The director/star of “Super-size me”
Complications of cancer.
Or maybe the McDonald’s ninjas finally got to him.
It’s sad but he doesn’t sound like the greatest of humans.
The dude JUST died…
Someone shared his “Me too” mea culpa, which I had never heard about before. It was interesting and a pretty decent (not perfect) way toown up to past actions and frame it in the broader context of society and culture.
I’m just waiting for someone to claim the month he spent eating McDonald’s is what caused his cancer.
After all, according to the documentary, his doctor asserted he was such a perfect physical specimen before he did that.
He seemed like a troubled person.
Nah, obviously he got Turbocancer from The Poke.
Someone kind of did in the Death Pool thread. I didn’t hate him and his 30 Days show was good, as was Super-Size Me 2: Holy Chicken!
He lied about his McDonald’s diet, though, which really makes him unreliable.
In all seriousness, he was an alcoholic and that was the primary reason for the health problems in the documentary. At one point even in the documentary itself, the doctor said that his liver looked like it was “pickled”, and looked like an “alcoholic’s after a binge”. Because it was an alcoholic’s liver, and he was drinking heavily the entire time. He confessed to being a heavy drinker since age 13, and at one point said he hadn’t been sober for more than a week in 30 years.
So if you are looking for theories, I’d say that decades of heavy drinking might be one place to look.
I’m not saying this all to shame the man. Alcoholism is a disease and I don’t wish his struggles on anyone. I’m not sure if his drinking was responsible for the lying and sexual misconduct attributed to him, and of course it’s not like alcohol completely takes over your brain; he owned what he did.
He did eventually sober up, making his journey public. Here is an example.
https://x.com/MorganSpurlock/status/1231318605612097538
Sober day #800 - celebrating in WV by going to planetfitness & getting mom’s car inspected.
Even if it was based on lies, his documentary did likely contribute to some positive changes in the fast food industry (if minor ones) where healthier choices became available. Clearly his life was a controversial one, and he is now at peace.
Yep, it is what killed my Mother at about that same age.
Living 30 days on McDs food is not very healthy-but if it is McDs food+ a fifth of whiskey every day it is REALLY bad for you.
Many people replicated his 30 day McDs diet- and none had the same health issues. Some even lost weight! Of course- none were heavy drinkers also.
But it was entertaining, and ultimately the entertainment is the only reason anyone watched it. Nobody eats at McDonald’s because they think it’s healthy. We weren’t really learning anything new. The premise was basically just testing their marketing by taking it literally, which nobody does. It only worked because he was a talented filmmaker/documentarian, which is how he should be remembered, professionally at least.
When the movie came out, people wanted to see his calorie journal and he would not share it. I speculated he drank a ton of soda. It was probably the alcohol, though.
Eating nothing but McDonalds for 30 days was just a framing gimmick for an otherwise accurate and informative documentary.
I remember hearing about him being asked to speak at a high school assembly, and he got stage-hooked when he started using profanity, and made fun of the special-ed kids.
I’m guessing he was also drunk at the time.
Ah, Tom Naughton’s Fat Head documentary, for example.
Apparently, Osama Bin Laden was a fan. Spurlock’s documentary, Where in the World is Osama bin Laden, was found amongst his possessions when he was killed.
The “positive” changes being reduced serving sizes and increased prices, and further legislating away people being able to make informed (instead being served misinformation) choices about their diet/purchases. As far as “healthy” options go, there is some subjectivity and individualization and the food pyramid people were probably never that great. McD’s had things like salads and grilled chicken long before his stunt, and in moderation (like most things) a single hamburger or a Big Mac isn’t that terrible and things like Egg McMuffins are probably superior to most at-home breakfasts in the USA.
I could easily lose weight on a McDonald’s 3x a day diet. I could lose weight on a large pizza a day or 10lbs of potatoes or whatever gimmick diet. And have. But composition matters more than weight and there are other considerations like my colon, skin, and other organ health. I drink rarely, but more than I used to. There’s probably no positive reason to drink alcohol or sodas. I’m surprised by the number of adults who seem to get the majority of their calories from either or both. A few threads here have revealed a large number of Coke addicts. I do feel fortunate that I can quit either cold turkey.
I don’t think anything you wrote here has any basis in truth aside from the removal of the “super size” option. I doubt Spurlock is to blame for inflation, and restaurants now make nutrition info more readily available.
Ironic that you speak of serving misinformation…
That documentary had a lot of gross fat-shaming. I didn’t realize it at the time but it’s reviewed in an episode of the podcast Maintenance Phase. Cringe.
Between that and the rape he confessed to, I think he was a pretty douchey guy. I think he aspired later in life to be less douchey, but I often wonder if his “confession” was trying to get ahead of the story before it broke.
I still feel kinda bad for him.