Have any of you heard or seen of this documentary film now in theaters?
Its about a guy who decided to prove that the people who were suing McDonald's for making them fat, were wrong. Well he ended up helping them.
He had a camera follow him around and for 30 days he was only allowed to eat 2 square meals a day at McDonalds. The rules: He had to eat everything on the menu at least once and was only allowed to supersize his meal if asked. If he was asked then he HAD to say yes.
He ate their breakfast menu every morning, usually had a salad for lunch and ate their dinner menu every night. His health was carefully monitored every 8th day by Doctors visits.
Well they stopped him on the 24th day because his health had deteriorated so badly. He gained 26lbs, his cholestorol level went up 42 points and his level of fat in his liver was dangerously high. He couldn't even complete the full 30 days!!!
Of course McDonald's swears this film is totally biased and is trying to pull it out of theaters. I think its reallllllllly scary. It's not like the guy had a double quarter pounder, supersized with the biggest chocolate shake they had 3 times a day, every day. ****, he had a salad and diet coke most times for lunch and he could only supersize when asked by the employees. The rest of the time he had the small size.
Just an interesting topic I thought I would share....
Last edited by Cinnymamma; 05-31-2004 at 02:59 AM.
Reason: Edited for speelllling LOL!
Yeah I have heard of it - will rent it on video I think! But as far as being realistic, I dunno. I mean, wasn't he eating to the point of vomiting afterwards? Or was that only with one super-sized meal at first?
IMHO, everybody knows McDonald's can suck. The public don't go there for the salads and the yogurt, but what they are famous for, the fries, the huge burgers, at cheap prices. His deteriorating health in 24 days is scary, I agree, but Americans are still getting more and more obese every day, and their addiction to massive servings of unhealthy foods is the REALLY scary thing, I think...
Hmmmmmmmmmmmm, I don't remember reading or seeing anything about him vomiting. My understanding is that he ate normally, just fries, a drink and a sandwich or whatever. The info. I got was from a segment on a 60 minutes type show and from an article I read on AOL about it. I am curious to see what it's all about so I will probably rent it too.
I also read that McDonalds is removing it's supersize portions by the end of this year, but they say it has nothing to do with this documentary.
I agree with you though, common sense. You can't blame someone for making you fat when you have the choice not only to go there or not, but to pick what you get to eat. Americans just have become accustomed to TOO MUCH at a time. Remember when the quarter pounder was the biggest thing on the menu and now we've DOUBLED that!
I hadn't heard he ate anything but supersized EVERYTHING. Makes one wonder if he exercised. That'd be an interesting study. Have 2 people. They eat the same thing every day, but one exercises and the other doesn't. Gee,,,wonder which would gain more weight?
The Boston Globe's review - which includes some fun facts from the film - eeeeks! Including this tidbit: "McDonald's announced recently that it plans to phase out super-size portions by the end of 2004 and has also launched a line of "Go Active! Adult Happy Meals" that includes salad, water, a pedometer, and a leaflet promoting the benefits of walking. In a remarkable coincidence, the new Happy Meals went on sale yesterday, a day before "Super Size Me" opened nationally." HMMMMMMMM indeed!
Super Size Me
'Super Size Me' makes for meaty viewing
By Ty Burr, Globe Staff
Boston Globe
Published: 05/07/2004
Morgan Spurlock's outrageously amusing "Super Size Me" is the redheaded stepchild of Michael Moore and "Jackass," a low-budget nonfiction stunt with a sharp point of view, a sheaf of alarming statistics, and the willingness to entertain us until we cry uncle. Like "Bowling for Columbine," it's less a documentary than a provocumentary, and, like Moore, Spurlock is a born showman. It's one thing to rail against Fast Food America and the burgeoning obesity epidemic. It's another to eat nothing but Mickey D's for a solid month and record what happens.
Spurlock got the notion a few years back while watching news stories about two women who sued McDonald's over their weight gain, and lost. The company's defense was that its food is perfectly healthy, so the filmmaker, 33, put the matter to a test: three square meals of McDonald's food a day, and he had to accept a super-size portion if offered.
In the full spirit of deadpan mockery, Spurlock first gives himself a weigh-in: a cardiologist, nutritionist, and general physician look him over and pronounce him to be a fit, 185-pound ex-smoking New Yorker. Then it's off to the Golden Arches, to the horror of his vegan chef girlfriend and his own stomach lining: The "Super Size Me" crew captures Spurlock's first burger and fries coming back up in all their Technicolor splendor, a scene that should endear the movie to the teenagers who need to see it most.
As the 30-day diet wends onward and the director balloons into a dazed McNugget junkie, the film throws out dozens of greasy factoids: The number of people McDonald's feeds daily is greater than the population of Spain; 60 percent of Americans are overweight; 40 percent eat out each day; the average American child recognizes Ronald McDonald more easily than George Washington or Jesus; a 7-11 Double Gulp has 48 teaspoons of sugar in its half-gallon of soda. My favorite: French fries are this country's most consumed vegetable.
It's not all genial agitprop. Spurlock interviews Don Gorske, a Wisconsin McDonald's fanatic and Guinness record holder who claims to have eaten two Big Macs a day for 30 years; he's as skinny as a post, so there. The director also speaks to nutritionists and other specialists, discusses the compromised state of food in America's public schools, and muses on the perils of being a snack food executive: Baskin-Robbins heir John Robbins (author of "Diet for a New America") talks about his ice-cream-related health problems and we hear about Ben's (of Ben & Jerry's) quintuple bypass. Spurlock also spends a lot of time trying to get McDonald's Jim Cantalupo on the phone; he never did and never will, since the CEO died of a heart attack April 19 at 60.
Throughout, "Super Size Me" keeps returning in increasingly woozy circles to that diet, and the end results are enough to put you off the trough for good. Spurlock gains 25 pounds and suffers chest pains, depression, and "McStomach-aches." His cholesterol tests and other blood work set off air-raid klaxons, and one of his doctors proclaims the filmmaker's liver "obscene." Let's not talk about what it does to his libido.
The company has an easy defense: No one's supposed to eat only at McDonald's. Except that many customers come close -- the marketing department calls them "heavy users" and would dearly love to increase their numbers. Besides, if many Americans aren't eating at McDonald's, they're at Burger King or Taco Bell or KFC or any of the other lard barns across the country.
With "Super Size Me," Spurlock gleefully martyrs his body to our sense of outrage. McDonald's announced recently that it plans to phase out super-size portions by the end of 2004 and has also launched a line of "Go Active! Adult Happy Meals" that includes salad, water, a pedometer, and a leaflet promoting the benefits of walking. In a remarkable coincidence, the new Happy Meals went on sale yesterday, a day before "Super Size Me" opened nationally.
Nice stab at corporate responsibility, but you may find more nutrition in the food for thought Spurlock offers; at the very least, there are more laughs. I don't usually make recommendations of this kind, but if you or your kids have gone to a burger joint in the last few weeks, you really do need to see this movie.
And maybe go easy on the Goobers while you're there.
Noooooooooo wonder he puked it back up if he was eating Vegan-style before that! I know he did his regular routine every day (still excersizing the same, no more-no less) but I wonder if the fact that he changed eating styles so dramaticaly had anything to do with how his body reacted. It doesn't say he was a vegan too, but I can only imagine if your girlfriend is a vegan chef that you must eat like that at least some of the time.
Actually I read in another review that he stopped all exercise while filming because most Americans don't exercise - so he wanted to get the full effect
BLECK! I admit, I eat junk food sometimes (Pizza Hut is my downfall) but I could not force myself to eat it for a month straight. It would not be a pretty sight! Besides, with the family history of heart problems and high cholesterol, I would probably keel over within 2 weeks.
Guess we'll just have to rent it and review it after. Either way it's disgusting. I'm a taco bell fanatic myself. That is what my "last meal" usually is.
Grease was probably pouring outta him by the 24th day!! YUCKY although on my carb fest this weekend I did eat a Big Mac and it tasted Gooooddd!! hahahaha
Super Size Me?
The Boston Globe's Review
