturers. Perhaps because noodles are "Asian food" and "Asian food" is meant to be healthy, or at any rate, healthier than "American food."

I am not encouraging the consumption of calorific pseudo-foods, but I think some perspective is needed in view of the "everyday killers" that are readily available worldwide but yet don't seem to attract any attention or angst from the healthy-eating crowd.