Although a Burger King Whopper with cheese gives you an impressive supply of protein, iron and other minerals, its high amount of fat, cholesterol and sodium makes it an unhealthy food that poses a danger to your cardiovascular health. Eating it on a regular basis could easily cause you to gain excess body fat, suffer from blocked arteries and develop high blood pressure.
Protein, Fiber and Minerals
A Burger King Whopper with cheese provides 35 grams of protein and 3.2 grams of fiber. It is also rich in minerals, giving you 259 milligrams of calcium, 6 milligrams of iron, 57 milligrams of magnesium, 357 milligrams of phosphorus, 534 milligrams of potassium and 5 milligrams of zinc. This equates to about 10 percent of your recommended daily intake for potassium, 20 to 25 percent for calcium and magnesium, 50 to 75 percent for phosphorus and zinc and 100 percent for iron.
One Whopper with cheese has 790 calories, nearly half the number of calories the average person takes in each day. Eating this food regularly increases your likelihood of taking in more calories than you burn and could easily result in weight gain. With 48.44 grams of fat, a Whopper gives you 436 calories from lipids, bringing its fat content to 55 percent of its total calories. To maintain a healthy diet, the Institute of Medicine recommends that 45 to 65 percent of your calories come from carbohydrates, 10 to 35 percent from protein and fewer than 30 percent from fat, so a Whopper, with its fat content alone representing 20 to 25 percent of the average person's total caloric intake, contains an unhealthy abundance of fat that can cause weight gain and cardiovascular disease.
If you have high cholesterol, Burger King Whoppers pose a danger to your health. The National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute recommends taking in fewer than 200 milligrams of cholesterol per day. Each Whopper has more than half of that, with 114 milligrams. When you eat high-cholesterol foods regularly, the cholesterol combines with calcium, fat and other substances to form plaque, which build up inside your arteries, potentially causing a blockage that can result in a heart attack or stroke.
Excessive sodium disrupts your body's water balance and raises your blood pressure, putting you at risk for serious cardiovascular problems. The Institute of Medicine recommends you keep your sodium intake below 2.3 grams a day to protect your heart, but a Burger King Whopper contains more than 60 percent of this, with 1.4 grams. If you eat a large order of french fries with it, your sodium intake increases to more than 2.1 milligrams of sodium in one meal.
- Institute of Medicine: Dietary Reference Intakes -- Macronutrients
- National Heart Lung and Blood Institute: Your Guide to Lowering Cholesterol with Therapeutic Lifestyle Changes
- Institute of Medicine Food and Nutrition Board: Dietary Reference Intakes: Water, Potassium, Sodium, Chloride and Sulfate
- U.S. Department of Agriculture: Burger King, Whopper, With Cheese
- U.S. Department of Agriculture: Burger King, French Fries
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