Monday, February 06, 2006

Mr. McDonald’s, please don’t ‘Super size me’

I finally got the chance to see ‘Super size me’, a great documentary!. I can highly recommend this movie if you are interested in nutrition, (fast) food or McDonald’s. I can also suggest it to people who want to lose weight. Watching this could be very inspirational and motivating :)

Summary: The latest statistics show that two out of every three Americans are overweight, and about one out of every three of those persons is obese. Morgan Spurlock, decides to eat three meals a day at McDonald’s for thirty days, to see how it will affect him. He must eat every item on the menu at least once during the thirty days, and he must super size anything he orders when super sizing is suggested by the McDonald’s employees. And the outcome is not a pretty picture :)

One other thing this documentary will do is change the way you look at McDonald’s marketing, health and fast food. And if the documentary doesn’t alter your view, the bonus material probably will. One of the bonus items is called ‘the smoking fry’. That’s sounds promising! They did a food experiment. In the office they had some glass jars with a lid. McDonald’s (and some regular) burgers and fries were put in separate jars and they were kept at room temperatures. The decay was monitored and of course things started to get mouldy pretty soon…… except for the French fries. After 10 weeks the French fries looked exactly the same as the first day. Now how freaky is that? Can you imagine having that in your system? That can’t be right, now can it?

Like I said, interesting documentary, it's an entertaining and thought-provoking film and leaves you wanting more…….more healthy food, that is!

Oh and that doesn’t mean that you should go for the new “healthy” salads. According to the documentary, their new premium ranch chicken salad with dressing delivers more calories than a Big Mac and 51 grams of fat, 79% of your daily fat intake.

7 comments:

wanderingthinker said...

I haven't seen the film, yet. I used to eat a lot at McD during my business traveling years, as it's easier available then healthy food on airports, train stations and in centers of unknown cities. The result can be visited and led to my weight reducing goal.

What really amazes me, is the paradigm shift in McD's Marketing over the last year, they try to promote their food now as healthy, are even publishing a brochure with "nutritional facts" and have boosted their range of salads and so on. But super-size everything is still on the menu.

So my estimate is, that this campaign is only the justification that a boy still can go to McD and take his dieting girlfriend with him ;-)

Phil said...

Dakota, I have not seen it yet but I've heard many good things about it. I used to eat more stuff like that years ago, but now I rarely do. I guess their fries rank up there with Twinkies for shelf life.

Rayya Ghul said...

The movie confirmed everything I suspected about McD's and more! This man went from being in peak physical condition to nearing irreversible liver damage in 30 days. He put on an unbelievable amount of weight. An interesting comment from his girlfriend was that he had become rubbish in the bedroom! Like Dakota said, the salads actually contain more calories than a Big Mac. If you liked this movie, go and see The Corporation.

:phil: I love your picture!

Dakota said...
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
Dakota said...

Hahaha Wanderingthinker, I already feel sorry for the girlfriend. She’s thinking: Oh, I’m eating soooooo healthy! But in reality she is absorbing more fat and calories then necessary :)

I don’t know if they still have the super size option on the menu. I haven’t been in a McD for years. They promised to take the super size option from the menu and add nutritional information on the packaging. I don’t know if they already started doing that.

Phil I think you are probably right. Maybe we should do an experiment. We can put some McD fries in a glass jar and Twinkies in another one.
I’m actually curious now, which one will start to decay first :).

Oops, one slip-up in 5 years Stu. Shame on you! Just kidding!
I don’t think 1 visit in 5 years is going to kill you :)

Thanks for the recommendation snowqueen. I will watch The Corporation.
I just added it to my All consuming list :)

b o o said...

let me share my own mcdonalds story with u, dakota. i was 17 & had left singapore for hongkong & this was my first time alone in another country. mind u i have been vegetarian all along. so i dunno what to do for food. i ended up eating @ mcdonalds for 2 years. french fries, shakes, apple pie & sundaes was all i ate.

at the end of 2 years i had lost more than 6kg thats about 14lbs. i was only 38kg (83lbs) for 1.63m (5'4) my doc told me that i was malnourished as well. thats good old mcdonalds for u.

i suppose the results would have been different if i ate their entire menu offering. i also think that one would put on an obscene amount of weight as well as strain your heart if u had super-sized anything u ate.

Dakota said...

Wow……that’s an amazing story boo and it is also the first time I hear about someone who actually lost weight eating at McD. You are a pretty strange girl ;)
If you had eaten all things from the menu, your diet at least had been more diverse …..but still, the outcome would not have been a pretty picture :)