LAST February, Morgan Spurlock decided to become a gastronomical guinea pig.
His mission: To eat three meals a day for 30 days at McDonald's and document the impact on his health, He put 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..
His mission: To eat three meals a day for 30 days at McDonald's and document the impact on his health, He put 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..
22/01/04
p r e s s c u t t i n g Megan Lehmann
,
New York Post
,
USA
Shock news: McDonald's make you unhealthy
LAST February, Morgan Spurlock decided to become a
gastronomical guinea pig.
His mission: To eat three meals a day for 30 days at
McDonald's and document the impact on his health.
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.
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.
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.' "
http://www.nypost.com/entertainment/16393.htm
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p r e s s c u t t i n g Megan Lehmann
,
New York Post
,
USA
Shock news: McDonald's make you unhealthy
LAST February, Morgan Spurlock decided to become a
gastronomical guinea pig.
His mission: To eat three meals a day for 30 days at
McDonald's and document the impact on his health.
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.
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.
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.' "
http://www.nypost.com/entertainment/16393.htm _____________________________________
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Comments
Hide the following 6 comments
exagerrated
26.01.2004 14:53
There's nothing wrong with McDonalds, as long as you excercise and don't eat it for 3 meals every day, and you can always have salads there! You'd have to be a bit stupid to eat it 3 times a day for a whole month anyway. If you ate anything that much you'd probably get ill, look at the Atkins diet! If you ate lettuce every day 3 times a day, nothing but lettuce, for a month you'd get ill. The study has no validity!
Big deal, eating burgers makes you fat if you eat them 3 times a day every day for a month.
TSG
How it is
26.01.2004 16:04
/Z/
Twat
26.01.2004 16:53
Hahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I assume you mean that in an ironic, Monty Python, what-have-the-Romans-ever-done-for-us kind of way?
Nothing wrong except overloaded with salt, full of e-coli, overloaded with fat, very bad for the environment with their polystyrene boxes, the low wages and union busting tactics, blackmailing their franchisees or putting another franchisee a few metres down the road against their contract, slaughtering rainforest andintensively farming the land until it is useless, overloading everything that's not overloaded with salt with sugar instead, using animal oil and claiming it's vegetable oil in India, using a banned sweetener elsewhere.....
There's a book called Fast Food Nation. I suggest you read it.
Afinkawan
Here's an idea
26.01.2004 18:00
If other people are stupid enough to do things that hurt them (ie SMOKING - Dope and Tobacco) then screw them. Some people you just can't help.
Dave
Not just boycotts
26.01.2004 19:37
Um...fine, that will mean that we won't put on 25 pounds.
But our slim, finely honed, athletic physiques aren't really helping all those people who've been put out of business by McDonald's, or the animals who've had their habitats destroyed by their rainforest destruction.
At the minute, simply boycotting the company isn't likely to have that much of an effect, although I still think its a good idea, out of principle. Raising public awareness of their business practices might do more long-term good.
Josh
Survival of the fittest
27.01.2004 09:57
The company is systematically eliminating those stupid enough to buy their product. McDonalds eaters are too lethargic to move so their stupid asses are off the streets and their lifespan is drastically reduced by the high fat and salt intake!!!
Its a win win situation.
I'm lovin it!
Apeinflames