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[SickBoy]

So I finally got Supersize Me from my Canadian equivalent of Netflix, and I'm not entirely surprised, but meh.

Clearly the McDonalds hook is sexy and the effects on his body are interesting, but while that may have been what got people in the door, I think a lot of interesting questions emerged that he only ever really skated the surface of -- far more interesting than "OMG, he's getting fat!"

School lunches and food choices, for example; psychological/marketing factors in adult food choices; someone talking about the massive preservatives in a lot of modern convenience food; body image issues -- one guy talked about how the perception of the 17-year-old magazine model as the ideal can be linked to rises in obesity. The comment just sort of died -- no corroboration and no further discussion.... and so on.

It was also weird how the Big Mac guy was sort of thrown in -- didn't really see the point of that (was he balance? was he just some random freak?)

At any rate, I think the movie was alright. But I think it missed the boat a little bit. I also agree with a lot of the stuff I've seen questioning "the rules." I think he could have offered a better look at "hey viewers, this is what I ate." I sort of questioned what was going on at times because rather than just taking a straightforward trip through the menu, he seemed to be ordering dessert a lot and I think I sort of raised an eyebrow when it seemed like he ordered double-1/4-pounder meals like two days apart.

He did a great job with the visual of "this is how much sugar I ate" at the end. I would have liked to have seen more in the way of illustration of what exactly was in what he was consuming.


On a related note, a teacher in Edmonton got into an argument with his class over how objective something like this is... class was apparently arguing "McDonalds makes you fat."

He set out to show that the opposite could prove true too. He embarked on a diet of his own and lost 17 pounds in a month. Of course, he played by different rules than Morgan Spurlock. http://www.mcles.com/ (Still damn scary how much saturated fat and sodium this guy was consuming). Story's been all over Canada's media (at least in the west)... don't know if it's made it south of the border.

 

[fart]

what's terrible about the press for this movie (but oh so typical) is that it was sold on a gimmick. guy eats mcdonalds, guy gets fat. it's not about that (and the fast food industry isn't about that either - although that's a major dimension to the debate), but about corporate liability, public health, consumer culture, etc. etc.

if the documentary were as thin as "i ate mcdonalds, i got fat" (and for many people, those who've seen it and those who haven't, it is), i would have the same comments as you. but i think, if the viewer does a bit of intellectual work, it's a lot deeper than that, and the worst part of the movie is how it does tend to play on the getting fat gimmick without explicitly asking the user to think.

 

[Liu Kang Baking A Pie]

This movie isn't about McDonalds at all. It's about soda.

The whole movie is a lie and it should be against sugar. He drank nothing at all but soda throughout the entire month. It was the entire reason he was so fatigued, dehydrated, etc. He was injesting nothing but pure carbonated sugar, but he tried his hardest to convince you it was the food's fault. I'd say about 75% of his weight gain came from the fact that he was drinking nothing but simple carbs and sugar at above average dosages for a whole month. Just three sodas in one day will give you around 100g of sugar and carbs... he was going way above that. The McDonald's food didn't do shit except load him up with sodium and fat and not give him any vitamins.

 

[AstroLad]

This movie isn't about McDonalds at all. It's about soda.

The whole movie is a lie and it should be against sugar. He drank nothing at all but soda throughout the entire month. It was the entire reason he was so fatigued, dehydrated, etc. He was injesting nothing but pure carbonated sugar, but he tried his hardest to convince you it was the food's fault. The McDonald's food didn't do shit except load him up with sodium and fat and not give him any vitamins.

:lol

I agree with fart's point; and while I think it's a shame he had to use the McDonalds gimmick, he probably though it was a commercial necessity, and the movie really didn't suffer that much for it unless you're gullible enough to think that what he ate isn't what millions of people in America eat every day (be it McDonald's for lunch, Little Caesar's for dinner, Baskin-Robbins for dessert, the brand is largely insignificant).

 

[miyuru]

Overall I enjoyed it, I never thought McDonalds could be *that* unhealthy for someone.

But then again, he did eat it 3 meals a day...

I saw this documentary when it opened, so I can't really remember the point of it. I think it had something to do with corporate America not caring about its customers. Honestly, I'd have to defend McDonalds. It's fast food. It's known to be fat. At least now, the caloric content and whatnot of anything you can order at McDicks is posted in plain view at every location. McDonalds is just like any other company, out there to get your money, and yes, they don't care about your health.

I just feel it's unfortunate that *McDonalds* takes the blame for the whole fast food industry pretty much. Fuck fatties who blame McDonalds for getting fat - it's their own fault. It's like saying guns don't kill people, people kill people, same diff..

BTW, how is Netflix?

 

[AstroLad]

Overall I enjoyed it, I never thought McDonalds could be *that* unhealthy for someone.

But then again, he did eat it 3 meals a day...

I saw this documentary when it opened, so I can't really remember the point of it. I think it had something to do with corporate America not caring about its customers. Honestly, I'd have to defend McDonalds. It's fast food. It's known to be fat. At least now, the caloric content and whatnot of anything you can order at McDicks is posted in plain view at every location. McDonalds is just like any other company, out there to get your money, and yes, they don't care about your health.

I just feel it's unfortunate that *McDonalds* takes the blame for the whole fast food industry pretty much. Fuck fatties who blame McDonalds for getting fat - it's their own fault. It's like saying guns don't kill people, people kill people, same diff..

BTW, how is Netflix?

Well it's a much more complicated issue than just "omg take responsibility fatty!" although there's certainly some appeal to that stance. The fact is that most of the food producers in this country are imposing tremendous amounts of externalities on society and it's the rest of society that ends up paying when you have millions of people with type 2 diabetes, heart problems, etc. largely as a result of their eating habits.

Obviously there are different ways to account for these externalities, lawsuits are one rather inefficient way (they did this with the cigarette industry), but my proposal has always been some sort of a tax because it makes the buyers of junk food pay up front (and maybe even reconsider) for what we're going to have to pay for later; this is actually being tried in a few places. There are obviously major implementation issues to work out but it doesn't take a walk around Disneyland to figure out that something has to be done.

 

[Drensch]

This movie isn't about McDonalds at all. It's about soda.

He discusses soda, and it is a McDonald's food. That said, nothing including soda and Mc Donald's inherently bad. It all has to do with habits and choices.

I think the movie is a great ice breaker-type look into the issues of food marketing, consumption, image and what not. And you can't expect him to make an entertaining and engrossing as well as definitively informative 2hr movie. Spurlock hits you with the hook, and does a good job of hitting on a lot of issues that raise questions whilst being funny.

He doesn't place McD totally at fault either. He spends time discussing choice and the like.

Sb: Someone's comment at the link you posted made an important point: " Blaming McDonald's for your expanding waistline is like blaming MasterCard for your overspending." But the person fails to mention that both McD and (especially)Mastercard are very sneaky and direct with predatory marketing.

 

[AstroLad]

He discusses soda, and it is a McDonald's food. That said, nothing including soda and Mc Donald's inherently bad. It all has to do with habits and choices.

I think the movie is a great ice breaker-type look into the issues of food marketing, consumption, image and what not. And you can't expect him to make an entertaining and engrossing as well as definitively informative 2hr movie. Spurlock hits you with the hook, and does a good job of hitting on a lot of issues that raise questions whilst being funny.

He doesn't place McD totally at fault either. He spends time discussing choice and the like.

Sb: Someone's comment at the link you posted made an important point: " Blaming McDonald's for your expanding waistline is like blaming MasterCard for your overspending." But the person fails to mention that both McD and (especially)Mastercard are very sneaky and direct with predatory marketing.

Add to that that most McDonalds food is basically worthless, that's why those nutritionists said it's ok to eat McDonalds preferably never. Your regular large coke, large fries and ketchup, big mac meal has 55 grams of fat, 1440 calories, 211 grams of carbs and 1650 grams of sodium. Maybe it's almost acceptable if you plan on having a salad for breakfast and dinner and no snacks all day, which in today's America is highly unlikely, but most food we have really is just garbage we'd all be better off never touching.

EDIT: Part of a good article I finally dug up on my computer-

America is fat. For some, the evidence is readily apparent: a cavernous dent in the once-sturdy couch, the belt which grows like kudzu, the cruel reminders in the eyes of strangers. For others, though, the obesity epidemic is something troubling but external, alien even, like the neighbors two streets over who leave old car parts in their yard--best kept away from, or at the very least, complained about in the safety of similarly tasteful friends; a sign of personal collapse and failure best glowered over as a Washington Post editorial or chuckled at as a New Yorker cartoon. Not our problem. Not our America. It is with self-satisfied eyes we watch as the Surgeon General calls obesity a "catastrophe" and a more "pressing issue in health" than terrorism or weapons of mass destruction. Not us. You will not count us among the hundreds of thousands of Americans said to die this year from weight related conditions. You will not count us among the behemoths, whose every decision, from clothing style to diet, is so clearly mistaken. Pitiable, yes, but not forgivable. We all had the choices before us--be healthy or unhealthy, live in the moment or live long--and we chose wisely. Rejoice, fellow beanpoles, for we are safe. We are immune.

But then again, maybe we are not. Maybe, there are costs to us. Large costs. For many, looking in the mirror may not show them. Yet, slender and portly alike, we are all being weighed down by this epidemic. It turns out that while some of us squeezed in a jog around the lake between our 10:30 with marketing and our 12:20 with accounts, our local school was squeezing in a Coke machine between the lunch line and the cafeteria doors, and signing an exclusive deal with Burger King. In just the last thirty years, obesity in children has tripled, with over 15% of youngsters currently obese. Major health problems--including cardiovascular, endocrine, pulmonary, hepatic, renal, neurological, and psychosocial conditions--once rare among the young, are showing up in increasing numbers and, unlike with cigarettes, ceasing the activity may not reverse the damage--a disease like type 2 diabetes can be with a person for the balance of their abbreviated life.

We might take comfort in the fact that not everything is getting bigger, if it were not our pocketbooks taking the hit. Burgeoning health problems in a large sector of the population mean increased health care and insurance costs borne by the public as a whole. A recent study funded by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimated the direct annual medical costs of overweight and obesity at almost $93 billion (9.1% of total national medical costs), with about half of that being paid for by the government through Medicaid and Medicare. Private first-party health insurance similarly spreads the costs of care from those who are overweight to those who are not. But medical expenditures are only part of the larger drain on the American economy. Our collective weight problem also means lost capacity for companies, since physical ailments, like hypertension, coronary heart disease, and osteoarthritis, result in more sick time and decreased productivity. In addition, certain jobs requiring dexterity, physical agility, and general fitness become much harder to do when you are carrying around an extra fifty or hundred pounds. In short, the Supersizing of America hurts us all.

 

[Zaptruder]

I think Jamie Oliver's school lunches/dinners series had a better, more direct and pertinent effect on eating health.

Basically show casing the kind of stuff school kids get and how that kind of unhealthy food can drive children to dislike/not even look at otherwise wholesome and delicious food.
Not only was the food they served junk and unhealthy, but it drove them away from better alternatives... and there in lies the crutch of the junk food industry... it supplants a healthy diet; its effects don't just stop at adding empty calories.

Moreover, the guy actually got some amount of direct change happening in britain, to the tune of 280 million pounds increased spending to make those healthier school lunches.

 

[teh_pwn]

I agree. There's a serious problem right now with the power junk food companies have on children and school lunches. How billions are spent to sway children to eat shit, and there's nothing spent to help them eat right -- and there's hardly even the option at schools. And then we have to spend billions more on health care that results from this. We're bankrupting America's wealth and health.

The actual effects on the guy's body from eating that much Mcdonalds is expected. While he was binge eating it so to speak, even with 1 meal like that once a day, you will likely gain weight and your health will worsen. Just much slower and depending on what you eat at other parts of the day.

One things for sure. All of McDonald's food is utter shit. All of it with the exception of milk and possibly orange juice. The salads offer nothing but a little fiber and pesticides with the option of fat ass dressing. In the past 4-5 years I've eaten McDonalds once. Someone gave me a gift certificate. I had a Big Mac Meal with a diet coke. I felt like total shit after eating it. I was playing WoW and I was fucking up with battles in the instance but I felt so drowsy.

 

[BlackClouds]

What a second, the food itself has a lot of sugar in it also. Ever eat a quarter pounder or cheeseburger at room temp, it's sweet as hell for no reason I can think of. Thought that point was made clear in the movie that overdosing on sugar and the addiction to sugar was a major cause if not the cause of the problems from Mcdonalds.

And yes, I always feel like shit after eating mcdonalds. Haven't eaten there in about 6 months, then again I occassionaly eat at Hardees which is probably just as bad

 

[SickBoy]

what's terrible about the press for this movie (but oh so typical) is that it was sold on a gimmick. guy eats mcdonalds, guy gets fat. it's not about that (and the fast food industry isn't about that either - although that's a major dimension to the debate), but about corporate liability, public health, consumer culture, etc. etc.

Yeah, just to be clear, though (if the point didn't come across in my original post) I think the movie displayed huge promise on these aspects but really failed to deliver. These issues were all there, but they were definitely secondary to the Morgan Spurlock freak show (seems to be a complaint you share, at least to a degree).

Someone's comment at the link you posted made an important point: " Blaming McDonald's for your expanding waistline is like blaming MasterCard for your overspending." But the person fails to mention that both McD and (especially)Mastercard are very sneaky and direct with predatory marketing.

Oh I hear ya

I think (in the movie) the talk of a link between childhood memories and adult habits was interesting. May be why I'm not a huge McDonald's fan -- went maybe once every month or two growing up and with picky tastes a Happy Meal was like Russian Roulette... did they prepare the burger the way it was ordered or just pick one up off the assembly line? This, of course, being back in the day before fast food places were good about accurately filling orders.

Miyuru: the two Canadian "Netflix" equivalents that are apparently worth a damn are zip.ca and vhqonline. I use VHQ because apparently it's got better distribution to the West. It's pretty good (cheaper than the video store) but you've got to stay on top of it, watching what you get and sending it back in decent time to make sure you're getting your money's worth. Zip has a larger selection and more customers. I've heard some negative stories about its customer service, but "all those customers can't be wrong" or something The prices are the same, I think: $24.95 per month to have 4 movies at a time.

 

[FortNinety]

I’ve stated my passionate hatred for the film many times in the past, so I'll just say two things:

1. Would have been much better movie, top to bottom, if not for that Spurlock character, and I want to emphasize the word "character".

2. I recall Penn Gillette saying of the movie: "this is just another thing for rich people to go 'hey, look how stupid poor people are' ", and I have to agree.

Again, potential good message ruined by the tone and attitude of the dipshit director. If there's one unfortunate evil Michael Moore is responsible for, it’s the wave of documentarian directors who have this constant need to be in front of the camera.

 

[Ninja Scooter]

i don't understand the "shock" of this movie. McDonalds and the like are nothing but greasy ass food and sodas, why would you be suprised that it would fuck up someone's health eating that stuff 3 times a day, every day? The only thing that is funny to me is the people that say "Its not fair because nobody actually eats that 3 times a day", well, actually, people DO eat that shit 3 times a day. Why do you think we have so many 400 lb people and fatass little kids running around all over the place? Hell, at work i see people that eat nothing but fast food every day on their lunch break, with bigass super gulp sodas. Of course they pick the bread off their triple quarter pound hamburgers to make it "Atkins friendly" and then wonder why they can't lose weight. The only people i actually have sympathy for are the children, cause they are forced this shit by lazy parents. Don't give me this "poor people" crap because for what it costs to get their kid a meal at McDonalds or Burger King, they can go to the supermarket and get their kids something reasonably healthy to eat. Its just laziness.

 

[ToxicAdam]

I don't know why people get so agitated over this movie. It was a whimsical look at fast food and how it has shaped (literally) our society. I thought everything was done tongue in cheek, and was presented in a bit over-the-top style. Kind of "information with a wink and a smile."

This wasn't some hard core scientific study .. this was entertainment that is supposed to give you pause to think.

Really, the people this should have spoken to are the travelling businessmen and salespeople of the country. Those guys work 50-70 hours a week, and barely have time to eat decently. They are the ones eating breakfast/lunch/dinner at fast food places.

 

[fart]

I’ve stated my passionate hatred for the film many times in the past, so I'll just say two things:

1. Would have been much better movie, top to bottom, if not for that Spurlock character, and I want to emphasize the word "character".

2. I recall Penn Gillette saying of the movie: "this is just another thing for rich people to go 'hey, look how stupid poor people are' ", and I have to agree.

Again, potential good message ruined by the tone and attitude of the dipshit director. If there's one unfortunate evil Michael Moore is responsible for, it’s the wave of documentarian directors who have this constant need to be in front of the camera.

yes, this is the worst part of the whole gimmick thing. the reason these directors do this is because they need to sell their films though.

 

[Virgin Wii]

I'd just like to say, that even if you don't eat fastfood 3 times a day, how many of your meals a day come from frozen food? It can be just as bad. So it's very reasonable to think that many people are eating these kinds of horrible meals 3 times a day, every day.

 

[djtiesto]

Fast Food Nation - check this book out... very insightful look into the fast food industry, its origins, its advertising goals (get 'em while they're young, customers for life), a look into the agribusiness vendors, fast food franchising, and a bit of stuff about BSE (Mad Cow).

 

[Mr. Blonde]

Of course the guy got fat. Not only was he eating 3 meals a day, his meals consisted of things such as 2 Egg McMuffins in one meal. And he went from a vegan diet to eating 5 meals worth of food at McDonald's every day.

 

[SteveMeister]

On the other hand, McDonald's and other fast food restaurants now offer a wider variety of salads, fruit, low fat/fat free yogurt, and other healthy choices. I'm sure the movie played a part in this.