Super Size Me
The Film
Super Size Me, a documentary released in 2004, is about a man named Morgan Spurlock. Morgan Spurlock, 32 at the time the film was released, was a slightly more healthy than average man. No history of heart disease, a healthy weight, cholesterol levels normal.
He set out a thirty day time period in which he followed a few simple rules. Morgan could only eat food and drink drinks purchased at McDonald's, including water, and he had to eat three square meals a day. Any time he was asked to Supersize his order, he was forced to oblige. He had to eat every bit of the meal. He had to try each item in the menu at least once (which he had within nine days). He ended up consuming twice his USDA recommended calories nearly every day. He also forced himself to walk as little as possible, often little more than a mile a day.
The first time he had to Supersize his order, he was violently sick to his stomach. Within a few weeks, he gained twenty five pounds and became extremely depressed. One particularly disheartening check in shows him sitting in his living room late at night, shirtless, looking miserable as he talks in circles about how he feels, a far cry from the energetic, cheerful man we're introduced to at the start of the documentary. His liver was almost killed from the salt and fat saturation. He could barely climb the stairs.
Upon finishing the challenge, Morgan went on a 'detox diet' set up by his girlfriend. He stayed on it for more than a year, and it took almost two years to reach his normal weight.
His physicians practically begged him to go off the diet by the time his liver began to die. So why would he risk his life to finish the project?
To show how toxic fast food can be when eaten in excess.
He set out a thirty day time period in which he followed a few simple rules. Morgan could only eat food and drink drinks purchased at McDonald's, including water, and he had to eat three square meals a day. Any time he was asked to Supersize his order, he was forced to oblige. He had to eat every bit of the meal. He had to try each item in the menu at least once (which he had within nine days). He ended up consuming twice his USDA recommended calories nearly every day. He also forced himself to walk as little as possible, often little more than a mile a day.
The first time he had to Supersize his order, he was violently sick to his stomach. Within a few weeks, he gained twenty five pounds and became extremely depressed. One particularly disheartening check in shows him sitting in his living room late at night, shirtless, looking miserable as he talks in circles about how he feels, a far cry from the energetic, cheerful man we're introduced to at the start of the documentary. His liver was almost killed from the salt and fat saturation. He could barely climb the stairs.
Upon finishing the challenge, Morgan went on a 'detox diet' set up by his girlfriend. He stayed on it for more than a year, and it took almost two years to reach his normal weight.
His physicians practically begged him to go off the diet by the time his liver began to die. So why would he risk his life to finish the project?
To show how toxic fast food can be when eaten in excess.
Facts from the Film
- Each day, 1 in 4 Americans visits a fast food restaurant
- In 1972, we spent 3 billion a year on fast food - today we spend more than $110 billion
- McDonald's feeds more than 46 million people a day - more than the entire population of Spain
- French fries are the most eaten vegetable in America
- You would have to walk for seven hours straight to burn off a Super Sized Coke, fry and Big Mac
- In the U.S., we eat more than 1,000,000 animals an hour
- 60 percent of all Americans are either overweight or obese
- One in every three children born in the year 2000 will develop diabetes in their lifetime
- Left unabated, obesity will surpass smoking as the leading cause of preventable death in America
- Obesity has been linked to: Hypertension, Coronary Heart Disease, Adult Onset Diabetes, Stroke, Gall Bladder Disease, Osteoarthritis, Sleep Apnea, Respiratory Problems, Endometrial, Breast, Prostate and Colon Cancers, Dyslipidemia, steatohepatitis, insulin resistance, breathlessness, Asthma, Hyperuricaemia, reproductive hormone abnormalities, polycystic ovarian syndrome, impaired fertility and lower back pain
- The average child sees 10,000 TV advertisements per year
- Only seven items on McDonald's entire menu contain no sugar
- Willard Scott was the first Ronald McDonald - he was fired for being too fat
- McDonald's distributes more toys per year than Toys-R-Us
- Diabetes will cut 17-27 years off your life
- McDonald's: "Any processing our foods undergo make them more dangerous than unprocessed foods"
- The World Health Organization has declared obesity a global epidemic
- Eating fast food may be dangerous to your health
- McDonald's calls people who eat a lot of their food "heavy users"
- McDonald's operates more than 30,000 restaurants in more then 100 countries on 6 continents
- Before most children can speak they can recognize McDonald's
- Surgeon General David Satcher: "Fast food is a major contributor to the obesity epidemic"
- Most nutritionists recommend not eating fast food more than once a month
- 40 percent of American meals are eaten outside the home
- McDonald's represents 43% of total U.S. fast food market
Credit for this list goes to these fine people.