Mmmmmm...sammich

Great googly-moogly, I can feel my arteries hardening just by reading about this, and I love it.

As if the Hardee's family of Monster Thickburgers didn't offer enough meat, the company's latest version adds steak meat on top of an already large slab of beef.

The meat-on-meat Philly Cheesesteak Thickburger, launched Tuesday, features one-third of a pound of Angus beef, along with both Swiss and American cheeses, green peppers and onions. And piled atop all of that is thinly sliced steak meat.

"We actually found in this case, the only way to make a burger taste like a cheesesteak was to literally put the steak on it," said Brad Haley, executive vice president of marketing for the St. Louis-based chain.

Personally, I think I'd pass on the green peppers, but that sounds pretty tasty. Unsurprisingly, the usual killjoys have their panties in a twist.

The Center for Science in the Public Interest, a Washington-based advocate for nutrition and health, said Hardee's continues to add unhealthy offerings at a time when the nation is suffering from an obesity epidemic.

"What's next a pork chop on top?" CSPI senior nutritionist Jayne Hurley asked. "I'm always amazed they can always go one step further than I can imagine."

Well, then, I guess we should be on the lookout for a burger topped with a slab of baby back ribs, shouldn't we, Jayne? But last time I looked, we still lived in America, and restaurants are free to sell food to people who are, in turn, free to choose where and what to eat. In other words, fuck off. Anyway, I like Hardee's response:

"We have salads on our menu, we have charbroiled chicken breast and a variety of low-carb options," Haley said. "But we don't see anything wrong with making the delicious, decadent burger available to people who want it.

"You almost get two sandwiches for the price of one."

That's value, people.