see supersize me

He wasn’t a vegan – his girlfriend was a vegan, and tried to get him to eat ‘veganly’.

first of all, when the guy started out he was a vegan. obviously if he goes from a super clean diet, straight to mcdonalds, there are going to be problems. plus the fact that the experiment with the jars is stupid. i’m not putting my food in a jar, i’m eating it. and besides, stomach acid usually helps with the digesting process. i haven’t had problems yet.

i watche dthis movies while i was eating mcdonald’s and having a sundae from sonic! yeah made me lose my appitite real quick that dude was like sick but you have to relieze something he did it with no exercise and nothing where most poeple walk he didn’t where you do your normal routine he stopped to see what would happen but it was still a freaking good movie

I have Spurlock’s book, “Don’t Eat this Book”, which chronicles the making of the film, and provides additional commentary. Here’s what bothers me about this whole “experiment”: he seems to lump obesity and malnutrition together. He focuses on the “obesity epidemic” in America, but then talks about preservatives and processing that have more to do with nutrition than obesity.

He references a woman who did a sort of anti-supersize me experiment, in which she ate only McDonald’s food for 30 days, but limited her calories and exercised, and she actually lost weight and her cholesterol count went down significantly. So, she lost weight, but does that mean the food is good for you? He laughs this woman’s experiment off, by saying that she did “what no one else in America does: eat less and exercise”. So, would Spurlock have no problem with McDonalds if the eating and exercising habits of America were better?

The connection between McDonalds and overeating is unclear. I get his points about advertising and supersizing, but really… Many Americans overeat regardless of what they’re eating. If there were no supersizing option, many would just order more food.

This is not to say I would defend McDonalds. I think it’s terribly unhealthy for you, and I agree with his assessments of the processing, chemicals, saturated fat, refined sugar, weird meat, etc that the food consists of. I also tend to really dislike advertising tactics. But I think the emphasis should be more on the fact that this food is not healthy, instead of the fact that it can lead to gaining weight, because, as evidenced by the woman who lost weight, it would be fairly easy to prove that eating habits have more to do with weight gain than any particular type of food. If you ate 10 pounds of right-from-the-ground potatoes a day you’d gain weight too, not just if they’re fried and processed by McDonalds. (Although it’s true that you’d have to eat a lot less fries to gain weight than mere potatoes, but people have eaten fries everyday and lost weight).

Again, being thin doesn’t equal being healthy. McDonald’s food is just not good for you, even if you don’t gain weight. I wish that point had been clearer. It’s not about calories per se; it’s about nutrition. Calories from McDonald’s can be controlled, like calories from any food. The point is hardly anyone thinks about it when ordering fast food, but this is more because people just like the way it tastes and want more, not because of McDonald’s insidious advertising strategies.

So why didn’t Spurlock just eat until he was full and excercise as normal? If he was still unhealthy in spite of this, I’d be able to agree with the film more. Then he would have sucessfully shown that even if people didn’t overeat and exercised, McDonalds could still kill their health. Eating that much of anything would probably make you feel ill and gain weight. If he still felt ill and gained weight eating a normal amount and exercising, well, then you have hard-to-disprove evidence that fast food is worse for you than other foods Americans eat.

In spite of this frustration about his experiment, I still think he did an excellent job of letting Americans know about the state of fast food and will hopefully convince more people that they shouldn’t be eating very much of it.

I always knew fast food was bad for you, but yikes! Like Deni, I’m really afraid of McDonald’s fries and chicken nuggets now. The “Smoking Fry” was frightening!
A friend of mine has a son who is an undertaker. He told her that people don’t decompose as quickly after they are buried now as they did years ago because the preservatives in the food we eat. I can only imagine how McD’s fries would affect that.

I really don’t want hamburgers or french fries after this!!!

I am actually scared of McDonald’s french fries now! (See “The Smoking Fry” DVD bonus material featurette.)

I know that I am usually able to describe what I feel/think fairly easily, but I simply cannot find terminology to express it right now. This is something that I would suggest that people watch.

I may need to get this for my library now. It’s definitely motivational if you’re trying to eat healthy! I am blown away by it.

Ugh, I cannot believe this guy does this to himself in Supersize me. Moderation is the key. McDonald’s has great fries but I don’t eat them but once a month if that.
A very different kind of “documentary”.