Super Size Me

international | consumer issues | news report

Monday January 26, 2004 21:04

by Gaz - Libertarian

Last February, Morgan Spurlock decided to become a guinea pig. His mission: To eat three meals a day for 30 days at McDonald's and document the impact on his health.

Spurlock charted his journey from fit to flab in a tongue-in-cheek documentary, which he has taken to the Sundance Film Festival with the hopes of getting a distribution deal.

"Super Size Me" explores the obesity epidemic that plagues America today - a sort of "Bowling for Columbine" for fast food.

As well as documenting his own burger-fueled bulk-up, Spurlock travels to 20 cities across America, interviewing people on the street, health experts and a lobbyist for the fast-food industry.

Scores of cheeseburgers, hundreds of fries and dozens of chocolate shakes later, the formerly strapping 6-foot-2 New Yorker - who started out at a healthy 185 pounds - had packed on 25 pounds.

But his supersized shape was the least of his problems.

Within a few days of beginning his drive-through diet, Spurlock, 33, was vomiting out the window of his car, and doctors who examined him were shocked at how rapidly Spurlock's entire body deteriorated.

"It was really crazy - my body basically fell apart over the course of 30 days," Spurlock told The Post.

His liver became toxic, his cholesterol shot up from a low 165 to 230, his libido flagged and he suffered headaches and depression.

Despite making dozens of phone calls, Spurlock fails to get anyone from McDonald's to agree to an on-camera interview. A spokeswoman for McDonald's told The Post yesterday that no representatives from the corporation had seen "Super Size Me."

"Consumers can achieve balance in their daily dining decisions by choosing from our array of quality offerings and range of portion sizes to meet their taste and nutrition goals," McDonald's said in a statement.

Over the course of the film, Spurlock is regularly examined by a gastroenterologist, a cardiologist and SoHo-based general practitioner Dr. Daryl Isaacs.

"He was an extremely healthy person who got very sick eating this McDonald's diet," Dr. Isaacs told The Post.

"None of us imagined he could deteriorate this badly - he looked terrible. The liver test was the most shocking thing - it became very, very abnormal." Spurlock has since returned to normal health. "The treatment was to just stop doing what he was doing," Dr. Isaacs says.

Spurlock, who says he ate at McDonald's only sporadically before his total immersion in the Mickey D's menu, says he even began craving fat and sugar fixes between meals.

"I got desperately ill," he says. "My face was splotchy and I had this huge gut, which I've never had in my life.

"My knees started to hurt from the extra weight coming on so quickly. It was amazing - and really frightening."

Spurlock's girlfriend, Alex Jamieson, was horrified - she's a vegan chef.

"She was completely disgusted by me, not happy at all," he says. "But she realized what my goals were in trying to educate people." Spurlock, a film producer who grew up in West Virginia and studied ballet for eight years, was spurred to make his first feature film while watching TV on Thanksgiving Day, 2002.

"I was feeling like a typical American on Thanksgiving - very bloated and happy on the couch - and at some point on the news they were talking about two women who were suing McDonald's.

"People from the food industry were saying, 'You can't link kids being fat to our food - our food is nutritious.'

"I said, 'How nutritious is it really? Let's find out."

Not surprisingly, Spurlock has steered clear of the Golden Arches since filming wrapped.

"I have not had McDonald's for seven months, but yesterday, during an interview, I had a bite of a Big Mac," he says.

"I chewed it up, swallowed it and I said, 'You know what, I'm pretty much done after that bite.' "

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Comments (8 of 8)

McDonalds no Treat

by Leon

Wed Jan 28, 2004 15:38

some years ago I drove throug the American midwest. Big Mac and Fries was 99 cent.

hard to prepare a nutritious meal at those prices.

Tell your kids the chicken nuggets are made from budgies.

Socio-economics of Mc D's.

by Ali

Wed Jan 28, 2004 15:16

Yes people, but is it art?

While it can be said that the film could focus more on the impact Mc Donalds has on third world countries and within the rural areas of the US itself (Fast Food Nation anyone?) it is important to bear in mind that fast food in the US is a socio-economic issue.

It is a frequent treat for all American kids to be taken out to eat. The better off people go to places where the fryer is not the centre piece, others mostly low-income families go to Mc Donalds. Mc Ds also becomes a source of meals to be eaten instead of homecooked meals. Fresh produce, cheeses and meats are almost twice the price they are in Ireland (despite our inflation). In the US single mothers most work in voucher schemes sometimes up to 40 miles away from where they live. Anyone feel like cooking up something good for the kids upon their return? No, me neither.

...

by Steve

Tue Jan 27, 2004 10:20

stevo_furball at esatclear dot ie

Cannabis isn't addictive though. :P

Regarding BK's comment, this would probably have had less impact if it focused on what MuckDonald's do abroad. People in this part of the world tend to care about themselves above all else, so if you point out what this shite food can do to someone, it's more likely to have a lasting effect.

Did this guy get scurvy?

by David

Tue Jan 27, 2004 02:52

or did he cheat by eatin g the odd orange inbetween meal deals?

McDonalds have NO nutritional value worth mentioning, and from my personal and annecdotal experience it is more addictive than cannabis and more damaging to your health. Mcdonalds and Coca-Cola are without doubt more damaging to western lives than Saddam Hussain and Osama Bin ladin combined

Without even mentioning the environmental impact these corporations are having, their intensive, unimaginably cruel farming practises (that facilitate the spread of disease such as bird flu)

Whatever..

by BK

Tue Jan 27, 2004 01:27

this guys film shows, and why or should he have made it is beside the main points about MC Shites greed and it's consequences on society and the environment. sorry dude that's just the way it is....

Bullshit

by Arts Bum

Tue Jan 27, 2004 00:54

Anyone stupid enough to eat nothing but McDonald's for a month DESERVES to die.

This is a nothing but a worthless publicity stunt along the lines of David Blaine's 'Above The Below' nonsense.

......

Tue Jan 27, 2004 00:43

I eat shit food all the time it's kinda harrd to avoid it!
But I avoid Mc D's shiite not just because of the shite food but because ...........
it promotes intensive farming thus destroying natural environment and ecology (mostly in poorer Latin America), thus encouragi the use of gm foods. cloning, deforestation, loss of an agricultural community, jobs, livlihoods, fucking with culture, the environment, animal rights, labour exploitation,

oh and it turns you into a fat lazy brained zombie

Interesting

by Drbinoche

Mon Jan 26, 2004 21:21

Good idea. I must admit this is a new idea that I am surprised someone has not come up with before. I can't say I totally agree with every aspect of the results. I mean, eating nothing but McDonalds for 30 days, not a balanced diet. And I don't McDs have ever claimed to provide a truely balanced diet. I don't think McDs have ever tried to claim you should eat nothing but McDs food for 30 days. But nonetheless it is a very embarassing situation for em. I might also add that any person who would eat fast food, any fast food, at that rate would obviously be expected to get some sort of unnatural health aspects. You are not meant to eat Fast foods like that. They are designed to provide you with food for when you are on the go. I doubt McDs would ever try to claim they are healthier of better for you than your average home cooked meal. If they have said so, Id like to read it.

But other than that. Of course his health is gonna be affected. They cook red meat in Fat,and chips in Fat. They don't really provide nutritious alternatives to fatty foods. But people, if you don't want to eat it, then DON'T. If you don't want to watch porn, the DON'T. McDs food while it could possibly be addictive to some people, has never been proven to be fully addictive as Nicotine has. When that is proven then they should get royally fucked. All these people in American and around the world who are complaining about McDs making em fat, well they willingly paid for the food and they cannot claim that McDs ever claimed that their food was healthier than fruit. Its a choice they made and they have to pay the price. If I buy a gun and accidently kill myself with it, my family can hardly sue the company for providing the weapon. Its me who does it, they merely provide the means. Whats the alternative, Psych profiling before you order McDs.

And don't say McDs should be taken off the market. Its not going to happen and its over reacting. Hell they never took Cigarettes off the market when they were proven to be more addictive than Coke and Heroin combined. McDs fulfill a part of the food sector that people want. If they didn't, people would not eat there.

I must admire the guys nerve though, very ballsy.

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Comments (8 of 8)