In a shocking turn of events, dieticians are not enthused by KFC's new Double Down. The sandwich, which consists of two pieces of chicken surrounding bacon and cheese, is somehow considered less than healthy. Even the restaurant itself isn't recommending it become part of your average dinner, with KFC's chief marketing officer Dan Howe saying "We wouldn't recommend consumers eat this all the time." Instead, he recommends it as an occasional indulgence, presumably in order to show those intestines who is in charge.
Dieticians are concerned that such a blatantly unhealthy food is going to lead to expanding waistlines and general poor health. Somehow, I do not actually think they have much to worry, and that Howe is completely right about the sandwich not being an every day item. In fact, I would wager that is the entire point, to exploit some morbid curiosity and get people to test what they can handle.
Since it was unveiled, the Double Down has garnered a lot of attention for KFC, as intrepid diners see if they can stomach eating a menu item that is plainly a bad idea. KFC knows that people are going to try to eat the extreme foods just to say they can, and if their friends get the normal menu items in the process, so much the better.
The difference with the Double Down is that this is KFC doing it themselves, as many previous extreme food experiments have just taken other regular menu items and combined them in creative-yet-unhealthy ways. Generally, people will eat them to show off to their friends and prove that they are the master of their internal organs. Instead of a do it yourself combo of, for example, a chicken burger inside a cheeseburger, KFC has taken one undoubtedly foolish idea - a chicken sandwich made entirely out of chicken - and marketed it to the crazy people who want to try the extreme foods. All they need to do now is toss in a ridiculous hot sauce and they've got the perfect borderline inedible creation.
This is exactly what the niche market wants, and KFC has made no attempt at pretending this is going to be replacing regular chicken buckets as their go to menu item of choice. I would venture a guess that this menu item will last only as long as the novelty is around, and get swiftly dropped once everyone who wants to can honestly brag that they ate a Double Down and didn't need a single bypass.
I can understand the concern of the nation's dieticians, this is plainly not going to be part of a balanced breakfast. If people ate it regularly, there could easily be a public health concern, as our collective waistline reached epic proportions. However, while their concerns are well founded, they're not really accounting for the fact that if KFC hadn't taken the opportunity themselves, someone would just make something equally as foolhardy as the Double Down. That chicken burger inside a regular burger is a real thing that some people do at their local McDonalds'.
The Double Down isn't going to be the most popular item on KFC's menu, and I'd venture that they don't want it to be. It's a silly item to draw people in, to capitalize on humanity's strange love of punishing themselves. People will brag about the oddest things, and take strange trials to prove that they can. Now, the fast food industry is actually encouraging it.
