The Joys of McDonalds
Links 01/25/2004 |LAST February, Morgan Spurlock decided to become a gastronomical guinea pig.
His mission: To eat three meals a day for 30 days at McDonald’s and document the impact on his health. Scores of cheeseburgers, hundreds of fries and dozens of chocolate shakes later, the formerly strapping 6-foot-2 New Yorker - who started out at a healthy 185 pounds - had packed on 25 pounds. But his supersized shape was the least of his problems. Within a few days of beginning his drive-through diet, Spurlock, 33, was vomiting out the window of his car, and doctors who examined him were shocked at how rapidly Spurlock’s entire body deteriorated. His liver became toxic, his cholesterol shot up from a low 165 to 230, his libido flagged and he suffered headaches and depression. Over the course of the [month], Spurlock [was] regularly examined by a gastroenterologist, a cardiologist and SoHo-based general practitioner Dr. Daryl Isaacs. “He was an extremely healthy person who got very sick eating this McDonald’s diet,” Dr. Isaacs told The Post. “None of us imagined he could deteriorate this badly - he looked terrible. The liver test was the most shocking thing - it became very, very abnormal.” Spurlock, who says he ate at McDonald’s only sporadically before his total immersion in the Mickey D’s menu, says he even began craving fat and sugar fixes between meals. “I got desperately ill,” he says. “My face was splotchy and I had this huge gut, which I’ve never had in my life. “My knees started to hurt from the extra weight coming on so quickly. It was amazing - and really frightening.”
<
p>Just disturbing.
Now if you’ll excuse me, I’ve got a sudden craving for a Double Quarter-Pounder with Cheese. 
(via Kottke)
iTunes: “Get Off My Land” by Operatica from the album O Vol. 1 (2000, 5:05).
[See also: 32 cents | The dangers of mayonnaise | Silliness: Medical Notes | Vivir con miedo, es como vivir a medias! | Works for me… ]
« Orkut | R.I.P. Captain Kangaroo »
20 Responses to “The Joys of McDonalds”
Leave a Reply
medhat abbas
Ryan Waddell
Sponge Bob
rawad
January 25th, 2004 at 3:26 pm
They didn’t even make it a month! His health was so poor they stopped it early. The thing that gets me is they were surprised by the findings. So it turns out just Fries, Milkshakes and Burgers is a bad diet. Who would have thought it?
January 25th, 2004 at 7:03 pm
it’s a small franchised world after all
Very interesting article from ny coming to me via seattle, (isn’t that how it always goes?). It seems a man tried to eat mcdonald’s 3 meals a day, for 30 days. (i mention my 2-3 month stint of eating a happy meal a day in college?)…anyway gues what…..
January 25th, 2004 at 9:00 pm
Smile! It’s the McDiet.
This just in from eclecticism—fast food may be hazardous to your health. Within 30 days, a diet of McDonald’s may cause v…
January 25th, 2004 at 11:16 pm
No More McDonald’s
I found a link on eclesticism to a nypost story about a guy named Morgan Spurlock who ate exclusivly at McDonald’s for 30 days for a film documentry. He had his health deteriorate dramatically from what his doctors described as perfectly healthy. The a…
January 26th, 2004 at 8:12 am
If only he had eaten a McDLT (do they still have those?) i’m sure he would have been fine.
January 26th, 2004 at 8:17 am
Supersize Yourself to (Near) Death
Quite awhile ago, back in the days when this blog was green, i wrote about the supersizing of america. Recently, one man went on a 30 day mission to see what would happen if he ate nothing but McDonalds. The
January 26th, 2004 at 12:47 pm
Well, it’s strange days indeed when I defend McDonalds, but in all seriousness, this is a straw man argument. No one eats there for three meals a day for 30 days. No Starbucks? No doughnuts? Not that those are stellar choices, either … .
Even if they mix it up with other similar offerings (KFC, pizza, etc), it would be a pretty grim diet, so there is a case to be made for more sensible food choices. I’m just not sure holding Mickey D’s up as the poster child gets us anywhere.
now playing: There There (The Boney King Of Nowhere) from the album Hail To The Thief by Radiohead
January 26th, 2004 at 5:23 pm
Paul, It was done because Mc D’s started talking about how healthy thier food was. So this guy tested them. He did it while being watched by several Dr’s and they (the Dr’s) wrote the report. McDonalds went over the line when they said they were a healthy diet. Had they keep thier mouths shut nothing would have happened.
KFC also got into hot water because the Atkins diet is high fat and protien and low carb so KFC started an ad saying that their chicken was part of a healthy diet and they got SUED and lost.
It’s junk food. Plain and simple. Just like the cheap ass TV dinner I’m about to eat. But at least I know its junk. and they don’t pretent to call it a healthy diet.
They asked for it, and they got it.
January 26th, 2004 at 10:56 pm
ah, I didn’t realize it was in response to their claim that their food was “healthy.”
Bleacgh. probably took years off his life … .
January 27th, 2004 at 5:31 am
The Dr’s stopped the diet test not because he gained weight or even because he we less healthy. But because his liver numbers were going off the chart.(what numbers I do not know) The Dr’s felt if he continued the diet he would go into liver failure! Well I’m no Dr but my understanding is the liver removes toxins from the body. Going into liver failure in less than 30 days doesn’t speak too highly of McDonalds food but the sad truth is it would have been the same at any number of fast food places.
Also note it was called the “the super sized diet” so every time they asked, do you want to super size it, he said yes.
January 27th, 2004 at 5:18 pm
From my own silly mistakes I now can understand why Spurlock found trouble in his life thanks to Mcdonalds. I have been a meat lover all my life. My friends used to joke that I would sell the whole family for one piece of Lamb. You were able to call me the “Super” follower of the Atkins Diet. While stuffing my face with lamb I experienced allergies and streaks of bad luck in my social life. I tried everything to escape and feel better by drinking coffee, alcohol, smoking cigarettes, marijuana, clubbing and much more.
The result, I lost all the success I had before, gained weight, my allergies got stronger, and all this fun lead me to a nervous breakdown. I realized I was doing something wrong and therefore I started looking for something opposite to the factors that contributed to ruining my life. I made my own research and found a system that best fits my requirements – The Shock Diet of Dr. G. In my wildest nightmares I couldn’t imagine that I could live without lamb. Now I am living not only without lamb, but without chicken, salmon, smoking, alcohol, … I quit, not because I dreamed to be a vegetarian or Santa Maria, but because I stopped enjoying those things once I started the Shock diet.
I think subconsciously my body got a chance to compare what is good and bad for my body and only after two months on the Shock Diet System, my body was free of allergies, depression, and extra weight. Call it a fairy tale, call it a nightmare, this is my life. In my opinion food does not only relate to the category weight loss or food poising but affects not only our health but our life. My social life made a 360 degree turn for the better, but unfortunately Spurlock in one month made a 360 degree turn in the opposite direction. I hope that Spurlock and other Mcdonald and Atkin lovers will find the best way to keep for their health and life.
January 28th, 2004 at 10:45 am
I don’t think McDonald’s has ever claimed that their entire menu is healthy. Why didn’t this guy eat only off the McHealthy menu (or whatever they’re calling it, the new menu with only the healthy crap)? I have never seen one McDonald’s ad claiming that their burger menu was at all healthy…
Also, I’d like to see some proof (other than an article in the NY Post entertainment section) that he really DID suffer the ill effects that he says he did. This WREAKS of hoax to me. And I don’t even particularly LIKE McDonald’s (although now I too have a hankering for a double QPw/C :))
January 28th, 2004 at 5:53 pm
Ryan Everything was filmed for Discovery channel. This will be a documentry, that’s the reason the Dr’s were on board at no charge. I never saw an ad saying McDonals was healthy either, maybe it was a ad in a test market? I do not know.
Dreamfoxxy As a restaurant manager fo 25+ years I can attest to the powers of food. Many people “just having a bad day” are in fact having a reaction to something they ate yesterday but they are not paying attention enough to put it together. The best thing to do is take a simple test. Write down everything you eat each day. On a another piece of paper rate how you feel that day 1 to 10 after 90 days look up the days you were a 1, 2 or 3 and look at your notes on what you ate the day before. You will find that the same food keeps popping up just before a bad day. Yes I know, a pain in the butt to do this for 90 days but it will change your life forever. And you will have fewer “bad days”
January 29th, 2004 at 7:56 am
Yeah, I saw that it was a documentary, and I noticed that it’s screening at Sundance as well… which is why this all screams of a Michael Moore-ish sort of craziness… Clever editing and all that. Hell, I’m sure I could pick a McDonald’s menu for a month that would make me throw up out my car window, and destroy my liver too… but at the same time I’m sure I could ALSO create a menu that at least kept me alive, if not particularly good-feelin’.
I think I’m going to do the same thing, only with Subway! You’ll see me throwing up jalapenos and olives and steak-and-cheese-with-peppers-for-some-awful-reason-that-you-can’t-get-it-without out MY car window
February 5th, 2004 at 8:38 am
NOT ONLY DOES THIS STORY MAKE THIS 300LB. MANCHILD QUEESY BUT GROWING UP IN THE SOUTH WE PREFERRED NOT TO EAT WHAT WE REFERRED TO AS “YANKEE BURGERS”. IN THE SOUTH WHEN WE ORDER A HAMBURGER IT COMES WITH WHAT IS REALLY A TOSSED SALAD, SLICE OF TOMATO, SLICE OF ONION ( IF DESIRED) OR ONIONS FINELY CHOPPED, A FULL LEAF OF LETTUCE, SOME GOOD DEL-DIXIE BRAND DILL PICKLES, MAYO OR SALAD DRESSING, MUSTARD AND A LARGE PIECE OF MEAT. DOWN SOUTH THIS USUALLY MEANS WHAT-A-BURGER OR DAIRY QUEEN OR ONE FROM THE LOCAL CAFE. I NEVER LIKED MCDONALDS AT ALL SORRY HANK GUPTON
March 3rd, 2004 at 8:57 am
McDonald’s gets a bad rap. You eat 5,000 calories a day ANYWHERE for 30 days and your health will deteriorate. Do something useful to give back to the world. Jeesh.
June 5th, 2004 at 5:02 am
hey i’m suprised that he’s even alive rite now. anyone who goes through that in a week would lityerally look a sumo wrestler. It’s literally enuf to kill two whales
anywayz i tried tat once before but for only a week and once a day. I never ate mcdonalds afterwards
June 16th, 2004 at 11:43 pm
this is what a poor diet will lead to…i haven’t yet seen the documentary, but i would like to. My teacher says that it was pretty crazy.. like 28 days
September 23rd, 2004 at 7:05 pm
I HATE MCDONALDS SO MUCH ITS UN BELIVIBLE!!!! AND I AM SO DISSAPOINTED THAT YOU EVEN LIKEB IT WORST ENEMY!! >(
December 16th, 2004 at 5:44 pm
Right now we are currently watching Supersize Me (i think that’s what it’s called) in my German class at Cleveland Heights High School. From me watching this movie I have a whole new feeling for fast food. Yea, i love it but I’m going to try to cut down on it. I am almost 15 years old and a little less then 130 pounds. I don’t wanna go any higher than that. I usually eat fast food for dinner every night. My mom has to work and doesn’t feel like cooking so we just go to a fast food place. I don’t wanna end up obese. So, like i said, i’m gonna try to cut down on my fast food eating and everyone should if the are heavy fast food eaters.