June 17, 2025 • 18 mins
Welcome to the "You’re Not Gonna Make It" podcast, where I discuss topics that make you feel like humanity’s not gonna make it.
This episode: This is my Super Size Me.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Kevin Tejada:
You remember that movie, Super Size Me, where that guy ate nothing but McDonald's (00:28):
undefined
Kevin Tejada: for 30 days and he fucked up his health a lot? (00:32):
undefined
Kevin Tejada: This episode is my Super Size Me with Burger King. Except I'm not going to fucking (00:35):
undefined
Kevin Tejada: eat Burger King. I already did that. (00:40):
undefined
Kevin Tejada: But it's more like my personal vendetta against Burger King because fuck him. (00:41):
undefined
Kevin Tejada: By the way, did you know in that documentary, the guy Morgan Spurlock, (00:46):
undefined
Kevin Tejada: he was actually drinking a bunch during that. (00:50):
undefined
Kevin Tejada: So a lot of the liver-related health issues he was going through was from drinking? That's crazy. (00:51):
undefined
Kevin Tejada: I mean, even if you take that away, eating McDonald's for 30 days is going to fuck you the fuck up. (00:56):
undefined
Kevin Tejada: So it doesn't invalidate it. (01:02):
undefined
Kevin Tejada: But yeah, some of that liver shit was exacerbated quite a lot by drinking. (01:03):
undefined
Kevin Tejada: So what's Burger King? If you're not (01:08):
undefined
Kevin Tejada: food chain behind McDonald's. I think they call it Hungry Jack's in Australia, which is cooler. (01:17):
undefined
Kevin Tejada: Some of you, when you hear Burger King, you might think of that creepy mascot (01:25):
undefined
Kevin Tejada: they have Or that racist guy on the JetBlue airplane But when I hear Burger (01:29):
undefined
Kevin Tejada: King, I think, fuck me, that's probably why (01:35):
undefined
Speaker3: I was so damn fat Let (01:38):
undefined
Kevin Tejada: Me explain My parents were divorced when I was 7 years old (01:41):
undefined
Kevin Tejada: Now, as it usually goes with parents who divorce, they share custody of the (01:46):
undefined
Kevin Tejada: kids So me and my sister would be brought back and forth to my father, my mother. (01:51):
undefined
Kevin Tejada: And the rendezvous point they chose was somewhere in between where they lived. (01:57):
undefined
Kevin Tejada: And it happened to be a food spot called Burger King. (02:02):
undefined
Kevin Tejada: I remember the schedule was Tuesdays, Thursdays, every other weekend. I was with my dad. (02:05):
undefined
Kevin Tejada: So Tuesdays, Thursdays, every other weekend, at least I'd be at Burger King. (02:11):
undefined
Kevin Tejada: And since I'm there, I'm a fat fucking kid. (02:17):
undefined
Kevin Tejada: Well, I wasn't that fat at the time But I still, I was fat (02:19):
undefined
Speaker3: I was like, (02:23):
undefined
Kevin Tejada: Hey, I want Burger King I'm hungry Or my parents would be like, (02:24):
undefined
Kevin Tejada: yeah, let's eat There's food right here So for several years, (02:27):
undefined
Kevin Tejada: we ate Burger King A lot My sister and I gained a lot of weight I remember in the first grade (02:31):
undefined
Kevin Tejada: When I'm already seven years old So I guess, I was already pretty fat Before (02:39):
undefined
Kevin Tejada: I started Burger King But in first grade, at seven years old I weighed 127 (02:42):
undefined
Speaker3: Pounds And I remember that being a big deal because in the gym class (02:47):
undefined
Speaker1: When they were weighing us, the girl next to me was like, whoa. (02:52):
undefined
Speaker1: And I was like, oh, oh, is that really bad? (02:55):
undefined
Kevin Tejada: Oh, no. So from that onward, I was just eating more and more Burger King. (02:58):
undefined
Kevin Tejada: So you can imagine that doubling that weight was very easy. (03:03):
undefined
Kevin Tejada: And then over the next decade, age 16, I was 244 pounds. (03:08):
undefined
Kevin Tejada: Now eventually I did lose 100 pounds Got to 144 and then I gained weight On purpose (03:14):
undefined
Speaker3: To gain strength (03:19):
undefined
Kevin Tejada: But yeah Burger King was a big big part of that (03:21):
undefined
Speaker2: I've been to. (03:25):
undefined
Kevin Tejada: Burger King so often as a kid that I have a separate memory bank just for Burger King. (03:26):
undefined
Kevin Tejada: I remember getting like Backstreet Boys toys at NSYNC. I remember, (03:31):
undefined
Kevin Tejada: who's the guy with the goatee? Is it another Kevin? (03:35):
undefined
Kevin Tejada: He had like this blue cloak. It was pretty cool. I remember the play areas in (03:38):
undefined
Kevin Tejada: Burger King that some of them had. I remember ripping my pants in one of them (03:44):
undefined
Kevin Tejada: and it being really awkward. (03:47):
undefined
Kevin Tejada: I had to pull my oversized shirt under me like a fucking weird diaper to walk (03:48):
undefined
Kevin Tejada: out. so everyone didn't see my child anus or whatever. (03:52):
undefined
Kevin Tejada: I remember they had this little computer thing where you could learn about planets and astronomy and shit. (03:57):
undefined
Kevin Tejada: Did Burger King have the green ketchup for Shrek or was that McDonald's? I forgot. (04:03):
undefined
Kevin Tejada: Did they have the Pokemon, you know, the golden Pokemon things and the Pokeballs (04:07):
undefined
Kevin Tejada: too or is that McDonald's too? I don't know. (04:11):
undefined
Kevin Tejada: I've been to both a lot, but Burger King is the rendezvous point that fucked me the fuck up. (04:13):
undefined
Kevin Tejada: I remember in middle school, I think I was 11 years old, (04:19):
undefined
Kevin Tejada: i swore off burger king so what it was like four five years or whatever it was (04:22):
undefined
Kevin Tejada: and i remember which age i stopped pretty sure it was the summer that i entered seventh grade (04:29):
undefined
Kevin Tejada: the summer preceding seventh grade or maybe eighth grade (04:37):
undefined
Kevin Tejada: so you know four or five years of burger king and i (04:40):
undefined
Kevin Tejada: just stopped i'm like fuck this shit it's bad (04:42):
undefined
Kevin Tejada: and to this day i don't think i've eaten burger king at all i feel like i've (04:46):
undefined
Kevin Tejada: eaten a fry in the last like two decades or something maybe but i don't remember (04:51):
undefined
Kevin Tejada: the context but pretty much i've not eaten burger king since then and i i mean (04:57):
undefined
Kevin Tejada: for various reasons i won't hell maybe in a different country i'll try it out but (05:01):
undefined
Kevin Tejada: yeah i i have a personal vendetta against burger king they basically hypercharged my obesity as a As a (05:06):
undefined
Speaker3: I was still going to Burger King At random times because you know My parents fed us (05:17):
undefined
Kevin Tejada: But yeah those few years Those several years of going back and forth Getting (05:23):
undefined
Kevin Tejada: Burger King Every other day pretty much (05:28):
undefined
Speaker3: Really fucks you up (05:30):
undefined
Kevin Tejada: They did have good milkshakes, though. I will say that. Dipping the fry in the milkshake. Ooh, man. (05:33):
undefined
Kevin Tejada: I mean, fast food is complete dog shit for you. But if you say it tastes bad, you're fucking lying. (05:40):
undefined
Speaker3: You're full of shit. (05:46):
undefined
Kevin Tejada: Anyway, let's zoom out a bit from me and my childhood. So a lot of this stuff (05:48):
undefined
Kevin Tejada: won't come as a surprise. (05:53):
undefined
Kevin Tejada: Because everyone knows fast food is. I did an episode on fast food before. (05:54):
undefined
Kevin Tejada: But like I said, Burger King, I specifically fucking hate. (05:58):
undefined
Speaker3: Because they basically made me a fat teenager, (06:01):
undefined
Kevin Tejada: Along with obviously my parents' choices. I'm not going to blame myself at that (06:04):
undefined
Kevin Tejada: age because as a kid, you don't know what is good, what is not. (06:08):
undefined
Kevin Tejada: At least in America and Japan, they do. They teach you that. (06:12):
undefined
Kevin Tejada: As a kid, I don't know. What am I going to tell my mom? (06:15):
undefined
Kevin Tejada: Mommy, I don't want to go to Burger King. (06:18):
undefined
Speaker1: They have too many calories in their ultra process. Like what the fuck? (06:20):
undefined
Speaker1: That's not going to happen. (06:23):
undefined
Kevin Tejada: I just eat whatever my parents put in front of me. Now, when you're in your (06:24):
undefined
Kevin Tejada: 20s and you're still overweight, That is your fault, okay? (06:29):
undefined
Speaker3: When you're a kid, (06:32):
undefined
Kevin Tejada: It's not your fault. It's the parents' fault. I love my parents, (06:33):
undefined
Kevin Tejada: but 100% it was their fault I was fat as a kid. That shit sucked. (06:36):
undefined
Kevin Tejada: Anyway, anyway, despite removing 120 artificial ingredients in 2021, which (06:41):
undefined
Kevin Tejada: reading these like these informational stats but (06:57):
undefined
Kevin Tejada: all almost all this shit is completely common (07:00):
undefined
Kevin Tejada: knowledge you know like the excessive calories sodium saturated fat most of (07:04):
undefined
Kevin Tejada: burger king's signature meals and items they exceed the daily values of you (07:08):
undefined
Kevin Tejada: know salt calories all this shit it's all of it now who are the victims of uh (07:13):
undefined
Kevin Tejada: burger king children seven-year-old children with divorced parents. It's one. (07:19):
undefined
Kevin Tejada: Other people are the ones that say, I don't have time to cook. (07:24):
undefined
Speaker3: But you have time to wait in the drive-thru? It's kind of weird, bro. You know there (07:30):
undefined
Kevin Tejada: Fruit takes no time to prepare at all. I know there are a lot of people out (07:43):
undefined
Kevin Tejada: there with legitimate deficits of time, but don't kid yourself. (07:47):
undefined
Kevin Tejada: You do have some time throughout the week to prepare something. (07:53):
undefined
Kevin Tejada: You don't need to go to Burger King. (07:55):
undefined
Kevin Tejada: And the issue with a lot of fast food and food in general that's (07:58):
undefined
Kevin Tejada: high in sodium is that not only is it usually pretty high (08:01):
undefined
Kevin Tejada: in calories so they you know make you overweight in (08:06):
undefined
Kevin Tejada: that way but they're also high in sodium which (08:08):
undefined
Kevin Tejada: if you don't know if you have a lot of sodium in your (08:12):
undefined
Kevin Tejada: consumption you're gonna be bloated and retain a bunch of (08:15):
undefined
Kevin Tejada: water so you'll look fatter than you are and of (08:18):
undefined
Kevin Tejada: course this all comes back to like you know health issues like heart conditions (08:21):
undefined
Kevin Tejada: and all other types of stuff we know it's fucking bad all right this whole episode (08:26):
undefined
Kevin Tejada: is basically me complaining about how burger king may be fat okay so if i gloss (08:31):
undefined
Kevin Tejada: over a few things here and there fuck off some (08:36):
undefined
Speaker3: Of these stats are (08:38):
undefined
Kevin Tejada: Interesting as someone who has not eaten at burger king in 20 years the bacon (08:39):
undefined
Kevin Tejada: king which i I didn't know it was even a burger, contains 1,700 calories. (08:44):
undefined
Kevin Tejada: That's as much or a bit more than the average woman should be eating per day. (08:50):
undefined
Kevin Tejada: That's crazy. That same burger contains about 50 grams of saturated fat, (08:55):
undefined
Kevin Tejada: which is about four times the amount that the American Heart Association recommends. (09:01):
undefined
Kevin Tejada: But of course, you got to take that with a grain of salt. Not too much salt, though. (09:05):
undefined
Kevin Tejada: Because a lot of these associations and stuff they they give (09:10):
undefined
Kevin Tejada: passes to meat and dairy because they they paid them so (09:13):
undefined
Kevin Tejada: i don't know what i don't know what this means like it's burking is even worse (09:16):
undefined
Kevin Tejada: than the potentially paid off stats of this organization that's crazy shit i (09:20):
undefined
Kevin Tejada: think for the average adult it's like 1800 1900 2000 milligrams of sodium per (09:26):
undefined
Kevin Tejada: day and going over that is a bit much. (09:32):
undefined
Kevin Tejada: So Burger King's double sausage, egg and cheese, croissant, croissant, (09:35):
undefined
Kevin Tejada: which contains that amount, more than that. That's fucking wild. (09:39):
undefined
Kevin Tejada: Croissant, croissant, which, how do you say this? Because I know for French (09:44):
undefined
Kevin Tejada: people, it's like croissant. (09:48):
undefined
Kevin Tejada: So croissant, which, croissant, which, I don't know, whatever. (09:50):
undefined
Kevin Tejada: A quarter pound king with cheese contains about 2000 milligrams of sodium to. (09:53):
undefined
Speaker3: My lord, I always wonder why the double quarter pounder (09:59):
undefined
Kevin Tejada: Wasn't called a half pounder. Does that, does double quarter pounder make it (10:05):
undefined
Kevin Tejada: seem bigger or smaller to people? I don't know. (10:08):
undefined
Kevin Tejada: The Burger King's breakfast sandwiches that they have range from, (10:11):
undefined
Kevin Tejada: well, they're basically 800 calories, which is (10:16):
undefined
Kevin Tejada: Well, more than one third of the calories you should be having per day, (10:20):
undefined
Kevin Tejada: usually, if you don't exercise. (10:23):
undefined
Kevin Tejada: And not even for anything good. If you ate a third or half of your calories (10:25):
undefined
Kevin Tejada: per day of something that was actually good, then that's totally fine. (10:29):
undefined
Kevin Tejada: But if you're eating it with shit, that ain't good. (10:32):
undefined
Kevin Tejada: It's like those people who have 900 calories of ice cream or what do you call that? (10:36):
undefined
Kevin Tejada: The coffees they have at Dunkin' Donuts or Starbucks. You know, (10:41):
undefined
Kevin Tejada: the ice cream stuff they got. (10:44):
undefined
Kevin Tejada: Or the sugary whatever. that's like 900 calories or between like 400 calories (10:46):
undefined
Kevin Tejada: to a thousand excuse me that huge ass range it's like having that in the morning (10:51):
undefined
Kevin Tejada: you basically get all you you wipe out a big part of your budget and it doesn't (10:55):
undefined
Kevin Tejada: even fill you i imagine like it's not really it's not great (11:00):
undefined
Kevin Tejada: in 2018 studies found pfas levels which (11:05):
undefined
Speaker3: I'll explain in a second in whopper packaging that far surpassed what is considered to be safe. (11:10):
undefined
Kevin Tejada: To do with like some kind of plastic or whatever, but it is polyfluorac, fluoracil substances, (11:20):
undefined
Kevin Tejada: basically synthetic chemicals that are called forever chemicals because they (11:31):
undefined
Kevin Tejada: don't really break down properly in the environment or in your body. (11:34):
undefined
Kevin Tejada: So what this means is that the packaging for (11:38):
undefined
Speaker3: Whoppers can increase cholesterol (11:40):
undefined
Kevin Tejada: Levels, change your liver enzymes, decrease vaccine response in children, (11:43):
undefined
Kevin Tejada: increase the risk of certain cancers, disrupt your thyroid, and cause fertility issues. (11:49):
undefined
Kevin Tejada: So eating a Whopper, even touching it, can give you a miscarriage or fuck up (11:55):
undefined
Kevin Tejada: your baby. That's insane. (12:00):
undefined
Kevin Tejada: So usually when I do these episodes, I have AI assistants to give me you know (12:03):
undefined
Kevin Tejada: a few stats some recommendations to deal with certain issues I usually ignore (12:08):
undefined
Kevin Tejada: most of that because it's dumb for example the first one they're giving me is (12:14):
undefined
Kevin Tejada: if you must eat at Burger King no so stop let me stop you right there you mustn't (12:18):
undefined
Kevin Tejada: you you never have to eat at Burger King what they're suggesting is opt for (12:23):
undefined
Kevin Tejada: single patty options without bacon or cheese listen you're already eating Burger (12:27):
undefined
Kevin Tejada: King your day is fucked okay (12:32):
undefined
Kevin Tejada: The combo avoid turning a high all right fuck off with this shit here here's here's the the stuff (12:35):
undefined
Kevin Tejada: don't eat there just don't eat there i don't know how to explain this to you if you must eat there (12:41):
undefined
Kevin Tejada: i don't know what world you live in i don't (12:47):
undefined
Kevin Tejada: even know if the salads are decent if they even had do they have salads (12:50):
undefined
Kevin Tejada: at burger king they have them at mcdonald's but those are those are (12:53):
undefined
Kevin Tejada: fucked as well i don't know if you (12:56):
undefined
Kevin Tejada: eat at burger king get the water the soda is (12:59):
undefined
Kevin Tejada: probably the healthiest thing there which which really says something yeah i (13:02):
undefined
Kevin Tejada: mean the best the best the best advice i can give you is if you must eat there (13:07):
undefined
Kevin Tejada: you have a gun to your head ask the person with a gun to open the the whopper (13:10):
undefined
Kevin Tejada: packaging for you so you don't you know have a miscarriage or something with (13:15):
undefined
Speaker3: Those pfas chemicals (13:21):
undefined
Kevin Tejada: Yeah i don't know uh bird king is is fucking (13:23):
undefined
Kevin Tejada: lame it's not even as good as McDonald's you know (13:26):
undefined
Kevin Tejada: I don't eat McDonald's either but if we're (13:29):
undefined
Kevin Tejada: comparing the two McDonald's kicks the shit out (13:32):
undefined
Kevin Tejada: of Burger King let's be real here just the fries themselves (13:35):
undefined
Kevin Tejada: are fucking sick I know (13:38):
undefined
Kevin Tejada: this because I don't eat McDonald's myself but my girlfriend she doesn't eat (13:42):
undefined
Kevin Tejada: McDonald's either but she does get McDonald's fries every couple months I'm (13:44):
undefined
Kevin Tejada: like well one or two can't hurt and it's true fuck off try the fries they're (13:49):
undefined
Kevin Tejada: great but anything beyond that i don't i don't touch a mcdonald's or anywhere (13:56):
undefined
Kevin Tejada: else that's just fucking poison and (14:00):
undefined
Speaker3: I know when you eat the fries it's just like the saltiest chemically altered (14:03):
undefined
Kevin Tejada: Fucking potatoes but you know my body can handle it it's like once every three (14:08):
undefined
Kevin Tejada: months or some shit i have a handful of fries fuck off point being (14:13):
undefined
Speaker3: Burger king is not (14:17):
undefined
Kevin Tejada: Even as good as McDonald's. You want to poison yourself for, (14:19):
undefined
Kevin Tejada: and you want like second place? Bro, if you're going to eat dog shit, eat at McDonald's. (14:21):
undefined
Kevin Tejada: I haven't eaten like an actual burger at McDonald's for, I think, (14:27):
undefined
Kevin Tejada: maybe, has it maybe been 20 years too? I don't know. I don't remember. (14:32):
undefined
Kevin Tejada: Oh, shit. Actually, I think the reason I stopped eating at Burger King was because (14:37):
undefined
Kevin Tejada: I was reading this book by Kevin Trudeau. (14:41):
undefined
Kevin Tejada: I think it was called The Weight Loss Secrets They Don't Want You to Know About, something like that. (14:43):
undefined
Kevin Tejada: And it just went into detail about various (14:48):
undefined
Kevin Tejada: things but about how just horrible the fast food industry is and the nutrition (14:51):
undefined
Kevin Tejada: part of that and as a as a very young person you know fast food that's not great (14:57):
undefined
Kevin Tejada: but you don't understand quite how depraved that whole that whole industry is so (15:01):
undefined
Kevin Tejada: Then because i was like wow this is basically trash i mean it doesn't taste (15:48):
undefined
Kevin Tejada: bad but it's like i can i can totally live without this this is whatever what (15:51):
undefined
Kevin Tejada: was that book called okay i (15:56):
undefined
Kevin Tejada: got it it's called the weight loss cure they don't want you to know about (15:59):
undefined
Kevin Tejada: Disclaimer apparently Kevin Trudeau is like in some (16:04):
undefined
Kevin Tejada: way shape or form he's a he's a scammer for for (16:07):
undefined
Kevin Tejada: selling something I forget maybe he lied about some things or whatever (16:11):
undefined
Kevin Tejada: I don't know which one I never looked into it but all the stuff that was mentioned (16:13):
undefined
Kevin Tejada: about the food industry I've learned to be true later on in my life and even (16:18):
undefined
Kevin Tejada: more recently found out it's even far worse than that so you know I don't know (16:23):
undefined
Kevin Tejada: what he's scammed people with but it wasn't the food (16:29):
undefined
Kevin Tejada: you know what with the power of editing. (16:32):
undefined
Kevin Tejada: I can just look them, look things up when I don't know. So here's what I found (16:35):
undefined
Kevin Tejada: out in the book, weight loss cure. They don't want you to know about. (16:38):
undefined
Kevin Tejada: Apparently he, he promoted through deceptive infomercials claiming that the (16:41):
undefined
Kevin Tejada: weight loss plan was easy to follow. (16:45):
undefined
Kevin Tejada: But in reality, it described a complex plan requiring near starvation, (16:47):
undefined
Kevin Tejada: dieting, daily injections of a prescription drug and lifelong dietary restrictions. (16:52):
undefined
Kevin Tejada: I had no fucking idea. had mentioned i don't remember mentioning drugs (16:58):
undefined
Kevin Tejada: at all in that that's crazy shit this guy (17:01):
undefined
Kevin Tejada: was peddling fucking these weight loss (17:04):
undefined
Kevin Tejada: drugs back then holy shit if i reread this (17:07):
undefined
Kevin Tejada: book i probably would have thrown it out so i don't remember any of this shit (17:10):
undefined
Kevin Tejada: to be honest with you i don't even remember the stories he would tell me he (17:14):
undefined
Kevin Tejada: would tell in the book about the what he found out from the food industry i (17:17):
undefined
Kevin Tejada: found that stuff to be wild and basically true to this day but the The stuff (17:22):
undefined
Kevin Tejada: you recommended, I don't remember that shit at all. (17:27):
undefined
Kevin Tejada: So, yeah. If you ever read that book, ignore that shit. Anyway, (17:30):
undefined
Kevin Tejada: if you have children and you love them, please don't take them to Burger King. (17:34):
undefined
Kevin Tejada: There's no guarantee they'll lose the weight later on like I did. (17:38):
undefined
Kevin Tejada: You might be damning them to a life of obesity. (17:41):
undefined
Kevin Tejada: Leave a comment saying when the last time you ate at Burger King was. (17:47):
undefined
Kevin Tejada: Hopefully, it was many, many years ago. (17:50):
undefined
Kevin Tejada: If it was never, tell me that. I'm really curious about where you live, (17:52):
undefined
Kevin Tejada: what kind of life you live. (17:56):
undefined
Kevin Tejada: Anyway, subscribe to this if you want to make it, and I'll see you next time. (17:58):
undefined
undefined
Kevin Tejada: for 30 days and he fucked up his health a lot? (00:32):
undefined
Kevin Tejada: This episode is my Super Size Me with Burger King. Except I'm not going to fucking (00:35):
undefined
Kevin Tejada: eat Burger King. I already did that. (00:40):
undefined
Kevin Tejada: But it's more like my personal vendetta against Burger King because fuck him. (00:41):
undefined
Kevin Tejada: By the way, did you know in that documentary, the guy Morgan Spurlock, (00:46):
undefined
Kevin Tejada: he was actually drinking a bunch during that. (00:50):
undefined
Kevin Tejada: So a lot of the liver-related health issues he was going through was from drinking? That's crazy. (00:51):
undefined
Kevin Tejada: I mean, even if you take that away, eating McDonald's for 30 days is going to fuck you the fuck up. (00:56):
undefined
Kevin Tejada: So it doesn't invalidate it. (01:02):
undefined
Kevin Tejada: But yeah, some of that liver shit was exacerbated quite a lot by drinking. (01:03):
undefined
Kevin Tejada: So what's Burger King? If you're not (01:08):
undefined
Kevin Tejada: food chain behind McDonald's. I think they call it Hungry Jack's in Australia, which is cooler. (01:17):
undefined
Kevin Tejada: Some of you, when you hear Burger King, you might think of that creepy mascot (01:25):
undefined
Kevin Tejada: they have Or that racist guy on the JetBlue airplane But when I hear Burger (01:29):
undefined
Kevin Tejada: King, I think, fuck me, that's probably why (01:35):
undefined
Speaker3: I was so damn fat Let (01:38):
undefined
Kevin Tejada: Me explain My parents were divorced when I was 7 years old (01:41):
undefined
Kevin Tejada: Now, as it usually goes with parents who divorce, they share custody of the (01:46):
undefined
Kevin Tejada: kids So me and my sister would be brought back and forth to my father, my mother. (01:51):
undefined
Kevin Tejada: And the rendezvous point they chose was somewhere in between where they lived. (01:57):
undefined
Kevin Tejada: And it happened to be a food spot called Burger King. (02:02):
undefined
Kevin Tejada: I remember the schedule was Tuesdays, Thursdays, every other weekend. I was with my dad. (02:05):
undefined
Kevin Tejada: So Tuesdays, Thursdays, every other weekend, at least I'd be at Burger King. (02:11):
undefined
Kevin Tejada: And since I'm there, I'm a fat fucking kid. (02:17):
undefined
Kevin Tejada: Well, I wasn't that fat at the time But I still, I was fat (02:19):
undefined
Speaker3: I was like, (02:23):
undefined
Kevin Tejada: Hey, I want Burger King I'm hungry Or my parents would be like, (02:24):
undefined
Kevin Tejada: yeah, let's eat There's food right here So for several years, (02:27):
undefined
Kevin Tejada: we ate Burger King A lot My sister and I gained a lot of weight I remember in the first grade (02:31):
undefined
Kevin Tejada: When I'm already seven years old So I guess, I was already pretty fat Before (02:39):
undefined
Kevin Tejada: I started Burger King But in first grade, at seven years old I weighed 127 (02:42):
undefined
Speaker3: Pounds And I remember that being a big deal because in the gym class (02:47):
undefined
Speaker1: When they were weighing us, the girl next to me was like, whoa. (02:52):
undefined
Speaker1: And I was like, oh, oh, is that really bad? (02:55):
undefined
Kevin Tejada: Oh, no. So from that onward, I was just eating more and more Burger King. (02:58):
undefined
Kevin Tejada: So you can imagine that doubling that weight was very easy. (03:03):
undefined
Kevin Tejada: And then over the next decade, age 16, I was 244 pounds. (03:08):
undefined
Kevin Tejada: Now eventually I did lose 100 pounds Got to 144 and then I gained weight On purpose (03:14):
undefined
Speaker3: To gain strength (03:19):
undefined
Kevin Tejada: But yeah Burger King was a big big part of that (03:21):
undefined
Speaker2: I've been to. (03:25):
undefined
Kevin Tejada: Burger King so often as a kid that I have a separate memory bank just for Burger King. (03:26):
undefined
Kevin Tejada: I remember getting like Backstreet Boys toys at NSYNC. I remember, (03:31):
undefined
Kevin Tejada: who's the guy with the goatee? Is it another Kevin? (03:35):
undefined
Kevin Tejada: He had like this blue cloak. It was pretty cool. I remember the play areas in (03:38):
undefined
Kevin Tejada: Burger King that some of them had. I remember ripping my pants in one of them (03:44):
undefined
Kevin Tejada: and it being really awkward. (03:47):
undefined
Kevin Tejada: I had to pull my oversized shirt under me like a fucking weird diaper to walk (03:48):
undefined
Kevin Tejada: out. so everyone didn't see my child anus or whatever. (03:52):
undefined
Kevin Tejada: I remember they had this little computer thing where you could learn about planets and astronomy and shit. (03:57):
undefined
Kevin Tejada: Did Burger King have the green ketchup for Shrek or was that McDonald's? I forgot. (04:03):
undefined
Kevin Tejada: Did they have the Pokemon, you know, the golden Pokemon things and the Pokeballs (04:07):
undefined
Kevin Tejada: too or is that McDonald's too? I don't know. (04:11):
undefined
Kevin Tejada: I've been to both a lot, but Burger King is the rendezvous point that fucked me the fuck up. (04:13):
undefined
Kevin Tejada: I remember in middle school, I think I was 11 years old, (04:19):
undefined
Kevin Tejada: i swore off burger king so what it was like four five years or whatever it was (04:22):
undefined
Kevin Tejada: and i remember which age i stopped pretty sure it was the summer that i entered seventh grade (04:29):
undefined
Kevin Tejada: the summer preceding seventh grade or maybe eighth grade (04:37):
undefined
Kevin Tejada: so you know four or five years of burger king and i (04:40):
undefined
Kevin Tejada: just stopped i'm like fuck this shit it's bad (04:42):
undefined
Kevin Tejada: and to this day i don't think i've eaten burger king at all i feel like i've (04:46):
undefined
Kevin Tejada: eaten a fry in the last like two decades or something maybe but i don't remember (04:51):
undefined
Kevin Tejada: the context but pretty much i've not eaten burger king since then and i i mean (04:57):
undefined
Kevin Tejada: for various reasons i won't hell maybe in a different country i'll try it out but (05:01):
undefined
Kevin Tejada: yeah i i have a personal vendetta against burger king they basically hypercharged my obesity as a As a (05:06):
undefined
Speaker3: I was still going to Burger King At random times because you know My parents fed us (05:17):
undefined
Kevin Tejada: But yeah those few years Those several years of going back and forth Getting (05:23):
undefined
Kevin Tejada: Burger King Every other day pretty much (05:28):
undefined
Speaker3: Really fucks you up (05:30):
undefined
Kevin Tejada: They did have good milkshakes, though. I will say that. Dipping the fry in the milkshake. Ooh, man. (05:33):
undefined
Kevin Tejada: I mean, fast food is complete dog shit for you. But if you say it tastes bad, you're fucking lying. (05:40):
undefined
Speaker3: You're full of shit. (05:46):
undefined
Kevin Tejada: Anyway, let's zoom out a bit from me and my childhood. So a lot of this stuff (05:48):
undefined
Kevin Tejada: won't come as a surprise. (05:53):
undefined
Kevin Tejada: Because everyone knows fast food is. I did an episode on fast food before. (05:54):
undefined
Kevin Tejada: But like I said, Burger King, I specifically fucking hate. (05:58):
undefined
Speaker3: Because they basically made me a fat teenager, (06:01):
undefined
Kevin Tejada: Along with obviously my parents' choices. I'm not going to blame myself at that (06:04):
undefined
Kevin Tejada: age because as a kid, you don't know what is good, what is not. (06:08):
undefined
Kevin Tejada: At least in America and Japan, they do. They teach you that. (06:12):
undefined
Kevin Tejada: As a kid, I don't know. What am I going to tell my mom? (06:15):
undefined
Kevin Tejada: Mommy, I don't want to go to Burger King. (06:18):
undefined
Speaker1: They have too many calories in their ultra process. Like what the fuck? (06:20):
undefined
Speaker1: That's not going to happen. (06:23):
undefined
Kevin Tejada: I just eat whatever my parents put in front of me. Now, when you're in your (06:24):
undefined
Kevin Tejada: 20s and you're still overweight, That is your fault, okay? (06:29):
undefined
Speaker3: When you're a kid, (06:32):
undefined
Kevin Tejada: It's not your fault. It's the parents' fault. I love my parents, (06:33):
undefined
Kevin Tejada: but 100% it was their fault I was fat as a kid. That shit sucked. (06:36):
undefined
Kevin Tejada: Anyway, anyway, despite removing 120 artificial ingredients in 2021, which (06:41):
undefined
Kevin Tejada: reading these like these informational stats but (06:57):
undefined
Kevin Tejada: all almost all this shit is completely common (07:00):
undefined
Kevin Tejada: knowledge you know like the excessive calories sodium saturated fat most of (07:04):
undefined
Kevin Tejada: burger king's signature meals and items they exceed the daily values of you (07:08):
undefined
Kevin Tejada: know salt calories all this shit it's all of it now who are the victims of uh (07:13):
undefined
Kevin Tejada: burger king children seven-year-old children with divorced parents. It's one. (07:19):
undefined
Kevin Tejada: Other people are the ones that say, I don't have time to cook. (07:24):
undefined
Speaker3: But you have time to wait in the drive-thru? It's kind of weird, bro. You know there (07:30):
undefined
Kevin Tejada: Fruit takes no time to prepare at all. I know there are a lot of people out (07:43):
undefined
Kevin Tejada: there with legitimate deficits of time, but don't kid yourself. (07:47):
undefined
Kevin Tejada: You do have some time throughout the week to prepare something. (07:53):
undefined
Kevin Tejada: You don't need to go to Burger King. (07:55):
undefined
Kevin Tejada: And the issue with a lot of fast food and food in general that's (07:58):
undefined
Kevin Tejada: high in sodium is that not only is it usually pretty high (08:01):
undefined
Kevin Tejada: in calories so they you know make you overweight in (08:06):
undefined
Kevin Tejada: that way but they're also high in sodium which (08:08):
undefined
Kevin Tejada: if you don't know if you have a lot of sodium in your (08:12):
undefined
Kevin Tejada: consumption you're gonna be bloated and retain a bunch of (08:15):
undefined
Kevin Tejada: water so you'll look fatter than you are and of (08:18):
undefined
Kevin Tejada: course this all comes back to like you know health issues like heart conditions (08:21):
undefined
Kevin Tejada: and all other types of stuff we know it's fucking bad all right this whole episode (08:26):
undefined
Kevin Tejada: is basically me complaining about how burger king may be fat okay so if i gloss (08:31):
undefined
Kevin Tejada: over a few things here and there fuck off some (08:36):
undefined
Speaker3: Of these stats are (08:38):
undefined
Kevin Tejada: Interesting as someone who has not eaten at burger king in 20 years the bacon (08:39):
undefined
Kevin Tejada: king which i I didn't know it was even a burger, contains 1,700 calories. (08:44):
undefined
Kevin Tejada: That's as much or a bit more than the average woman should be eating per day. (08:50):
undefined
Kevin Tejada: That's crazy. That same burger contains about 50 grams of saturated fat, (08:55):
undefined
Kevin Tejada: which is about four times the amount that the American Heart Association recommends. (09:01):
undefined
Kevin Tejada: But of course, you got to take that with a grain of salt. Not too much salt, though. (09:05):
undefined
Kevin Tejada: Because a lot of these associations and stuff they they give (09:10):
undefined
Kevin Tejada: passes to meat and dairy because they they paid them so (09:13):
undefined
Kevin Tejada: i don't know what i don't know what this means like it's burking is even worse (09:16):
undefined
Kevin Tejada: than the potentially paid off stats of this organization that's crazy shit i (09:20):
undefined
Kevin Tejada: think for the average adult it's like 1800 1900 2000 milligrams of sodium per (09:26):
undefined
Kevin Tejada: day and going over that is a bit much. (09:32):
undefined
Kevin Tejada: So Burger King's double sausage, egg and cheese, croissant, croissant, (09:35):
undefined
Kevin Tejada: which contains that amount, more than that. That's fucking wild. (09:39):
undefined
Kevin Tejada: Croissant, croissant, which, how do you say this? Because I know for French (09:44):
undefined
Kevin Tejada: people, it's like croissant. (09:48):
undefined
Kevin Tejada: So croissant, which, croissant, which, I don't know, whatever. (09:50):
undefined
Kevin Tejada: A quarter pound king with cheese contains about 2000 milligrams of sodium to. (09:53):
undefined
Speaker3: My lord, I always wonder why the double quarter pounder (09:59):
undefined
Kevin Tejada: Wasn't called a half pounder. Does that, does double quarter pounder make it (10:05):
undefined
Kevin Tejada: seem bigger or smaller to people? I don't know. (10:08):
undefined
Kevin Tejada: The Burger King's breakfast sandwiches that they have range from, (10:11):
undefined
Kevin Tejada: well, they're basically 800 calories, which is (10:16):
undefined
Kevin Tejada: Well, more than one third of the calories you should be having per day, (10:20):
undefined
Kevin Tejada: usually, if you don't exercise. (10:23):
undefined
Kevin Tejada: And not even for anything good. If you ate a third or half of your calories (10:25):
undefined
Kevin Tejada: per day of something that was actually good, then that's totally fine. (10:29):
undefined
Kevin Tejada: But if you're eating it with shit, that ain't good. (10:32):
undefined
Kevin Tejada: It's like those people who have 900 calories of ice cream or what do you call that? (10:36):
undefined
Kevin Tejada: The coffees they have at Dunkin' Donuts or Starbucks. You know, (10:41):
undefined
Kevin Tejada: the ice cream stuff they got. (10:44):
undefined
Kevin Tejada: Or the sugary whatever. that's like 900 calories or between like 400 calories (10:46):
undefined
Kevin Tejada: to a thousand excuse me that huge ass range it's like having that in the morning (10:51):
undefined
Kevin Tejada: you basically get all you you wipe out a big part of your budget and it doesn't (10:55):
undefined
Kevin Tejada: even fill you i imagine like it's not really it's not great (11:00):
undefined
Kevin Tejada: in 2018 studies found pfas levels which (11:05):
undefined
Speaker3: I'll explain in a second in whopper packaging that far surpassed what is considered to be safe. (11:10):
undefined
Kevin Tejada: To do with like some kind of plastic or whatever, but it is polyfluorac, fluoracil substances, (11:20):
undefined
Kevin Tejada: basically synthetic chemicals that are called forever chemicals because they (11:31):
undefined
Kevin Tejada: don't really break down properly in the environment or in your body. (11:34):
undefined
Kevin Tejada: So what this means is that the packaging for (11:38):
undefined
Speaker3: Whoppers can increase cholesterol (11:40):
undefined
Kevin Tejada: Levels, change your liver enzymes, decrease vaccine response in children, (11:43):
undefined
Kevin Tejada: increase the risk of certain cancers, disrupt your thyroid, and cause fertility issues. (11:49):
undefined
Kevin Tejada: So eating a Whopper, even touching it, can give you a miscarriage or fuck up (11:55):
undefined
Kevin Tejada: your baby. That's insane. (12:00):
undefined
Kevin Tejada: So usually when I do these episodes, I have AI assistants to give me you know (12:03):
undefined
Kevin Tejada: a few stats some recommendations to deal with certain issues I usually ignore (12:08):
undefined
Kevin Tejada: most of that because it's dumb for example the first one they're giving me is (12:14):
undefined
Kevin Tejada: if you must eat at Burger King no so stop let me stop you right there you mustn't (12:18):
undefined
Kevin Tejada: you you never have to eat at Burger King what they're suggesting is opt for (12:23):
undefined
Kevin Tejada: single patty options without bacon or cheese listen you're already eating Burger (12:27):
undefined
Kevin Tejada: King your day is fucked okay (12:32):
undefined
Kevin Tejada: The combo avoid turning a high all right fuck off with this shit here here's here's the the stuff (12:35):
undefined
Kevin Tejada: don't eat there just don't eat there i don't know how to explain this to you if you must eat there (12:41):
undefined
Kevin Tejada: i don't know what world you live in i don't (12:47):
undefined
Kevin Tejada: even know if the salads are decent if they even had do they have salads (12:50):
undefined
Kevin Tejada: at burger king they have them at mcdonald's but those are those are (12:53):
undefined
Kevin Tejada: fucked as well i don't know if you (12:56):
undefined
Kevin Tejada: eat at burger king get the water the soda is (12:59):
undefined
Kevin Tejada: probably the healthiest thing there which which really says something yeah i (13:02):
undefined
Kevin Tejada: mean the best the best the best advice i can give you is if you must eat there (13:07):
undefined
Kevin Tejada: you have a gun to your head ask the person with a gun to open the the whopper (13:10):
undefined
Kevin Tejada: packaging for you so you don't you know have a miscarriage or something with (13:15):
undefined
Speaker3: Those pfas chemicals (13:21):
undefined
Kevin Tejada: Yeah i don't know uh bird king is is fucking (13:23):
undefined
Kevin Tejada: lame it's not even as good as McDonald's you know (13:26):
undefined
Kevin Tejada: I don't eat McDonald's either but if we're (13:29):
undefined
Kevin Tejada: comparing the two McDonald's kicks the shit out (13:32):
undefined
Kevin Tejada: of Burger King let's be real here just the fries themselves (13:35):
undefined
Kevin Tejada: are fucking sick I know (13:38):
undefined
Kevin Tejada: this because I don't eat McDonald's myself but my girlfriend she doesn't eat (13:42):
undefined
Kevin Tejada: McDonald's either but she does get McDonald's fries every couple months I'm (13:44):
undefined
Kevin Tejada: like well one or two can't hurt and it's true fuck off try the fries they're (13:49):
undefined
Kevin Tejada: great but anything beyond that i don't i don't touch a mcdonald's or anywhere (13:56):
undefined
Kevin Tejada: else that's just fucking poison and (14:00):
undefined
Speaker3: I know when you eat the fries it's just like the saltiest chemically altered (14:03):
undefined
Kevin Tejada: Fucking potatoes but you know my body can handle it it's like once every three (14:08):
undefined
Kevin Tejada: months or some shit i have a handful of fries fuck off point being (14:13):
undefined
Speaker3: Burger king is not (14:17):
undefined
Kevin Tejada: Even as good as McDonald's. You want to poison yourself for, (14:19):
undefined
Kevin Tejada: and you want like second place? Bro, if you're going to eat dog shit, eat at McDonald's. (14:21):
undefined
Kevin Tejada: I haven't eaten like an actual burger at McDonald's for, I think, (14:27):
undefined
Kevin Tejada: maybe, has it maybe been 20 years too? I don't know. I don't remember. (14:32):
undefined
Kevin Tejada: Oh, shit. Actually, I think the reason I stopped eating at Burger King was because (14:37):
undefined
Kevin Tejada: I was reading this book by Kevin Trudeau. (14:41):
undefined
Kevin Tejada: I think it was called The Weight Loss Secrets They Don't Want You to Know About, something like that. (14:43):
undefined
Kevin Tejada: And it just went into detail about various (14:48):
undefined
Kevin Tejada: things but about how just horrible the fast food industry is and the nutrition (14:51):
undefined
Kevin Tejada: part of that and as a as a very young person you know fast food that's not great (14:57):
undefined
Kevin Tejada: but you don't understand quite how depraved that whole that whole industry is so (15:01):
undefined
Kevin Tejada: Then because i was like wow this is basically trash i mean it doesn't taste (15:48):
undefined
Kevin Tejada: bad but it's like i can i can totally live without this this is whatever what (15:51):
undefined
Kevin Tejada: was that book called okay i (15:56):
undefined
Kevin Tejada: got it it's called the weight loss cure they don't want you to know about (15:59):
undefined
Kevin Tejada: Disclaimer apparently Kevin Trudeau is like in some (16:04):
undefined
Kevin Tejada: way shape or form he's a he's a scammer for for (16:07):
undefined
Kevin Tejada: selling something I forget maybe he lied about some things or whatever (16:11):
undefined
Kevin Tejada: I don't know which one I never looked into it but all the stuff that was mentioned (16:13):
undefined
Kevin Tejada: about the food industry I've learned to be true later on in my life and even (16:18):
undefined
Kevin Tejada: more recently found out it's even far worse than that so you know I don't know (16:23):
undefined
Kevin Tejada: what he's scammed people with but it wasn't the food (16:29):
undefined
Kevin Tejada: you know what with the power of editing. (16:32):
undefined
Kevin Tejada: I can just look them, look things up when I don't know. So here's what I found (16:35):
undefined
Kevin Tejada: out in the book, weight loss cure. They don't want you to know about. (16:38):
undefined
Kevin Tejada: Apparently he, he promoted through deceptive infomercials claiming that the (16:41):
undefined
Kevin Tejada: weight loss plan was easy to follow. (16:45):
undefined
Kevin Tejada: But in reality, it described a complex plan requiring near starvation, (16:47):
undefined
Kevin Tejada: dieting, daily injections of a prescription drug and lifelong dietary restrictions. (16:52):
undefined
Kevin Tejada: I had no fucking idea. had mentioned i don't remember mentioning drugs (16:58):
undefined
Kevin Tejada: at all in that that's crazy shit this guy (17:01):
undefined
Kevin Tejada: was peddling fucking these weight loss (17:04):
undefined
Kevin Tejada: drugs back then holy shit if i reread this (17:07):
undefined
Kevin Tejada: book i probably would have thrown it out so i don't remember any of this shit (17:10):
undefined
Kevin Tejada: to be honest with you i don't even remember the stories he would tell me he (17:14):
undefined
Kevin Tejada: would tell in the book about the what he found out from the food industry i (17:17):
undefined
Kevin Tejada: found that stuff to be wild and basically true to this day but the The stuff (17:22):
undefined
Kevin Tejada: you recommended, I don't remember that shit at all. (17:27):
undefined
Kevin Tejada: So, yeah. If you ever read that book, ignore that shit. Anyway, (17:30):
undefined
Kevin Tejada: if you have children and you love them, please don't take them to Burger King. (17:34):
undefined
Kevin Tejada: There's no guarantee they'll lose the weight later on like I did. (17:38):
undefined
Kevin Tejada: You might be damning them to a life of obesity. (17:41):
undefined
Kevin Tejada: Leave a comment saying when the last time you ate at Burger King was. (17:47):
undefined
Kevin Tejada: Hopefully, it was many, many years ago. (17:50):
undefined
Kevin Tejada: If it was never, tell me that. I'm really curious about where you live, (17:52):
undefined
Kevin Tejada: what kind of life you live. (17:56):
undefined
Kevin Tejada: Anyway, subscribe to this if you want to make it, and I'll see you next time. (17:58):
undefined
Popular Podcasts
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.
Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Follow now to get the latest episodes of Dateline NBC completely free, or subscribe to Dateline Premium for ad-free listening and exclusive bonus content: DatelinePremium.com
Las Culturistas with Matt Rogers and Bowen Yang
Ding dong! Join your culture consultants, Matt Rogers and Bowen Yang, on an unforgettable journey into the beating heart of CULTURE. Alongside sizzling special guests, they GET INTO the hottest pop-culture moments of the day and the formative cultural experiences that turned them into Culturistas. Produced by the Big Money Players Network and iHeartRadio.