Supersize Me

A few years ago, my sister Rachel and I watched the "Supersize Me." Wow! Shocking facts! Let me say, we didn't eat at McDonald's for at least 2 years after watching that documentary. Now granted McDonald's has tried to get a little healthier after that came out, but still... how healthy could it have gotten?

As we watched the movie, we gave each other stunned looks. Then I said, "pause it I am going to start taking notes." Rachel got excited at that, "Oh yes!" Then I think we rewound it a bit kept pausing it throughout.

Here are my discombobulated notes that I typed up on Rachel's computer, as we watched the documentary:

* 1 in 3 kids born in the year 2000 will get diabetes
*doctors claimed that the guy might gain a little weight, have increased cholesterol, and raised level of triglycerides... they had no idea what would happen
*he could only eat food from McDonald's & had to try everything on the menu at least once
*McDonald’s claimed in response to arguments “it is also a matter of common knowledge that any processing that its food undergo serve to make them more harmful than unprocessed foods.
*McDonald's claims to have served over 99 billion and each day services 46 million customers, with 13,000 outlets in the United States, and has a 43 percent share of the United States fast food market.
* Judge Robert Sweete called mcnuggets “A Mcfrankinstein creation of various elements not utilized by the home cook.” I.E water, salt, modified corn starch, sodium phospates, chicken broth poweder, dimethylpolysiloxan added as an anti-foaming agent, sodium acid prophosphate, monocalcium phosphate....
*mcnugetts made from old chickens with unusually large breasts
*symptoms include pressure on chest (day 7)
*did we say that he found a McDonalds that delivers for free!!!
*took a cab so he didn’t have to walk to imitate typical americans
*withing a week he had gained like 10 pounds
* former surgeon general David Satcher, MD is the first to address obesity in americans in 2000, called it a “national epedemic” saying that if obesity is left unaddressed it will surpass smoking as the number one preventable cause of death
*the average american sees 10,000 food advertisements on tv per year and 95 percent are for sugar foods or fast food
*2001 mcdonald’s 1.4 billion dollars worldwide in its direct media
*only half of the mcdonalds’ in manhattan had nutrition posted on the wall
*serving size for meat is the same size as a deck of cards (3 oz.) Prof of nutrition, New York University Lisa Young PhD, RD, CDN.... in restaraunts it is 4-5x this.
*17 lbs. Gained in 12 days
*school lunch lines are the worst for fast food
*texas has 5 of the top 15 fattest cities = number 1 is houston (now Detroit)
*calorie = measure of energy content of food (1 cal.is amount of engergy needed to raise temp. of a liter of water by 1 degree centigrade)
*exhausted by the end of the day and gets jacked up on caffeine
*there are only 7 items on the menu that contain no sugar - fries, mcnuggets, hashbrown, sausage, diet coke, coffee, tea (but you add sugar to these)
* even salads contain sugar!
*it cracks me up how his girlfriend is a vegan
* his liver thickens
*liver enzymes started at 21 and sky rocket to 290 (10-fold increase) - all this from a high fat diet!! Your liver is very resilient and heals itself.
*neal barnard MD - physicians committee for responsible medicine - says it is a drug effect that keeps bringing people back for more food, not the taste
*72% of people are heavy users according to mcdonalds’ standards (once a week)
*super heavy-users eat 3 or 4 times a week (about 22%)

* only 2 out of 100 nutritionists say you should eat fast food 2x a week, 95 agree that it is a major contributor to obesity, 28 said once a week to once or twice a month, 45 said you should never eat it
*laparascopic surgery - arrgghh
*day 21 - difficulty breathing, very hot, felt like he was having heart palpatations, chest pain
* in danger of kidney stones, liver pickling - doc warns him to stop
*day 22 - still going (what an idiot)
*day 25 Washington D.C.
* at the end of this month I will have eaten as much mc’s as most nutritionists say you should eat in 8 years
*name: Morgan Spurlock
*detox diet - important
*final weigh in = 210 lb. (from 185.5 lb) 24.5 lbs gained
*cholesterol 230,
*body fat from 11 to 18% (national average for men is 22 & women is 30)
*head aches, mood swings, depressed and exhausted, 2x more likely to have heart failure/disease, fat liver, massive cravings
*McGriddle -on of fattest sandwiches to date
*the new ranch chicken salad with dressing has more calories than a Big Mac and 51 grams of fat
*30 lbs of sugar, 12 lbs of fat in a month Morgan consumed
* in march 2004 congress passed the “cheeseburger bill” which would make it illegal for people to sue food companies for making them obese
*detroit is now the fattest city in american, not to be outdone, texas moved three more cities into the top 10
*morgan was asked to super size 9 times during the month... 5 of them in texas
*it took 8 weeks to get liver functions back to normal (detox)
*it took 5 months to lose 20 lbs. and another 9months to lose the last 4.5

Judge Robert Sweete describes Mc Nuggets as “A Mcfrankinstein creation of various elements not utilized by the home cook.” Mc Donalds lovers be ware. Did you know that McNuggets contains anti-foaming agents? (Seriously) Or get this, the Ranch Chicken Salad with dressing has more calories than a Big Mac and contains 51 grams of fat. Oh, and I can’t forget to say that there are only 7 foods on the menu that do not contain sugar: fries, Mc Nuggets, hashbrowns , sausage, diet coke, coffee, and tea. Although, most of those foods you add sugar to anyway (i.e ketchup, BBQ sauce).
Morgan Spurlock documents the affects of eating McDonalds for 30 days. (What idiot would do this is beyond me, but it did prove highly imformative.) In 30 days, he gained almost 25 pounds and picklized his liver!