Carbs with carbs, and a side order of carbs. WTF M & S?

[AudTheDeepMinded]

Good grief, no wonder we have an obesity crisis. Was in M & S cafe for a mid morning coffee and spotted their latest menu. Included is a mac and cheese toasted sarnie, with which you can have a side order of fries for an extra £2. Can't believe they seriously thought this was a good idea.
Should probably have posted this in AIBU! what's the most bizarre offering you have seen on a menu?

@AudTheDeepMinded

Thank you for helping me unpick my thoughts on this, even if some of you are being a little unkind. I agree with what a lot of you say. You can't control what people eat, not should you. I still consider that modelling healthier diets is not a bad thing, nutritious and delicious food does not have to be fat and carb laden. By offering and promoting a meal combination which comprises three lots of fat heavy carb options M & S are not doing this. There is an obesity crisis which is getting worse. A collective effort to help people help themselves surely shouldn't be sneered at as controlling should it?

This just reads as: “I will pretend to agree with some of what you say, but ultimately, I disagree and am totally right.”

@hettol I'm too tired to froth, just fizz about around the edges.
Yes, we do have an aging population,, the two things are not mutually exclusive, tackling one would alleviate pressure on the other surely?

I understood that obesity shortened ones life span?

@FourEyesGood Does it? I interpret yours as 'I'm determined to say something pithy to the OP and join in a pile on'

Chairman (Mao) Diet ... Chairman (control) Mao Diet?

There's a pun just craving emergence, to describe the Diet Police. Legal pun, authoritarianism etc.

I'm off to get some chocolate now.

Even if we didn't have an obesity problem, the ageing population would still be a huge problem for the NHS.

@hettol Great, problem solved then.

@hettol so we shouldn't try to solve any health issues because the NHS is fucked anyway?

Your collective action seems to be focused on a single dish and a single retailer.

I guess you've never heard of a Big Mac, Fries and Coke......

Or even Cheeseburger, Fries and Coke.

M and S meal deal sounds great and normal. Normal people unless they're on Atkins, Keto etc don't actually go around analysing if a meal has all carbs or not.

@AudTheDeepMinded

and I'm not sure it is a sound business decision, would that many people actually want to purchase it?

I'd be up for that! Sure M&S will be pleased with the free advertising. Sounds lovely

After fried Mars bars became a thing, nothing sounds that bad.

I don't see any issue with this being on a menu, because anyone can ultimately choose to order and eat what they wish.

The obesity crisis has much more to do with patterns of what is cooked and eaten over a lifetime, particularly during childhood. If someone is eating a poor diet at home on a daily basis, what's on the menu at M&S isn't really going to change that.

It seems to be a popular menu item as we visit a local M&S cafe once a week and there is always someone having the mac toasty. We are in walking country though so plenty of opportunity to burn those calories.

@Notonthestairs Just symptomatic of a general issue I suppose.
Conversely there has been a huge swing recently towards retailers marketing vegan plant based foods. Though how much of this is down to jumping on a profitable band wagon is debatable. I know that many of those foods are actually relatively unhealthy in terms of processing and sugar and salt. Who knows what the answer is? but that does not mean we shouldn't debate it and try to think of solutions does it?

I love bold food like that. I am not overweight. Its alright to eat like that an odd time? I love lasagna, garlic bread and chips! that's loads of carbs. Growing up we would have lasagna with carrot and broccoli because the lasagna was bad enough so were not allowed to have the chips or garlic bread with it. That's fair enough too cos you are trying to teach kids goodish eating. Now I'm a grownup, I love a carb feast.

I have tried to find out how many calories this has -one website said 637, without the chips. It's a no for me.

No chocolate in my house. Making due with a minced pie.

@fitflopqueen It's the first time I've seen it today. I just thought promoting the triple lot of carbs was excessive.
But maybe preferable to having your arse handed to you on a plate as I seem to be!

@AudTheDeepMinded how on earth have you extrapolated that from my post.

If we want to tackle obesity we need to look at children & schools, not sure why you aren't interested in that?

No one’s forcing you to eat it and it might be the highlight of someone’s day! Especially in winter.

I frequent this place a little too often... Food of the gods

Damn.. Quote didn't work. I was talking about Northern Soul in Manchester

@hettol not sure how you extrapolated that I am not interested in children and schools?
Would love to be sat talking with you in person about this, I'm sure we would be able to be far more respectful about exchanging views than sat behind a keyboard. I'm a nice reasonable person, as I'm sure are you!