Supersized meals lead to supersized weight gain for filmmaker
I was expecting this to be another article on Michael Moore.
Posted on 06/18/2004 10:26:58 AM PDT by BulletBobCo
Morgan Spurlock got the idea for "Super Size Me," a documentary about what happens when you eat only at McDonald's for a month, after hearing about two obese teenagers who sued the fast food company. They contended McDonald's hid the health risks of its foods.
Something clicked, and Spurlock, the creator of MTV's "I Bet You Will," made a bet of sorts with himself. He'd eat every meal at the Golden Arches, sampling everything on the menu, from Big Macs to vanilla shakes, and turn it into his first feature film. Like most Americans, the formerly fit director would quit exercising and start overeating. And he'd explore what role fast food restaurants and other food companies played in America's obesity epidemic.
During his month at Mickey D's, Spurlock packed away up to 5,000 calories a day. His cholesterol soared, he gained 24 pounds, his libido plummeted and — at least for the first few days — he looked forward to each meal.
The movie was a hit at the Sundance Film Festival this winter, and Spurlock won the best director prize for a documentary. This spring, McDonald's announced it would stop Super Sizing its fries and drinks by the end of the year. A few weeks later it issued a press release about "Super Size Me," saying that the film "is all about one individual's decision to act irresponsibly" and mentioning the variety of foods it sells, including salads and new chicken McNuggets made with white meat.
The movie opens Friday at Landmark's Midtown Art Cinema.
Q: Why did you settle on McDonald's rather than another fast-food restaurant or a food manufacturer?
A: It could have happened anywhere. I picked McDonald's because they're the biggest chain. They're the most influential. They represent this fast food lifestyle tht has encompassed every bit of our life in America.
If they want to make a mark by being a leader, they can. They've said they'll do away with Super Size options by the end of the year. Mark my words, every other company that does Super Size or Biggie or Jumbo offerings will do away with them by the end of the year.
Q: You ate 5,000 calories a day on average, about twice as much as a nutritionist recommended. Why take such an exaggerated approach?
A: If you get one Super Sized meal, suddenly you've got 1,500 calories. You get yourself breakfast, lunch and dinner there and you're getting 3,500 and 4,000 calories a day, plus you get a snack, a shake, and that's 5,000 calories.They say it's so unrealistic, nobody does this, but people eat fast food every single day. Three times a day in one store, yes, that's extreme. But I've got friends who get an Egg McMuffin for breakfast, Taco Bell for lunch, pizza for dinner.
Q: It took you 30 days to gain 24 pounds. How long did it take to lose it all?
A: Fourteen months.
Q: Do you eat fast food anymore?
A: To this day if I want a Big Mac my mouth starts watering, but it doesn't taste like food to me anymore. It tastes like this chemically processed thing. If I take a bite of the burger I get this McFilm all over my mouth.
Q: What were your favorites?
A: The Big Mac, of course. Big Macs taste great. They're really yummy.
A: What was your least favorite?
A: The veggie burger is absolutely terrible. The grilled chicken flatbread. And the filet of fish.
Q: What happens when you're cruising down an interstate, you're starving and there's nothing in sight but the Golden Arches or another fast food restaurant?
A: I will pull off and go to a grocery store before I go to one of those places. Or I'll pack my own lunch. What's more important —your health or your time?
Q: What do you think of McDonald's efforts to introduce healthier foods, like the adult happy meal that comes with a salad, bottled water and a pedometer, and the apple slices with caramel dipping sauce you can substitute for fries in a kids' meal?
A: The apple slices, what a joke that is. You could have carrots or apples, period. You don't need caramel dipping sauce. It's low-fat, yes, but it's loaded with sugar. For every step forward, there's three steps back.
Less than 1 percent of the people who go to McDonald's buy a salad. We don't go there to buy a salad. We go there for the good stuff, the fries, the burger, the Cokes, that make us feel good, with all the fat and sugar.Q: The documentary looks at how McDonald's markets to children. My kids' preschool room has a cardboard cutout of Ronald McDonald that holds a few paperback picture books. Is that what you're talking about?
A: In the movie we showed kids pictures of Jesus and Ronald McDonald. None of them knew who Jesus was. All of them knew who Ronald McDonald was. I don't see how parents don't look at this and say, 'What's going on here?'
Q: The government and the food industry say that personal responsibility and physical activity are key to reversing the obesity epidemic. What's your take?
A: They need to accept some responsibility, especially the corporations. If you're McDonald's and you serve 46 million people a day, and you tell me you have no obligation to educate your consumers and help them make the right choices. . . . That's absolute malarkey. This is a two-way street.
True, we Americans make bad choices every day. We overeat and underexercise. When your big sellers are fries and shakes and you're going to educate to the point where we're not going to eat those, why would you do that? Your bottom line is going to get hit.
Q: At the end of the movie, you throw responsibility for what we choose to eat back to consumers. What do you think they're going to do?
A: For me this film is a snapshot of your life, that we make bad eating choices, health choices, exercise choices every day. I want people to walk out of this film and say, 'I need to take more responsibility in my life, I need to eat better. I need to exercise more, I need to be a better role model for my kids.'
Parents need to understand if you eat out three or four times a week and don't exercise, you're going to raise kids who do the same thing. The biggest place where we need to focus our energies in this country is the schools. We're educating kids in the classrooms and damaging them in the lunchrooms. We're giving them a diet filled with fat and sugar and junk and we're saying it's OK to eat this, it's fine.
So what's Michael Moore's excuse?
This is ridiculous. It's not a big secret that if you are going to indulge in this food several times a week, you are going to pay for it in your waistline. Good grief.
This must be the archaeological find of the millennium!!!!!
I have stepped up eating at McDonalds in an attempt to LOSE weight! Sandwich (no bread), side salad and an unsweet tea - <$4 and exceedingly convenient!!! I have lost 30 pounds in less than 6 months and a recent fitness checkup reported much improved health by all measures. Thanks McD's!!!!!
Well I am not a rocket scientist by any means, but seems to me if you ate 5000 calories ANYWHERE (even at home) and did not exercise, you would gain weight.
Is the public that stupid that they don't know this?
I want to know why you can gain 24 lbs in 30 days but it takes 14 months to loose it
What does the 46 million have to do with it?
If my restaurant serves 46 people a day, do I have the same "obligation" ?
I'm having a hard time believing it took him 14 months to lose 24 pounds. I'm all into slow reasonable weight loss, but half a pound of a month is beyond slow.
The problem with this whole thing is everybody is using it to blame McD, it's fastfood people, it' not supposed to be good for you. Cheap, filling, and if you're lucky tasty, that's the market niche of fastfood. Living on that for 30 days is like living on snackfood for 30 days, not a good idea. And I wonder what would have happened if he'd kept his excercise regimen going.
Oops bad math, carried my 1 the wrong way. 2 pounds a month, still beyond slow.
What the article fails to mention is that he would order 5,000 calories worth of food and then eat all of it, even if he was full. Eating like that no wonder he gained all that weight. It seems to be a common thing in movies now- make stuff up.
As a compensation, the reverse applies to the stock market: the gains are slow, the losses are not.
This guy's liver almost gave out.
Nobody warns me about gaining weight when I go to buy Hagen Daaz ice cream ... or potato chips for that matter. What if I buy a pizza and eat the whole thing ... nobody said not to.
These "activists" think they know what's best for me. They don't.
"Super-size Me" is not a documentary. It is a stupid and prolonged "Jackass" stunt pretending to be a documentary.
So McDonald's can't have anything remotely sweet or fattening on the menu. They will not be happy until McD is serving tofu and only tofu.
wait eating nothing but fast food ISN'T good for you?!?!?! this is most shocking news since the aids scare in the porn industry
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