Super size me

[seek10]

This is a very interesting , entertaining and creative movie released in 2004. I happen to see it only today. we read about all the evil fast foods, but this movie maker called morgan spurlock decided to do some experiment on his own perfect healthy body by taking mcdonald food for 30 days. with the help of weekly monitoring by a dietitian, 3 doctors ( who knows that he is doing high fat diet only) , his health was monitored . The results are compelling , which compelled Mcdonald to do serious damage control.

Facts are compelling
- gained 25 lbs in 1 month . 9lbs in first week, 17 lbs in 12 days - total 25 in a month
- he started vomiting 2nd day it self, but found adjusted after 3 days, like other stuff like cigarette
- eating twice the calories
- all the vitamins in the body are down 50%
- he got addiction in 3 weeks, i.e. if he doesn't eat he gets serious headache
- In 3 weeks he gets up in the mid night with palpitations and doctor chides him and asks him to stop the ridiculous fat diet he is taking. he compares his lever condition to that of alcoholic addict
-cholesterol shot up 65 points, heart risk increased 2 times, depressed and body fat 11% to 18% , got mood swings, sex life became non existent.

 

[Masamune]

I saw this documentary and I thought that Morgan Spurlock did a good job with it. I think I remember that his doctor recommended that he should come off the McDonald's diet or else he might die. :O And that was less than one month on the diet! Kinda scary when most people eat this type of food all the time. It is interesting because we are watching this in our college health class the week after next.

I only eat fast food when I have to; when I am on a road trip or unable to cook at my house. And when I eat it I definitely notice a detrimental effect on myself such as feeling depressed after eating the food. I usually just get hamburgers and just eat the meat and throw away the buns.

 

[Hildegarda]

a book, "The Fast Food Nation", is a good companion for the movie.

 

[Mayb]

I watched movie 3 years ago and I like it . :) I remember that his girlfriend put him on Detox Diet after.

 

[Gawan]

That's funny that this topic is coming up today, because I myself read it in "The Ultra mind solution" this very day and thought a few minutes ago: let's have look in the forum if this film has been already discussed.

FWIW here is a google link to the movie:

_http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-1432315846377280008#

 

[celtic]

We watch Morgan Spurlock "super size me" alot at school
I just recently found out about his new video minimum
wage. And this involves him and his wife who went on
minimum wage for 30 days. I think alot of his videos
are educational. If you wish to watch his video on
minimum wage here is a website.

http://www.hulu.com/watch/5287/30-days-minimum-wage

 

[The Mechanic]

a book, "The Fast Food Nation", is a good companion for the movie.

I watched the movie version of that, and it's good as well. I highly recommend it. I understand that the book is a very well researched nonfictional work, and this movie is kind of like a fictionalized narrative version of the book. It's a rather sad film and very gruesome, some might say even horrific at the end, though the message it conveys is very truthfull. I highly recommend it.

imdb link: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0460792/

 

[abstract]

I've seen this movie a few times. Amazing how corporations take zero responsibility for putting garbage and chemicals in their products.
Spurlock's wife must have been freaking out through the whole ordeal.
On a lighter note...well who am I kidding, this whole movie is about the evils of fast food. Is there a lighter note??? :)

 

[Masamune]

We watch Morgan Spurlock "super size me" alot at school
I just recently found out about his new video minimum
wage. And this involves him and his wife who went on
minimum wage for 30 days. I think alot of his videos
are educational. If you wish to watch his video on
minimum wage here is a website.

http://www.hulu.com/watch/5287/30-days-minimum-wage

Thanks for this celtic. I really like Morgan Spurlock and I watched the video about minimum wage. It turns out that he had his own tv show called 30 days where for 30 days someone would switch into someone else's lifestyle and see how it goes. He was personally in 3 episodes that I saw, one living on minimum wage and not being able to survive, one where he lived in jail for 30 days, and then one where he was a coal miner for 30 days. There are also ones where a straight man goes to live in San Fransico and live with mostly gay people for 30 days, and one about muslims in america, etc. I really like those shows where two opposites switch places and learn to get over stereotypes and understand each other. These videos are at the hulu link above.

 

[anothermagyar]

I have seen this movie and my friends told us to watch it.
They were actually part of the movie, the founder and -at that time - the owner of Natural Ovens, Wisconsin.
A devoted biochemist and his wife who is a nutritionist, Paul and Barbara.
Two sweet people who rally care for people's health.
We worked for them almost two years, they founded another health-food company and made chocolate with fortified Vitamin D!
They changed the food menu in a high school in Appleton and interestingly children's behavior changed to the better!
The got better grades, better attendance.
And all of this because they quit to eat junk food!!!

 

[seek10]

We watch Morgan Spurlock "super size me" alot at school
I just recently found out about his new video minimum
wage. And this involves him and his wife who went on
minimum wage for 30 days. I think alot of his videos
are educational. If you wish to watch his video on
minimum wage here is a website.

http://www.hulu.com/watch/5287/30-days-minimum-wage

Thank celtic for the link. I saw the minimum wage. It is a very sad reality and felt even depressed to know how painful it is. It is depressing to see how people live in poverty and debt after working for 16 hrs and end up paying thousands of dollars in medical bills and how the big banks sucks billions in late fees from these poor people, who can never come out of vicious circle of debt.


There is another episode raised my eye brows is 'new age' ( $50 billion industry in 2006 ). I was curious what does he show. It was interesting. Subject was a 30 yr. old sales man with temperament and stress problems, divorced and living with a girl friend and wants to do some thing with bad temperament and stress before it breaks the relationship. He has no clue of what the New age is all about.

Under a new age coach he goes through all sorts of things( the whole nine yards ) spring equinox rituals and some other egg rituals, primal dance, acupuncture, reiki , bhajans . In the process, his girl friend became jealous and suspicious and the coach meets his girl friend and teaches them tantric sex techniques and later he goes to a core energetic trainer to release emotions. At the end he and his girl friend even walks on fire ( symbolism of mind over body ). At the end of 30 days, they got convinced that it works and they are engaged .

Are they still married ?. I don't how far the new age honey moon lasted . I thought interesting.

 

[Benjamin]

An update to this old thread, Morgan Spurlock died on Thursday, May 23, 2024 from "complications from cancer" at age 53.

Morgan Spurlock, Documentarian Known for ‘Super Size Me,’ Dies at 53

His 2004 film followed Mr. Spurlock as he ate nothing but McDonald’s for a month. It was nominated for an Oscar, but it later came in for criticism.

www.nytimes.com

A self-described attention hound with a keen eye for the absurd, Mr. Spurlock was a playwright and television producer when he rocketed to global attention with “Super Size Me,” an early entry into the genre of gonzo participatory filmmaking that borrowed heavily from the confrontational style of Michael Moore and the up-close-and-personal influences of reality TV, which was then just emerging as a genre.

The film became a touchstone in American culture. By making himself a part of the story, Mr. Spurlock could be considered a forerunner of TikTok influencers and citizen-journalist YouTubers.

And even after the backlash against fast food subsided, “Super Size Me” remained a staple in high school health classes and a reference point for taking personal responsibility for one’s own diet.

And in 2017, he admitted that he had not been sober for more than a week at a time in 30 years — meaning that, in addition to his “McDonald’s only” diet, he was drinking, a fact that he concealed from his doctors and the audience, and that most likely skewed his results.

The statement, which Mr. Spurlock posted on Twitter in 2017, came as he was gearing up for the release of a sequel to the film, “Super Size Me 2: Holy Chicken!” on YouTube Red.

Morgan Valentine Spurlock was born on Nov. 7, 1970, in Parkersburg, W.Va., and grew up in Beckley, W.Va. His father, Ben, owned and operated an auto-repair shop, and his mother, Phyllis (Valentine) Spurlock, was a junior high school and high school guidance counselor.

He studied film at New York University and received a bachelor’s degree in fine arts in 1993, then began his career as a production assistant on film projects around New York City, beginning with Luc Besson’s “Léon: The Professional” (1994).

Mr. Spurlock’s first foray onto the screen was a proto-reality show called “I Bet You Will,” which was also one of the first web-only programs. In five-minute segments, he would dare people to do something gross, or humiliating, or both — eating a “worm burrito,” for example — in exchange for a wad of cash. [I vaguely remember this show. That was him?]

The show drew millions of viewers, as well as the interest of MTV, which bought the program a few months after it debuted.

Mr. Spurlock was married three times, to Priscilla Sommer, Alexandra Jamieson and Sara Bernstein; all three marriages ended in divorce. Along with his brother Craig, he is survived by another brother, Barry; his parents; and his sons, Laken and Kallen.

From the wiki about him:

In December 2017, Spurlock wrote a blog post admitting to what he described as a history of sexual misconduct.[51] In the midst of the #MeToo movement, he said “I’ve come to understand after months of these revelations, that I am not some innocent bystander, I am also a part of the problem.”[6] In the post he said that he committed sexual misconduct in his past, including cheating on his past wives and girlfriends as well as settling a sexual harassment allegation, brought by an assistant at his production company, Warrior Poets.[52] In the post he also said that he was accused of sexual assault while in college.

His girlfriend (later wife) at the time of Super Size Me was Alexandra Jamieson, a vegan for 13 years. She's the author of The Great American Detox Diet and two other books on vegetarianism (later, two other non-vegan books after leaving the cult), and was a well known and longtime celebrity vegan. She ended up leaving vegetarianism in May, 2013 and started feeling better. She's also the founder of We Create | NYC an art exhibition group featuring women, trans, and non-binary artists.

Girlfriend from "Super Size Me" Ditches Veganism

Some of you may remember the 2004 documentary Super Size Me which depicts filmmaker Morgan Spurlock eating three meals from McDonalds every single day for

www.thehealthyhomeeconomist.com

 

[Beau]

Another one killed by the vax.