Registered: Feb 2001
Location: Oakland-ish
Posts: 6041

Love those trips to McDonald's? What if that was all you could eat for a month? Filmmaker enters a supersize nightmare.


Filmmaker Morgan Spurlock spent a month doing what 10-year-olds only dream of. He ate nothing but food from McDonald's. No side trips to Burger King, no midnight raids on the fridge in a desperate search for salad greens.

The onetime playwright and former beach volleyball announcer spent $100, 000 putting down on film what happened to his body, which was in quite good shape when the project started.

By the end, he had gained 25 pounds and added 65 points to his cholesterol count. His head ached continually and he was depressed. His doctors were referring to his liver as pâté and his girlfriend reports -- on camera -- that his erections just weren't what they used to be.

"She was interviewed when I wasn't around, so when I saw all that footage I was like, 'This is fantastic. We have to put that in,' " he said in a telephone interview last week.

Spurlock's film, "Super Size Me," is a low-budget, Michael Moore-style documentary that pounds as hard at McDonald's as Moore did at General Motors in "Roger & Me."

The film, which won documentary director honors at the Sundance Film Festival in January, comes to the San Francisco Film Festival Wednesday and opens for wide distribution May 7.

Spurlock's effort to get America off Big Macs is being celebrated by nutritionists and food activists, and vilified as junk science by people who blame the nation's girth on a lack of personal responsibility and exercise. To prove Spurlock wrong, an online columnist for a Portsmouth, N.H., newspaper is spending a month eating nothing but McDonald's in effort to lose weight by choosing healthier options from the McDonald's menu. (Find her diary at www.seacoastonline.com/news/debunk.htm.)

The column delights Spurlock, who hopes everyone who sees his film will think about what they choose to eat. "The fact is that most people don't eat healthily. We wanted to do a film that deals with corporate responsibility and what they're selling that passes for food in this country. We wanted to shake trees," he said. "But we can't keep blaming everyone. We are in charge of what we put in our mouths."

It is no mystery that the nation is in the throes of an obesity crisis. Two-thirds of Americans are overweight. The number of obese teenagers has tripled since 1980. About 5 percent of all adults carry 100 more pounds than they should -- the size at which doctors recommend a $25,000 operation commonly referred to as stomach stapling.

Nutritionists can lecture about poor diets and a lack of exercise. Activists can blame "the toxic food environment." Lawyers can debate personal versus corporate responsibility. But nothing makes the case better than Spurlock leaning out his car window and puking up a double Quarter Pounder with cheese.

Spurlock's approach was undeniably extreme. He supersized his meals whenever a counter worker made the offer, and ordered everything on the menu at least once. He also stopped exercising.

As a result, he was often eating twice as many calories a day as he needed. And as any nutritionist will tell you, it only takes an extra 100 calories a day to gain 10 pounds in a year.

Spurlock used three doctors, a registered dietitian and an exercise physiologist to help gauge exactly what he was doing to his body. His health plunged so precipitously after a couple of weeks that his doctors advised him to stop the diet immediately.

The cameras spend some time with food activists and addiction experts, trying to make a case that fast food is inherently evil and addictive. A physiologist explains that fast-food restaurants hook kids in early. With clowns, toys and a chance to spend quality time with Mom or Dad, fast food becomes linked psychologically with fun and comfort.

That moves Spurlock to make an instant parenting decision on camera: "When I have kids, every time I drive by a fast-food restaurant I'm going to have to punch them in the face."

For avid fans of MTV, Spurlock is no stranger. He made 53 episodes of "I Bet You Will," in which he encouraged people to do things like eat a raw clam from a stranger's arm pit for cash. He pumped the money he made from the MTV show into his production company, the Con, to make "Super Size Me."

The idea came to him on Thanksgiving Day 2002, while he was at his mother's house in West Virginia. The first obesity lawsuits against McDonald's, which accounts for 43 percent of the fast-food market in the United States, were on the news, and McDonald's executives were arguing that their food wasn't dangerous, so Spurlock decided to test the theory on film.

He got some inspiration from his girlfriend, Alex Jamieson, a vegan chef who taught Spurlock "the impact food has on your spirit and your energy and sex life," he said. She ends up as something of a co-star in the movie. Spurlock appears on her Web site, healthychefalex.com, as a satisfied customer offering a testimonial.

Her role has also given his critics plenty of ammunition, calling the movie a front for People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals and other food- activist groups -- a charge that Spurlock laughs off.

"It would have been great if PETA would have given us some of that money they have," he said.

Spurlock also has been credited with getting McDonald's to eliminate its "supersize" portion option, which the company announced in March. And he's happy to take it. "For our film to have come out at Sundance and for six weeks later for McDonald's to make that decision, it had to have an effect," he said.

Although McDonald's spokespeople have not commented directly, the claim might be inflated. For the past couple of years, the company has been on a vigorous campaign to remake itself. McDonald's launched a new line of salads last year and earlier this month began a new "healthy lifestyle initiative" that is the largest private-sector anti-obesity effort to date.

Highlights include an education campaign featuring a character called Willie Munchright and a fitness promotion starring Ronald McDonald and Oprah Winfrey's personal trainer. New products include Happy Meals with apple slices instead of fries, and an adult Happy Meal featuring a bottle of water and a pedometer.

Spurlock, for his part, is taking the money he made and plowing it into a new hour-long, social issue show for FX that will air in the fall.

He'll tackle topics like poverty and sexuality by taking people out of their lives and forcing them to experience another lifestyle. It's called "30 Days."

http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.c...DDG8767ITN1.DTL

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Registered: Jan 2001
Location: Zion
Posts: 4616

This guy's a fucking nut. Even McDonald's tells you not to eat at their restaurant everyday. Does he think he's revealing a big secret? Does anyone really think they can eat there everyday and remain healthy?

All things in moderation.

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Registered: Sep 2000
Location: The Bottom of the Toyem Pole
Posts: 9478

Yet McDonald's still maintains that they are a healthy food service. Is this movie out yet? I've seen mention of it for a few weeks now. About 2 weeks after the first reports started arriving, McD's cancelled it Super-Size product line. They claimed it was unrelated to this, but I don't believe it for a second.

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Registered: Jul 2000
Location: NH
Posts: 6086

I am with Cruise on this one. McDonalds isnt meant to be anyone's entire diet, only a moron would think that. I am one of those people who (gasp) likes McDonald's food. I ate it quite a bit when I was a kid now its a treat that I get a few times a year. Then again I don't eat alot of anything, I don't get hungry. I have to remember to eat, my body rarely prompts me with hunger pangs, which is probably an eating disorder.

Anyway, I don't think that McDonalds should change it's menu because this guy has vendetta and/or a money making scheme.

Thanks for the link to the Portsmouth Herald, I actually work in Porsmouth NH but was unaware of any of this. I will read the articles and try to watch the documentary when its available. This is just my initial response to the article Inky posted and for some reason its peaked my curiosity.

Thanks for the article Inky.

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Registered: Aug 2000
Location: East Bay
Posts: 3394

The doctor appears to be a larger gentleman than his patient. Just an observation.

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Registered: Jul 2000
Location:
Posts: 10622

Here's what bothers me about all this

quote:

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Spurlock's effort to get America off Big Macs is being celebrated by nutritionists and food activists, and vilified as junk science by people who blame the nation's girth on a lack of personal responsibility and exercise.

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Registered: Aug 2001
Location: Hilbert Space
Posts: 35965

McDonalds workers eat at McDonalds every day.

Is he trying to reveal the previously unknown fact that MCDONALDS IS BAD FOR YOU!!!!! or is he looking at quite how bad for you it is? Just because we all know that it is bad for us doesn't mean that we have any idea at all how bad for us it is, after all.

Apparently the McDonalds healthy options are vile, so if that other person can eat them for a month, good for him/her.

I think that the stuff that this guy did is interesting, just in and of itself. It isn't science (in fact, it wouldn't pass ethics guidelines to conduct a scientific survey of this nature, I don't think, because of the harm that it would cause) but it is probably a decent enough idea for a film.

Last edited by Smug Git on 04-22-2004 at 08:43 AM

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Registered: May 2002
Location:
Posts: 9852

fucking fat-assed americans, one-third of one-quarter of one half of your small french fries is as large as seven of our super-sized value meals over here.

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Registered: Feb 2001
Location: Oakland-ish
Posts: 6041

maybe it's just me, but i never got the impression that he was trying to prove how bad McDonalds was for you.

"The idea came to him on Thanksgiving Day 2002, while he was at his mother's house in West Virginia. The first obesity lawsuits against McDonald's, which accounts for 43 percent of the fast-food market in the United States, were on the news, and McDonald's executives were arguing that their food wasn't dangerous, so Spurlock decided to test the theory on film. "

He was curious about it, and creative enough to take his curiousity and translate it into a project that would graphically demonstrate the results one way or another.

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Registered: May 2002
Location:
Posts: 9852

It's not about how bad McDonalds is for you, it's about how bad being American is for you.

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Registered: Aug 2001
Location: Hilbert Space
Posts: 35965

quote:

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Originally posted by mmmtravis
It's not about how bad McDonalds is for you, it's about how bad being American is for you.

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Registered: Jun 2002
Location: Oz
Posts: 944

McDonalds in Australia has been going through major changes recently

Both in store decor making them look like upmarket cafe's
creating a large healthy choice menu which has a lot more than salads

I have to say the new 97% fat free chicken salad foldover isn't too bad as far as mass produced crap goes

They are also reducing the sugar content in their buns & the fat content in their burgers & changing to "healthier" canola oils for frying as they are better for cholestrol
as well as having nutritional breakdown panels on the sides of all their packages


I'm not a fan of Macca's the only time I ever eat it is on a long roadtrip when their is no other food outlets available

But I think it's good to see a fast food chain try change for the better

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Registered: Jan 2002
Location: UK
Posts: 13002

McDonalds in the UK has loads of salads on the menu.

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Registered: Mar 2002
Location: Mountains
Posts: 4749

McDonald's is crap.

Vips is better.

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Registered: Jul 2000
Location: seattle-ish
Posts: 11818

quote:

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Originally posted by Sabine
McDonald's is crap.

Vips is better.

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Registered: Jan 2002
Location: UK
Posts: 13002

quote:

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Originally posted by karen
and cooking for yourself, using products that you know the contents of, is best.

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Registered: Mar 2004
Location: kansas.
Posts: 346

quote:

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Originally posted by Inky
"When I have kids, every time I drive by a fast-food restaurant I'm going to have to punch them in the face."

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Registered: Jul 2000
Location: seattle-ish
Posts: 11818

quote:

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Originally posted by philjit
nah, eating in a top notch restaurant with superb chefs is best.

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Registered: Jul 2000
Location: A New England
Posts: 9187

Because you are insane, and scared of germs?

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Registered: Jun 2002
Location: Just to the right of the moon
Posts: 3141

Yeah. Sit at home facing a tuna salad, or head off to Le Caprice and be waited on hand and foot?

Taxi!

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Registered: Jul 2000
Location: seattle-ish
Posts: 11818

quote:

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Originally posted by Goatboy
Because you are insane, and scared of germs?

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Registered: Jul 2000
Location: seattle-ish
Posts: 11818

quote:

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Originally posted by funkyrooster
Yeah. Sit at home facing a tuna salad, or head off to Le Caprice and be waited on hand and foot?

Taxi!

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Registered: Jul 2000
Location: seattle-ish
Posts: 11818

L