Super Size Me Filmmaker Morgan Spurlock decided to go on a McDonald’s binge diet for one month in order to prove or disprove the health risks of fast food. Spurlock was given this idea by two girls who were at the time perusing lawsuits against the company for their health problems. The two girls claimed that their health problems or “conditions” were caused by eating at the fast food establishment, the film noted the girls’ size and one of them was noted to be 5’6 at roughly two hundred seventy pounds at age 16.
He ventures out to explore the diet but consults three different doctors to monitor and document his started health and changes along the way. Spurlock was 6’2 with a starting weight of one hundred eighty five pounds, with eleven percent body fat. Among the three different doctors he consulted were a cardiologist, a gastroenterologist and a general practitioner as well as a registered dietician.
It is documented that Spurlocks family doesn’t run any history of diseases or major health issues except that his grandfather had an open heart surgery and one grandparent is deceased, he had smoked and drank in the past but was not doing either at the time. The doctors ran various tests to document all aspects of his health but the notable factors were that he had a healthy cholesterol level and a healthy triglyceride level charted at 43 by the gastroenterologist and 0. 87 by the Cardiologist.
The rules of the Supersize me diet were that Spurlock could only eat items sold at McDonald’s, including water for breakfast lunch and dinner as well as snacks if he desired any. Each item on the menu had to be tried at least once, and no medicines or vitamins could be taken. Super size was to be ordered if it was offered to him and all of his meals were to be eaten completely. Spurlock also limited his exercise to none and daily steps to about five thousand a day in order to conform to the average daily physical activity of a working American.
About a week or two into his diet Spurlock had trouble eating his meals and vomited. He documented feeling sick and had withdrawal symptoms along with depression and a decrease in sexual performance. Three weeks into the experiment his doctors were warning him to stop because he was damaging his health. The doctors themselves were surprised that this type of eating could be so detrimental to an individual’s health. By the time he had concluded his experiment Spurlock had gained twenty four and a half pounds weighing in at two hundred ten pounds.
His cholesterol increased by sixty five points and his triglycerides had soared to hazardous levels, and his liver was what one doctor claimed as “toxic. ” One of the doctors described it as “liver pate. ” Spurlocks body fat increased by seven percent as he started at eleven percent and ended at eighteen which is still low for the average BMI for Americans. Overall, Spurlock ventured on a dangerous mission proving the health risks and side effects of our fast food nations lifestyle and eating habits, although it may have been extreme… It is not unusual for some people.
