In 2004 Morgan Spurlock, now a resident of New York City, decided to find out what junk food, or a "McDiet" as he called it really does to an otherwise healthy person. For a period of thirty days he huffed, puffed and burped his way through this awful diet. His then girlfriend (a vegan chef) and a team of doctors first chuckled in amusement and then grew increasingly alarmed as Spurlock experienced mood swings, massive weight gains and liver dysfunction.
Day One - The Beginning of the Experiment
Spurlock was thirty-two years old and in excellent health. Weighing at 185 pounds (about 84 kilograms) and standing at six feet and two inches tall, he asked a cardiologist, a gastroenterologist, a general practitioner, a nutritionist and a personal trainer to monitor his health over the course of the thirty day McDonald's binge.
These are the rules he had to follow:
- He must eat three full squares of McDonald's food every day.
- He must try everything on the menu at least once.
- If he is asked by the person behind the counter if he wants to super size his meals, he will say yes every time.
- No outside food is to be consumed. No fruits, vegetables or grains of any kind are to be eaten.
Day Two - Diving into McDonald's Food with Reckless Abandon
His first supersize meal was in Manhattan, where there are four McDonald's restaurants for every square mile. Not all of his meals were consumed in New York. He later travelled to Houston, Texas where over his thirty day experiment he super sized his meals five times. It should come as no surprise then that Texas has the unenviable distinction of being one of the fattest states in America. In 2007, 66% of adults in that state were obese or overweight.*
Day Five - Spurlock Puts on the Pounds
After this short period of time he has gained ten pounds (five kilograms). At the same time he experienced bouts of lethargy and depression, which were relieved only when he started to eat McDonald's again.
Day Twenty-One - Sick and Getting Sicker
At this point Spurlock was experiencing heart palpitations, and he was told by his doctor that he should stop kicking his liver while it's down, otherwise he will end up in the emergency room – or worse.
Who Is to Blame?
Are the fast food corporations really responsible for America's obesity problems? Spurlock pointed out that every year the average U.S. child under the age of ten sees at least 10,000 fast food ads per year on television. The junk food bigwigs have billions of dollars to spend on advertising and employ powerful lobbyists in Washington to make sure no unfavourable legislation is passed against them. At the same time fast food companies insist that adults have free will when deciding what they eat and what their children eat.
So, maybe it does come to down to personal responsibility and better nutrition choices. However, in this age of convenience and the inability or unwillingness to open a cookbook and start making healthy meals at home, America is likely to get fatter. And this will lead to a catastrophic rise in health care costs and preventable deaths.
Day 30 - The End of the Mission
Spurlock wanted to prove that eating fast food on a consistent basis can make an otherwise healthy person fat and vulnerable to all kinds of horrific illnesses. He certainly succeeded in expanding his waistline. It took fourteen months for him to shed the twenty-five pounds he gained while eating nothing but McDonald's. Maybe his experience should be a wake up call for the overweight citizens of America. After this film was shown at the 2004 Sundance Film Festival, McDonald's took the super sized french fries and sodas off their menus, and replaced them with less fattening alternatives.
* - Texas Department of State Health Services.
