Did McDonalds make you fat?

[Taomonkey]

FYI... Interesting article about a documentary about a guy who ate McDonalds only, 3 meals a day, for a month.,,darn near killed him.

The URL is http://www.nzherald.co.nz/entertainment/entertainmentstorydisplay.cfm?storyID=3545438&thesection=entertainment&thesubsection=film&thesecondsubsection=general

Film records effects of eating only McDonald's for a month

25.01.2004 12.00pm - By DAVID USBORNE
NEW YORK - Normally sane actors have been known to gain or lose huge amounts of weight for their art. Think of Renee Zellweger in Bridget Jones's Diary. Directors, of course, never have to undergo such torture. Or so it used to be, until Morgan Spurlock had a bright idea for a film project.

The first clue to his particular misery comes in the title of his documentary, which has become the darling of this year's Sundance Film Festival. It is called Super Size Me: A Film of Epic Portions and it is a sometimes comic but serious look at America's addiction to fast food.

Spurlock, a tall New Yorker of usually cast-iron constitution, made himself the guinea pig in this dogged investigation into the effects of fast food on the body. He ate only at McDonald's for a month - three meals, every day - and took a camera crew along to record it. If a server offered to super-size his order, he was obliged to accept - and to ingest everything, gherkins and all.

Neither Spurlock, 33, nor the three doctors who agreed to monitor his health during the experiment were prepared for the degree of ruin it would wreak on his body. Within days, he was vomiting up his burgers and battling with headaches and depression. And his sex drive vanished.

When Spurlock had finished, his liver, overwhelmed by saturated fats, had virtually turned to pate. "The liver test was the most shocking thing," said Dr Daryl Isaacs, who joined the team to watch over him. "It became very, very abnormal."

Spurlock put on nearly 12kg over the period and his cholesterol level leapt from a respectable 165 to 230. He told the New York Post: "I got desperately ill. My face was splotchy and I had this huge gut, which I've never had in my life ... It was amazing - and really frightening." And his girlfriend, a vegan chef? "She was completely disgusted by me," he said.

Making the film over several months last year, Spurlock travelled through 20 states, interviewing everyone from fast-food junkies to the US Surgeon General and a lobbyist for the industry. McDonald's, for whom the film can only be a public relations catastrophe, ignored his repeated entreaties for comment.

Spurlock had the idea for the film on Thanksgiving Day 2002, slumped on his mother's couch after eating far too much. He saw a news item about two teenage girls in New York suing McDonald's for making them obese. The company responded by saying their food was nutritious and good for people. Is that so, he wondered? To find out, he committed himself to his 30 days of Big Mac bingeing.

The film does not yet have a distributor and, given the advertising clout of McDonald's, that may prove problematic. But the critics at Sundance seem to have been captivated. Certainly, the film is blessed by good timing. Obesity has in recent months captured headlines as America's new health scourge. The humour of the approach - and Spurlock's own suffering - obviously helps.

At the festival in Park City, Utah, he has had teams handing out "Unhappy Meal" bags on the streets with a few "Fat Fun Facts". For instance, one in four Americans visits a fast-food restaurant every day. And did you know that McDonald's feeds more people around the world every day than the population of Spain? The makers have self-rated the film "F" - for "fat audiences".

McDonald's has finally been forced to comment. "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," it said in a statement last week.

Spurlock claims that the goal was not to attack McDonald's as such. Among the issues he highlights is the willingness of schools to feed students nothing but burgers and pizza. "If there's one thing we could accomplish with the film, it is that we make people think about what they put in their mouth," he said. "So the next time you do go into a fast-food restaurant and they say, 'Would you like to upsize that?' you think about it and say, 'Maybe I won't. Maybe I'll stick with the medium this time.'"

[rubthebuddha]

on one hand, mcdonalds and other such food is ****. on the other, mcdonalds doesn't make anyone fat. people eating mcdonalds make themselves fat. i pity people who are overweight, but i don't buy it when they blame it on someone or something else, particularly when alternatives are so easily obtained.

still, interesting documentary. i'm curious to see how much exposure it'll get.

[scotty1]

Everything in moderation, including excess.;)

[Taomonkey]

My thoughts have been about the kids eating at McDonalds 4 or 5 evenings a week (because mom is too busy) coupled with the food they get at school, hamburgers/ pizza. We have lost sight of what the body needs. THe body does not need food, it needs nutrition. Feed it empty fatty foods, and your liver turns to pulp.

"Neither Spurlock, 33, nor the three doctors who agreed to monitor his health during the experiment were prepared for the degree of ruin it would wreak on his body. Within days, he was vomiting up his burgers and battling with headaches and depression. And his sex drive vanished.

When Spurlock had finished, his liver, overwhelmed by saturated fats, had virtually turned to pate. "The liver test was the most shocking thing," said Dr Daryl Isaacs, who joined the team to watch over him. "It became very, very abnormal."

[MasterKiller]

on the other, mcdonalds doesn't make anyone fat. people eating mcdonalds make themselves fat. i pity people who are overweight, but i don't buy it when they blame it on someone or something else, particularly when alternatives are so easily obtained. I agree for the most part, but McDonalds does what cigarette manufacturers used to do: It advertises to kids. Cigarette packs originally came with baseball cards inside (Happy Meal Toy). And cigarettes don't kill people, people who choose to smoke kill themselves, right? But cigarettes have additives that make them addictive. Well, MacDonald's uses appetitte stimulators in their food.

Cancer costs taxpayers millions. Guess what folks? Obesity related illness does too.

So what's the difference between McDonald's and R.J. Renolds?

[rubthebuddha]

mcd's is portrayed as a wholesome american company. rjr is the debil. besides, mcd's simulates real food, like a barbecue in the back yard with the family on a saturday afternoon. dad fires up some burgers and hot dogs while mom whips up some potato salad and a fruit platter. cigarette's don't really simulate anything -- smoking's an activity without anything to really compare it too, other than use of other chemicals.

edit: mcdonalds STILL advertises to kids. the bulk of the advertising for them, at least on washington tv, seems to about an age range of 10-20.

[MasterKiller]

In 20 years when 70% of the population has diabetes, McDonald's will be the debil.

When big business is in control of the government, it's deny deny deny until the shlt hits the fan. Shlt, Bush wouldn't even sign the UN accord on healthy eating because it said people should avoid soda (Big $$$) and fast foods (Big $$$).

[truewrestler]

I agree for the most part

I still eat fast food daily but I simply pick the healthiest sandwich, no fries and a diet soda. Even 3 meals a day eating that and you will lose weight (and I am).

My list of good sandwiches... McD's Egg McMuffin, Wendy's Grilled Chicken, BK's Chicken Whopper (no mayo), Subway Wraps, etc. Along with being more healthy than the average fast food sandwich they are also generally a smaller portion.... and/or I also eat half portions sometimes, especially of bad sandwiches or meals at restaurants. No need to stuff myself.

[fa_jing]

MMMmmm. Liver Pate

[rubthebuddha]

i guess a lot of this boils down to marketing, the vast majority of which is misleading at best. nikes will not make you cool or give you more hops. a geek is still a geek, and the novelty his classmates feel toward him because of his new shoes will wear off in a day or so. pepsi won't make you as young and sexy as britney. the bulk of mountain dew drinkers? daring downhilll mountain bikers or chubby kids of all ages staying up all night playing diablo? and that sweet mitsubishi evo mom and dad bought you on your 16th birthday? neat and all, but at 16, you know **** all about driving, racing and what "viscous center differential" means when you brag to your friends about it. you're still a tubby fourth-chair french horn and jv-squad tennis player.

sadly, marketers already have most of us believing a field trip to abercrombie will improve who we are as people. :(

[Becca]

I hate the way they market to kids. My youngest is not quite 2, but he knows that McD's sign, by golly!:mad: The worst part is that I know for a fact that he doesn't get to there much. I admit to eating out more that I should, but I prefere places that serve healthy food, like buck-a-scoop oriental joints. They may not be the lowest-fat, but they do serve lots of veggies and an over-all ballanced meal.

[Ralphie]

Corporate death burger
Ronald Mcdonald
Change for your $5
Ankles deep in blood
You make it your career
To sell billions every year

Golden Arches
Ronald Smiles

Name this band!

[Shaolinlueb]

ew i hate mcdonalds and fast food.

[PHILBERT]

Subway > other fast food

[joedoe]

Did McDonald's make me fat? No, eating too much and not exercising enough made me fat :D

[BlueTravesty]

the BK grilled chicken baguette is low in fat, and is much better than most sandwhiches at comparable restaurants. And best of all, it has the "good" vegetables... peppers, onions. None of that grass they call "lettuce." I have it about... maybe once every two weeks. Not because it is fast food, but because I don't have the time to grill chicken, roast onions and peppers and put it on bread on my 30-minute lunch break. (the drive there takes a mere 3 minutes.)

[SaMantis]

I proudly attribute my fat to massive quantities of pizza, beer & Ho-Hos ... :D

But I do have a McDonald's story -- at age 15 I went 3 months on an extremely bad, completely unintentional diet, the "I Don't Have Time to Eat" diet. Consisted of:

breakfast - a stick of gum on the way out the door

lunch - large chocolate shake at the cafeteria

dinner - plain double cheeseburger & fries at work (McD's)

At the end of 3 months I was 20 lbs. underweight & severely anemic... had to take iron & B-complex transfusions weekly at the doctor's office & it took more than a year to recover. :(

[truewrestler]

oww

[GunnedDownAtrocity]

My thoughts have been about the kids eating at McDonalds 4 or 5 evenings a week (because mom is too busy) .....

thats such a bull**** lameass excuse to let your kids get fat. i know that your point is valid, which is why it ****es me off. it takes 5 ****ing minutes to throw on some macaroni and cheese or tuna helper and another 10 to cook while you can do something else like the dishes or something.

is it the healthiest **** you can eat? no ... absolutely not ... but it's a far cry from a happy meal every night.

fat kids make me angry. they make me angry at the irresoponsible parents.

[apoweyn]

McDonald's sold the bullets. I pulled the trigger. Who's the bigger idiot?

[truewrestler]

apoweyn, if you were making an analogy about bullets then that analogy would make sense :p

I agree that people need to take responsibility. I think there is going to be a revolution soon (and when it goes down I'm going to steal me some ice cream)

[Face2Fist]

read somewhere that the guy gain like 25lbs in 27 days and his liver was failing and had high blood pressure, it goes to show you that the stuff we put in our bodies is not good for us all the times.

[IronFist]

I ate at McDonalds daily when I was in school and I never got fat. Usually all I'd eat were 2 or 3 McChicken sandwhiches, and usually no fries or anything. If you spit out the grissle that is found in about 50% of the McChicken sandwhiches, they're not that bad. Of course, the Crispy Chicken sandwhich is a lot better, but it's also 3 times as expensive.

You know why I ate at McDonalds and Wendy's every day (sometimes multiple times a day)???

Because they have 99 cent and $1 dollar menus.

**** paying $3.50 for a chicken sandwhich when I can get almost the same thing at McDonalds for 99 cents.

And what's the difference at Wendy's between a doublestack with cheese (99 cent menu) and a regular hamburger? $2.00, a tomato, and a piece of lettuce. So yeah, you're not getting a tomato or lettuce, but you're getting almost as much beef (read: calories and protein) as you are with the burger that costs 3 times as much.

So that's what poor college students do. And you know how much protein is in one order of Wendy's chicken nuggest that are only a dollar? More than 1/3 as much as a chicken sandwhich that is 3 times the cost. So three orders of chicken nuggets from Wendy's = more protein than a chicken sandwhich of similiar cost. Of course then you're missing the carbs from the bun, etc., but still.

But not everyone is like me. I would divide calories into cost to find out what the best deals were because being in college means you need to buy the cheapest food possible.

[rubthebuddha]

indeed, not everyone is like you. lousy ectomorph. :mad:

now go do some cardio. ;)

[Liokault]

fat kids make me angry. they make me angry at the irresoponsible parents.


Yeah but really fat kids tend to have really fat parents. The fat kids will grow up and have fat kids of there own, because its what our society has alowed to become a way of life.

You cant feel sorry for the fat kid today and then hate him in 20 years just because he has become a fat adult.


Ironfist


Usually all I'd eat were 2 or 3 McChicken sandwhiches, and usually no fries or anything. If you spit out the grissle that is found in about 50% of the McChicken sandwhiches, they're not that bad.


Its not grissle, its beack.

[Becca]

You cant feel sorry for the fat kid today and then hate him in 20 years just because he has become a fat adult.

Yes I can. An adult should know better, even if it goes against they way they were raised. That's what maturity should do to a person.

McDonald's sold the bullets. I pulled the trigger. Who's the bigger idiot?

McDonald's wasn't being idiots; they were being business people. They made a product that tasts good then mass marketed it untill people god hooked. We are the idiots for buying into it, then trying to blame them for chasing the American Dream of making it big. Of course it was at the consumer's expence. Name one sucseful enterprize that wasn't.

[GunnedDownAtrocity]

thaibo

[rubthebuddha]

not really. every taibo person i know thought they actually knew how to punch and kick. most didn't lose much weight, though.

[IronFist]

Originally posted by Liokault
Ironfist
Its not grissle, its beack.

lol, ewwwwww!


Originally posted by rubthebuddha
indeed, not everyone is like you. lousy ectomorph.


Yeah, but still look at what I said I ate. If instead of just the sandwhiches I went in and ate 3 large fries and a large shake, then I'd probably gain some weight (in addition to not getting much protein).

[bung bo]

i gotta say, mcd is pretty bad. the only good thing i can think of is all that ronald mcdonald house stuff. that was good. but, hell, over half of the whole friggin country is overweight. and that stuff doesn't even taste that good. i blame the customers for eating that crap. all that ,"mcd made me fat!" is a bunch of BS. mcd helps add to the fast-food lifestyle. the priorities are real messed up.

what happened to that guy's body really amazed me (not surprised, but amazed). i knew the stuff was bad, but not that bad. guess it is.

[rubthebuddha]

think about what he was getting:

low-grade beef with all sorts of additives = protein, saturated fat and additives
low-grade vegetables = freezer burn from sitting in storage for months, a couple vitamins, and little else
white-bread bun = no nutritional value whatsoever other than empty carbohydrate

fries? a little potato, a LOT of low-grade hydrogenated oil and way too much salt

soda? refined sugar, corn syrup (more sugar), colors, preservatives

it's all crap. there's little lean protein, a ton of saturated fat, all the oil is hydrogenated, the only thing with micronutrient value is the sparse condiment inclusion and maybe what's left of the potato in the fries, almost no fiber and just about everything in that meal is a diuretic.

probably a diarrhetic, also, but we'll leave that to your imagination.

[GunnedDownAtrocity]

not really. every taibo person i know thought they actually knew how to punch and kick. most didn't lose much weight, though.

i was just being a dick.


probably a diarrhetic, also, but we'll leave that to your imagination.

my imagination does wonderful things with a diarrhetic.

[MasterKiller]

McDonald's wasn't being idiots; they were being business people. They made a product that tasts good then mass marketed it untill people god hooked. We are the idiots for buying into it, then trying to blame them for chasing the American Dream of making it big. Of course it was at the consumer's expence. Name one sucseful enterprize that wasn't. That's what people said about RJ Reynolds 15 years ago.

[dwid]

That's what people said about RJ Reynolds 15 years ago.

Yeah, and it's unfortunate that the whole ridiculous fiasco of the tobacco lawsuit has opened this horrible can of worms.

People are required less and less to take personal responsibility. Anyone who claims that they didn't know that inhaling smoke from a burning piece of chemical and plant matter was unhealthy has to be a complete moron. Same with people who claim to not know that McDonalds is unhealthy.

All these lawsuits do is make a lot of rich lawyers richer and increase the cost of the product.

[MasterKiller]

Intentionally making a product addictive is what got RJ Reynolds in trouble. They add all that nicotine to the tobacco for "flavor.":rolleyes:

That's not too far removed from McDonald's adding appetite stimulators to their food.

Believe it or not , but corporate America cares nothing about your personal welfare.

[dwid]

Believe it or not , but corporate America cares nothing about your personal welfare.

Wow, how enlightening. Are you sure?

My point is that the lawsuit accomplished almost nothing in practical terms other than making some people rich.

If the intention is to reduce the use of a product, then this is clearly not the way to accomplish that goal.

[Chang Style Novice]

Mickey D made my fat, but God made me ugly. And stupid.

[bung bo]

MK might come off as sounding a bit cynical, but i agree with him. it p1sses me off that eating crap like that can destroy your body and mcd gets off saying that their food is healthy and nutritious. my mom works at the mall and i went to see her last week. she likes to go walking after lunch and i went with her. about every person i saw was fat.
putting in flavor additives is about as bad as putting addictive substances in cigs in my book.

[MasterKiller]

Originally posted by dwid
[B] My point is that the lawsuit accomplished almost nothing in practical terms other than making some people rich.So what's the alternative? Sit back and criticize the addicts for not being able to stop? Crack-heads can go into rehab. Nicotine addicts get called "lazy" or accused of having "no will power" for not being to cut the dependency.

If a company make a product that can be harmful if abused, then intentionally makes that product addictive to even a casual user, they should be penalized. How do you penalize a corporation? Make it fork over large sums of cash.


If the intention is to reduce the use of a product, then this is clearly not the way to accomplish that goal. It got them to quit marketing to kids with cartoon ads and raised awareness of the issue. Look at how hard it is to buy cigarrettes at a convenience store now. I remember buying them for my mom all the time when I was kid. Access has been restricted. to people too young to make an informed decision.

I'm not saying shut McD's down. I'm saying take it out of Jr High and High School cafeterias. Quit the marketing to kids. Educate the public about not relying on Soda and French Fries as your main dietary supplements. Public schools refuse to remove soda machines and allow Pizza Hut and Taco bell to cater the food because it's cheap and these companies pay $$$$ for the access. I say we have a serious problem.

[apoweyn]

Originally posted by truewrestler
apoweyn, if you were making an analogy about bullets then that analogy would make sense :p

I agree that people need to take responsibility. I think there is going to be a revolution soon (and when it goes down I'm going to steal me some ice cream)

Er, if I were making an analogy about bullets, putting bullets in the analogy would pretty much make it not an analogy.

[apoweyn]

McDonald's wasn't being idiots; they were being business people. They made a product that tasts good then mass marketed it untill people god hooked. We are the idiots for buying into it, then trying to blame them for chasing the American Dream of making it big. Of course it was at the consumer's expence. Name one sucseful enterprize that wasn't.

Um, Becca, the correct answer is me. I'm the bigger idiot. For pulling the trigger.

Bloody nora, am I just really hopeless at analogies or what?

[dwid]

I'm not saying shut McD's down. I'm saying take it out of Jr High and High School cafeterias. Quit the marketing to kids. Educate the public about not relying on Soda and French Fries as your main dietary supplements. Public schools refuse to remove soda machines and allow Pizza Hut and Taco bell to cater the food because it's cheap and these companies pay $$$$ for the access. I say we have a serious problem.

I'm in agreement with you on this.

The main reason the whole lawsuit thing bugs me is because companies just pass the added cost on to the consumers. It doesn't seem like it really hurts them at all. Restricting the marketing is much more effective, and I guess if lawsuits are the back door by which this can be accomplished, then I guess they serve a purpose after all.

[KC Elbows]

I can't feel bad for either tobacco or fast food companies. Marketing to kids is underhanded and just asking for trouble, and tampering products to hook the customer chemically is not conduct allowable in a country that claims to tout freedom. While I think people who spill hot coffee on themselves need to be more careful, there are some law suits that have merit.

McD's has made their money, they're not gonna go broke from being held accountable, and accountability is what the reasonable voices are talking about.

I'm curious to see that movie. That guy is nuts.

BTW, am I the only one under the understanding that the only useful veggie is a fresh one?

Also, fat is one issue, but I also used to eat fast food and not pay attention to it, never gain weight. Then I started reading about how hard it is to get rid of the effects such food has on your heart. Much scarier than the fat issue, imo.

I'm more terrified still to learn that Mcdonalds is giving out bullets.

[Chang Style Novice]

I've certainly been led to believe that pickling, canning, drying, and otherwise preserving veggies does them some nutritional harm, but not to the point of making them useless.

[rubthebuddha]

that depends on the quantity. a sliver or two of pickle, an ounce or so of graying lettuce and a pulped-up slice of tomato don't add much to the vitamin count. do three big macs per day, and you MIGHT be getting something around one of your five-to-six veggie servings.

[IronFist]

This is so relevant (http://maddox.xmission.com/c.cgi?u=lovin_it).

[bung bo]

great link, duder. you know, the golden arches are one of the most recognizable symbols in the world.

[Royal Dragon]

http://maddox.xmission.com/c.cgi?u=ugly_cars

[Royal Dragon]

http://maddox.xmission.com/26_things.html

[Chang Style Novice]

Furthermore, McDonald's has on occassion made me ****.

[David Jamieson]

lol @ maddox.

possibly the most negative voice about anything you pick!
too bad that a lot of the times he has the correct knocked out and toothless in the basement under the trap door!

Let's face it, despite our educations and the information available to us, the west is the land of fatness.

You cannot walk down a street in north america without seeing a few obese people.

I've got two words for the west "food court". lol!

Most of the people at my gym are in shape to begin with. IN fact, I can honestly say I haven't seen a fat person at the gym I go to ever!

I guess that's the other part of the equation that brings it all together.

I can't stand mcbarfles. I used to eat there once or twice in a blue moon. I haven't set foot in their soylent bilge factories for a while. I pity the people who have to work there to eek out a living...poor sods.

But, McBarfles isn't the only one who is mas feeding garbage to north america. taco bell, burger king, kfc, wendy's et al. They are all purveyors of crud and they prey on our inherent laziness.

The problem isn't them, it's you for eating it and being to lazy to spend 87cents on a can of beans which is more nutritional and has more protien and goodness than anything they could ever possibly serve up to you super sized or not!

awaken the gourmand within my typographical bros. Just stop going. 5 minutes of your life is better spent at the nuke box than at the jack in the box.

cheers

[Royal Dragon]

Of course, one of my all time favorites

http://maddox.xmission.com/muppet.html

[Christopher M]

Originally posted by MasterKiller
But cigarettes have additives that make them addictive. Well, MacDonald's uses appetitte stimulators in their food... So what's the difference between McDonald's and R.J. Renolds?

The difference is that physiological addiction occurs with cigarettes. Buying and consuming a cigarette will alter your body's chemistry such that you can no longer function normally without purchasing and consuming more cigarettes. If this was true of McDonalds (or Nike, or anyone else) they would/should be held to the same standards as cigarettes. But it's not.

Equating 'giving people stuff they like' with physical addiction is absurd. Writing laws based on such an equation is unacceptable.

[MasterKiller]

Equating 'giving people stuff they like' with physical addiction is absurd. Writing laws based on such an equation is unacceptable. What part of adding Appeitite Stimulants to the food did you miss? If Nike put subliminal signals in their shoes to make you buy two pairs instead of one every time you were in a store, they would be held accountable.

Besides that, marketing to kids creates a 'culture' of addiction. If you get them eating McDonald's three times a week as kids, chances are that trend will continue into adult-hood. So maybe it's just a bad habit; regardless, children should not be allowed to be targeted by these companies.

[rubthebuddha]

either that, or we could subsidize marketing budgets for organic shops and let them advertise:

"here's you on mcdonalds (http://www.fatchicksinpartyhats.com/images/fathat141.jpg)

here's you on healthy stuff. (http://www.mmaweekly.com/images/fighters/Couture%20day%20before%20weigh%20in%20UFC%2043.jpg )

you make the decision."