A recent online headline caught my eye: “Michigan Baseball Park Offers 4,800 Calorie Burger.” Hoping it was a joke, I clicked on the headline, but saw that it was no laughing matter.

The article described a new ballpark burger as a “4-pound, $20 burger featuring five beef patties, five slices of cheese, nearly a cup of chili and liberal doses of salsa and corn chips, all on an 8-inch sesame-seed bun.”

And that’s not all ― anyone who can eat the whole thing in one sitting is awarded a free t-shirt.

So, who’s to blame in the case of this colossal hamburger? The people selling it, or the people attempting to eat the whole thing for fame and a free t-shirt?

Everybody likes a good value these days, and research shows that people tend to eat as much as they are served, regardless of food quality, hunger level, or portion size.

“Super-size me!”

This mega-food story arrived on the scene just a day after the “Want To Live Longer? Cut Back On Red Meat” headline touting research showing an increased risk of mortality from heart disease and cancer for people who ate red meat daily over a 10-year period.

Producing a burger that contains enough calories to feed at least 2-1/2 people for a whole day and challenging people to eat the whole thing in one sitting flies in the face of decency and common sense.

The American food industry, for the most part, is shameless in its quest to make money at the expense of public health. From factory farming to high-fructose corn syrup, manufacturers justify the means with the ends ― as long as we buy it, they’re going to keep selling it, whether or not the products contribute to disease, disability, and death in the long run. Regardless of the fact that today’s children are predicted to have shorter life spans than their parents, the bottom line is the dollar sign.

A myriad of factors contribute to the problem of overweight and obesity in America, but large quantities of cheap, fatty foods is a big one. A 4,800 calorie burger is roughly equivalent to 6-1/2 servings of the McDonald’s double quarter-pounder with cheese, which would include 273 grams of fat, not including the chili and corn chips. That’s not good for anybody, even if you’re an NFL linebacker. And studies show that even a single high-fat meal can cause changes in coronary arteries that can trigger a heart attack.

Personal responsibility plays a big role in all of this as well. Just because it’s available, doesn’t mean we have to buy it and eat it. As consumers, we have the power to vote with our dollars, and demand higher-quality food. We have to take full responsibility for what and how much we eat, for finding ways to become more physically active, for quitting tobacco use, and for getting regular preventive health care.

When churning out poor quality, low-nutrition food ceases to be profitable for the food industry, they’ll get the message loud and clear.