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.
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.
What to Get Instead
Other items on the menu can make a trip to Burger King easier on your waistline and overall health. Opt for a Whopper Jr. sandwich, which has less than half the calories of the full size version, or get a salad with grilled chicken to shave off calories and fat. Unfortunately, there are no low-sodium options on the menu, but a 4-piece order of nuggets keeps the sodium moderate at 310 milligrams.