Posted on 07/24/2018 9:56:57 AM PDT by Kaslin
Documentary filmmaker Morgan Spurlock first shot to national attention with his 2004 film Super Size Me. He ate nothing but McDonald’s food and chronicled his ill health during that time. Spurlock and his film became a cultural phenomenon. He received the Best Director award at Sundance and was nominated for an Academy award.
But what if McDonald’s wasn’t the real problem with his health?
Each day during his month-long experiment, he ate all his meals only at McDonald’s, and he ate large servings by any restaurant’s standards. No one forced him. By the experiment’s end, he reported experiencing shakes (as in trembling, not milkshakes) and fatigue. Most disturbingly, he appeared to be suffering liver damage.
Crucially, though, Spurlock claimed he had previously been in good health. That was what purportedly made him a good test subject, and he would go on to spin a whole career out of this self-experimentation routine, particularly in his TV series 30 Days in which, among other stunts, he spent (almost) 30 days in a Henrico, Virginia jail.
Maybe that’s exactly where Spurlock belongs, since he recently wrote a confession on Facebook to numerous incidents of sexual harassment. But that’s not what invalidates his Super Size Me experiment -- we’ll get back to that in a moment.
In a December 2017 post called “I Am Part of the Problem” Spurlock details a lifetime of self-described sexual misdeeds ranging from a consensual sexual encounter that escalated until a reluctant woman decided it had become rape to a series of harassing acts, including ones directed at coworkers, leading to a number of settlement payments, which Spurlock saw as necessary to maintain his reputation. He also confessed to “being unfaithful to every wife and girlfriend I have ever had.”
YouTube immediately dropped their plans to screen his Super Size Me sequel because of the admissions of sexual misbehavior. Overlooked in his “ confession,” however, is a stunning admission that calls into question the veracity of the original Super Size Me and demolishes his claims about the harms of a McDonald's diet.
Spurlock asks whether childhood emotional upheaval including conflict between his parents influenced his later bad attitude toward women, then adds: “Or is it because I’ve consistently been drinking since the age of 13? I haven’t been sober for more than a week in 30 years, something our society doesn’t shun or condemn but which only served to fill the emotional hole inside me and the daily depression I coped with.”
I didn’t believe it then, and I’m no fan of McDonald’s. Haven’t eaten there in decades.............
After the bogus “supersize me” movie came out a bodybuilder trained for a competition eating nothing but McDonalds for two months. He won the contest.
He was just a Michael Moore wannabe.
For that he’ll need a bigger plate...................
I go occasionally - mostly for the hamburgers, the original product that made the company famous.
I recently read Ray Kroc’s autobiography “Grinding It Out” and gained new-found respect for the man and the company. Great American success story. Kroc and Ronald Reagan were pretty tight too.
The movie “The Founder” was not a bad adaptation of the story. In fact, I quite enjoyed it, especially Michael Keaton’s performance. It’s just very shallow on details than the book is, which is understandable.
Oops.
What a scumbag. I think someone can have an instance of infidelity and still be redeemable because we are all human and can fall.
But to make a statement like his about being constantly unfaithful astounds me. What a human stain.
Watch the Hodge Twins discuss ideal fast Food items for body building.
Just speculating, but perhaps this might have something to do with his liver problems.
Morgan Spurlock is before anything else, a performer, a natural clown.
I recall seeing the poster for Supersize. It was perfect for what he wanted to do. The poster showed a man with an open mouth jampacked to the gills with french fries. No one eats like that, unless you are high, drunk or insane.
It was an obvious parody on a stereotype.
Even in that one graphic, I could see the thinly veiled expression of snarkiness and hilarity. This was somebody acting a fool and having fun doing it. So I knew that any ‘documentary’ was going to be biased in ways to support his expectation. I didn’t need to see the movie after that.
That is a great point!
There is also a scene where Spurlock barfs in a parking lot, from "too much McDonalds".
The BS artist was probably drunk then as well.
He even keeps them in his freezer in case Mcdonalds is closed.
He's in perfect health.
Plus there is the documentary Fat Head, where the guy follows Spurlock's diet, and he ends up in better health.
Spurlock is the worst kind of phony.
Almost in the Michael Moore league as far as frauds go.
Didn’t someone else do the same diet for a socumentary are fare much better?
And as poor as some peoples’ diets are, few eat McDonald’s every damn day AND supersize every single meal every day.
Not sober for a week since age 13? Spurlock deserves our pity, and it is admirable that he vows to make big changes in his life -- but we must ask: what impact might two decades (at the time Super Size Me came out) of constant drinking have had on his weight and overall health, particularly on his famous liver?
Also, those headaches and shakes sound like classic withdrawal symptoms to me. (I'm Irish I have some experience with alcohol withdrawal).
Not sober for a week since age 13? Spurlock deserves our pity, and it is admirable that he vows to make big changes in his life -- but we must ask: what impact might two decades (at the time Super Size Me came out) of constant drinking have had on his weight and overall health, particularly on his famous liver?
Also, those headaches and shakes sound like classic withdrawal symptoms to me. (I'm Irish I have some experience with alcohol withdrawal).
Did he continue to drink during the 30 days of Super Size Me?
Had he ever been treated before for damaging health effects of drinking constantly since age13 and before his McDonald's diet?
What was his full medical history before Super Size Me?
Does he think it was OK to hide his alcohol abuse from the audience?
Will he now make his medical records public? Through a publicist Spurlock declined to comment for this piece.
Journalists should have asked these questions -- and asked for verification of his claims to be in good health -- back when Super Size Me came out. Instead, we got supportive headlines like the New York Times’ “You Want Liver Failure with That?” Without a needed dose of healthy skepticism, the public, dazzled by Spurlock’s stunt and left in the dark by journalists, moved away from fast food and have kept moving.
Spurlock has recently emerged from rehab (yes it was a 30 day stint) looking to continue his journalistic career and is suing a TV company because they cancelled a documentary series and want their money back.
Maybe he will no longer disrespect women and abuse alcohol but everything he does from now on should be treated with extreme skepticism until he gives a full account of his journalistic transgressions.
I enjoyed the movie, but the book must have made Kroc out to be more sympathetic.
In the movie he comes across as ruthless, basically ruining the McDonalds brothers.
Yes, the movie was an amalgamation of Kroc’s book and the McDonalds brothers autobiography. So there was an attempt to represent both sides.
However, even the movie showed the brothers to lack the vision to make McDonald’s the company it is today; something that Kroc had in spades. In doing so, McDonald’s has created fortunes for thousands of franchisees and suppliers while giving employment to hundreds of thousands (especially the young) in that time.
My guilty pleasure at McDonalds is the Egg McMuffin. But they taste much better when I make them at home with real bacon, swiss cheese and eggs fried in real butter. All of that on a sprouted grain English muffin.
I was right away skeptical when this book came out. Now we know the rest of the story.
Guess his infidelities must include playing away on his supposed Vegan Chef girlfriend, who miraculously reversed all of his symptoms after he went off the McDiet. Golly, who knew Veganism could cure Cirrhosis of the liver?
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