Today in History: American director and producer Morgan Spurlock was born on this day in 1970. He is best known for his anti-fast food documentary Super Size Me where he eats nothing but McDonald's food, three times a day for 30 days. That worked out to 5000 calories a day when you also add in the "super-size" and one gallon of soft drinks. As a result, the then-32-year-old Spurlock gained 24 lbs, had a 13% body mass increase and increased his cholesterol and experienced mood swings etc.
Even while watching Super Size Me I had problems with the film. How many people actually eat like this? Sure, maybe a few, but most don't. I might eat at McDonald's 4 times a year. Critics of the film, including McDonald's, argued that the author intentionally consumed an average of 5,000 calories per day and did not exercise, and that the results would have been the same regardless of the source of overeating.
When you factor in that an Egg McMuffin, orange juice, and coffee for breakfast; a grilled chicken bacon ranch salad and iced tea for lunch; and a double cheeseburger, medium fries, and diet Coke for dinner total fewer than 1,800 calories, this comes well under the 2,500 calories Spurlock's doctor says he needed to maintain his starting weight of 185 pounds. By contrast, Spurlock says he consumed some 5,000 calories a day, while deliberately avoiding physical activity.
After eating exclusively at McDonald's for one month, Soso Whaley said, "The first time I did the diet in April 2004, I lost 10 pounds (going from 175 to 165) and lowered my cholesterol from 237 to 197, a drop of 40 points." Of particular note was that she exercised regularly and did not insist on consuming more food than she otherwise would. Despite eating at only McDonald's every day, she maintained her caloric intake at around 2,000 per day.
After John Cisna, a high school science teacher, lost 60 pounds while eating exclusively at McDonald's for 180 days, he said, "I'm not pushing McDonald's. I'm not pushing fast food. I'm pushing taking accountability and making the right choice for you individually... As a science teacher, I would never show Super Size Me because when I watched that, I never saw the educational value in that... I mean, a guy eats uncontrollable amounts of food, stops exercising, and the whole world is surprised he puts on weight? What I'm not proud about is probably 70 to 80 percent of my colleagues across the United States still show Super Size Me in their health class or their biology class. I don't get it."
In 2009 Tom Naughton created the documentary Fat Head refuting Spurlock's claims. When I add this video to my blog (see above), a warning is placed over it by our big tech overlords.
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