This is what they call food now
I hate obscene food. I’ve only written about it once. Chili’s just happened to be the example. It could’ve been any number of places. Beyond the constant stream of ultraprocessed products in the U.S., obscene food stands out as one of the most visible public health threats. It’s excessive. It’s designed to overwhelm. It’s fundamentally inhumane. I could list more examples, but I won’t. If you live in the United States, you’ve seen the commercials. You’ve passed the signs. You may have eaten the food.
The Big Mouth Burger post was a commentary on how we’ve normalized bizarre, massive, nutritionally bankrupt meals and rebranded them as fun, and how we’ve stopped questioning it. That post called out the burger for what it was: a societal pox dressed up as a meal. It was about the utter obscenity of what we now treat as normal.
Chili’s was random and hardly the worst of it. The worst of it is not dinner or even lunch. It’s breakfast, too — a once, relatively wholesome meal.
When breakfast is grotesque
Think outrageous food is only at theme restaurants? It’s not. Just look at the breakfast menu.
Stacks of syrup-drenched pancakes the size of seat cushions. Waffles buried under whipped cream. Cinnamon rolls the size of a basketball. The average brunch order has more sugar than a candy bar and more fat than a drive-thru combo meal. But, because it’s served before noon, it gets a pass. It gets framed as cute. It’s not. It’s a health disaster.
No one would give a child cake and a milkshake and call it a balanced breakfast. Yet, if you swap those for a short stack and a flavored milk or fruit drink, it becomes acceptable. Celebrated, even.
Breakfast has turned into dessert on steroids, and no one’s calling it what it is. Restaurants roll out new variations every season, covered in frosting, filled with chocolate, spiked with liquor. Then they call it indulgent, or comforting. It’s dysfunction cloaked in a warm, maple-scented veneer.
And somehow, shockingly, the more outrageous the dish, the more people want to post it on social. Social feeds are full of melted marshmallows, sugar-glazed bacon and fried pastries stacked sky-high. The message: This is food, and it’s fun.
Of course, we know it’s not always fun. It’s not fun when people spend the rest of the day riding a blood sugar crash… when that single meal shatters any sense of appetite regulation… when this becomes the norm. Or worse, diabetes.
The sweet, salty, sticky compound that used to be a rare treat is now an everyday or any day affair. Back in the day, breakfast was simply a meal to kickstart your day. Now it’s a macabre food exhibition. A tragedy
When “More” replaced “Good”: The rise of absurd food
Massive pizzas that barely fit on the table. Nachos stacked so high they collapse under their own weight. You’ve seen them — mountains of chips buried under a swamp of toppings like ground beef, queso, sour cream, three kinds of salsa, pulled pork, extra cheese, extra bacon, jalapeños, Oreos and guacamole. (Okay. Just kidding about the Oreos. LOL.)
Toppings spill everywhere, sauces flood the plate, cheese smothers everything in sight. And somewhere under the mountain is a meal that got lost on the way. No one orders this because they’re hungry. They order it because it’s a spectacle. There’s a difference between sharing a plate of nachos and scaling one.
Portion size has exploded. A 2021 study published in Frontiers in Psychology examines how increasing portion sizes in the U.S. have contributed to higher energy intake and rising obesity rates. The research indicates that larger portions lead to increased consumption, often exceeding energy needs, thereby promoting weight gain and associated health issues.
Restaurants don’t just serve more. They serve messier, louder and more extreme. Why? Because the more insane the food looks, the more likely it is to be shared on social media. That’s the business model.
Is anyone even asking why a snack that once fed a table now requires a structural support? Because that’s the goal. The bloat. The height. The volume. That’s what sells. Indulgence is one thing; theatre is another. It says a lot that this is what we clap for. That this is what we celebrate.
The point is not so much to finish the meal. The point is that it’s so much. Somewhere along the way, the quantity became the quality. It doesn’t matter if the chips are soggy or if the flavors collapse into one salty blob. If it’s ghoulish enough to post, it’s good enough to eat. This is excess for the sake of it. It’s harmful excess marketed as enjoyment. And the more people buy into this, the more this becomes the standard. This is not a guilty pleasure or even a treat. It’s lunacy.
Insanity on a platter: Gluttony packaged, sold and celebrated
There’s a point where food stops fueling you and starts overwhelming you. Giant pizzas that need a forklift. A towering heap of nachos. These are not meals. They’re events.
This is not nourishment. It’s a show. Restaurants have turned these plates into statements.
Somehow, this became normal. This became a form of entertainment.
But it’s more than a gruesome shenanigan. It’s a clear sign of food gone off track.
This ghastly exhibition of crude excess is not harmless. These garish displays of food encourage gluttony. Food like this blurs appetite signals. It teaches the body to expect more than it needs. And it sets a standard where portion control is non-existent.
Sharing a plate is one thing. Charging headfirst into a grotesque mountain of food is something else entirely. This goes beyond just excessive portions; it’s their ubiquity that’s truly concerning. This didn’t arise from personal choice, but from pure cultural conditioning. The industry shifted the goalpost, until dysfunction became tradition. What was once absurd is now standard.
How dysfunction parades as culture
Loaded nachos stacked a foot high are not food. Instead, they’re part of a culture that treats excess like entertainment. It’s not the ingredients that are the real culprit. The true problem lies in the pervasive American notion that bigger is always better. That more is impressive. That excess equals enjoyment. This culture makes indulgence an event rather than an exception. It pushes people to prioritize spectacle over satisfaction. It rewards consumption over nourishment.
This is far from progress; it’s just dysfunction, covered in cheese and jalapeños.
Of course, the question becomes, “Who benefits from this?” Is it you? Or the business peddling the show?
Why restaurants serve dysfunction and call it dinner
What I’ve described in this post is obscene by design. People aren’t overeating because they lack discipline. They’re overeating because restaurants have made it the default. We’re witnessing —and in some cases, participating in, a system invented to make excess feel normal and keep you coming back for more.
Don’t mistake this for pleasure. This is excess engineered for profit. These plates aren’t designed to feed people. They’re designed to entertain. And when the perverse gets packaged as tradition, no one questions it. Holisticnutritioness.com readers will, though.
Obscene food: The antithesis of holistic eating
The antithesis of holistic eating is engineered excess — vulgar, outsized and built to disrupt any relationship with real food. There’s no care, no connection, no respect for the body, but there are layers of salt, fat and sugar designed to hijack appetite. It doesn’t nourish. It overwhelms. And the more disconnected people become from real food, the easier it is to sell them dysfunction masquerading as tradition. The result is an egregious assault on appetite and awareness. We’re not actually eating, here. Instead, it’s thoughtless consumption, all supported by an industry that gains with every health setback.
Just do this: it’s all I ask
If you’re eating this kind of food, don’t pretend it’s normal. It might be a “treat,”, but it’s still obscene. Avoid labeling it as a reward or a custom. Know what it is. You’re making a choice that’s built to ruin you. It’s not sustainable. It’s not harmless. Keep your eyes open and call it what it is: an unhealthy decision with real consequences. That awareness matters. Don’t let the industry do the thinking for you. Okay? Thank you, friends.
Madness.
We must be diligent, friends. We. Must. Be. Diligent. They hate us.
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