Questions About "Supersize me"

[Dingbang]

The big salads they have now are actually pretty tasty, but I’m sure they have as many calories as a Big Mac, when you factor in the chicken, cheese and dressing.

From http://www.mcdonalds.com/app_controller.nutrition.index1.html:

Big Mac: 560 calories, 30 g fat

Asian Salad with Crispy Chicken (worst salad on the list) plus creamy caesar dressing (worst on the list): 560 calories, 35 g fat

Caesar Salad with Grilled Chicken (best you can do and still get chicken) plus low fal balsamic (best dressing on the list): 260 calories, 9 g fat

So it really is about what you choose.

[Diogenes_the_Cynic]

No, it really isn’t. There is no significant difference in calories or fat between the burgers and the salads but the dressings are loaded with sugar (something that’s not in the burgers), so the burgers are marginally less toxic.

[Diogenes_the_Cynic]

By the way, the movie pointed out that the guy who ate Big Macs every day never ate the fries. The fries are one of the most fattening items on the menu (along with the pop).

[Odesio]

@lissener

He even spent some time, in the movie, with a guy who had eaten a Big Mac every day for, what, years, with no apparent health effects.

That’s true, and if I recall correctly the Big Mac eater was a tall thin man who said he rarely ate any fries and he had to start eating two Big Macs in one sitting because they got smaller.

I think that people who have a problem with Supersize Me’s “agenda” believe, like Stephen Colbert, that reality has a well-known liberal bias. It’s a remarkably balanced documentary. Just because the conclusions to be drawn are obvious don’t make them faked.

I was going to say I wasn’t sure if it was balanced but then I remembered he tried to get McDonald’s to talk to him without much success. I think too many people focus on his month long eating stunt and forget that there was more to the documentary. I really liked the exploration of school lunches and snacks.

Marc

[Wee_Bairn]

Oh, and lissener, the reason people focus on the McDonald’s experiement and not the rest of the film, is gee…well it’s called Super Size Me, right? A reference to McDonald’s right, not the sorry state of the US school lunch program? If that were Spurlock’s goal, he would have given it a title referring to school lunches or whatever right? And on closer inspection, those are McDonald’s fries in his mouth on the DVD box and posters, right, not the trademark crinkle cut school lunch fries? Plus every interview I’ve seen with the guy focuses on the McDonald’s part. Without that, an expose on the school lunch progam wouldn’t even merit a segment on 60 minutes. Include McDonald’s, you get attention and riches.

[lissener]

@Wee Bairn

lissener, did I have my attention fully on the TV screen the entire time the DVD was on? No. Did I get the gist of it? Yes.

Ah. So you have a *gist *of an understanding.

And if you could get even a gist of all that goes on in a film from an IMDB summary, then that would be relevant here. Are we discussing the summary, or the movie?

[lissener]

@DrDeth

From my Wiki cite: "Various similar experiments were made in response to Super Size Me, in an effort to provide alternative scenarios and/or refute the impressions made by the film. These experiments, however, were mainly balanced diets and healthy eating programs, capable of demonstrating that it is possible to eat from the McDonald’s menu without upsetting one’s health, but hardly capable of illustrating the healthiness of a typical McDonald’s consumer’s choice (the quintessential “burger, Coke and fries” meal). What these alternate studies do not address is the frightening alterations that occurred to Spurlock’s blood chemistry and related body functions from a fast-food diet.

In the Netherlands Wim Meij, a reporter with the Algemeen Dagblad (a Dutch newspaper), performed another experiment. He too limited himself to eating at McDonald’s, but instead of choosing just any meal from the menu, he chose carefully, with an emphasis on salads. However, as with Scott Caswell below, these salads were not available during Super Size Me’s filming. He came out at least as healthy as he was before he started his 30-day experiment and lost 6.5 kg (14 lb) in the process[citation needed].

In New Jersey, USA, documentary filmmaker Scott Caswell also performed a similar experiment. The results of his diet can be seen in his movie, which is titled Bowling for Morgan. It can be seen for free at BowlingForMorgan.com. Like Spurlock, Caswell consumed only McDonald’s food, but generally opted for the healthier choices and did not gorge himself – a fact that Caswell oftens compares to the overeating done by Spurlock, who was often seen forcing himself to eat when he wasn’t hungry. Over the course of the experiment, he lost 19 pounds and his cholesterol fell sharply. It should be pointed out, however, that Caswell’s film depicted him eating many Premium Salads from McDonald’s that were not available during the making of Super Size Me. Caswell never itemizes his meals, spells out nutritional information on any of his choices, says how much he is eating a day, or reveals any other details of his experiment.

Soso Whaley, of Kensington, New Hampshire, made her own film about dieting at McDonald’s, called Me and Mickey D. The film follows Whaley as she spends three 30-day periods on the diet. She dropped from 175 to 139 pounds, eating 2,000 calories a day at McDonald’s. The film was funded by the Competitive Enterprise Institute (Whaley holds a C.E.I. fellowship).

Raleigh, North Carolina resident Merab Morgan went on a 90-day diet in which she ate at McDonald’s exclusively, but she limited her intake to 1,400 calories (5,900 kilojoules) per day. She lost 37 pounds in the process.

San Antonio, Texas resident Deshan Woods went on a 90-day diet in which he lost nearly 14 pounds. He documented the entire experiment on his website [[[4]]]. His overall health improved while sticking to a diet mainly in burgers and fries. He stayed away from sugary drinks and stuck to non-caloric beverages instead. His average caloric intake was 2,500 a day, which included 130 grams of fat. His cholesterol dropped from 204 to around 160."

That’s five.

So . . . these are the examples referred to by Bairn and JT? These “experimenters” who had explicitly stated agendas, and carefully limited their diet to achieve those atgendas? Who’s got the biased approach here; Bairn’s examples, or Spurlock, who sampled everything available, rather than stick to a narrowly limited diet chosen specifically to fulfill an agenda?

[lissener]

@Wee Bairn

Oh, and lissener, the reason people focus on the McDonald’s experiement and not the rest of the film, is gee…well it’s called Super Size Me, right? A reference to McDonald’s right, not the sorry state of the US school lunch program? If that were Spurlock’s goal, he would have given it a title referring to school lunches or whatever right? And on closer inspection, those are McDonald’s fries in his mouth on the DVD box and posters, right, not the trademark crinkle cut school lunch fries? Plus every interview I’ve seen with the guy focuses on the McDonald’s part. Without that, an expose on the school lunch progam wouldn’t even merit a segment on 60 minutes. Include McDonald’s, you get attention and riches.

So . . . we’re discussing the IMDB summary, and the title, which is where you admit you gathered most of your information from . . . rather than the actual content of the actual film. Just so I understand your standards here.

[Wee_Bairn]

Was I playing computer games while watching? No. Did I pause when I got up to pee? no. Did I replay the 2 minutes the crappy DVD skipped over? no. But do I feel my viewing afforded me a full understanding of the points he was trying to get across? Yes.

[Wee_Bairn]

And what I said was, my inattentive watching of the film afforded me a darn similar summary as to the one on IMDB, which means that I got the same understanding from my watching that I would have gotten with attentive watching- documentaries usually don’t require the same attention from the viewer as Momento.

[Nonsuch]

@Wee Bairn

Oh, and lissener, the reason people focus on the McDonald’s experiement and not the rest of the film, is gee…well it’s called Super Size Me, right? A reference to McDonald’s right, not the sorry state of the US school lunch program? If that were Spurlock’s goal, he would have given it a title referring to school lunches or whatever right?

No, he would’ve given it a title that was catchy and memorable—which he did. “Super Size Me,” in case you failed to realize, is a pun; by eating unhealthily from fast food joints, you’re in effect asking them to “super-size” you. The “super size” meme was common in fast food a few years ago; I don’t recall it being specific to McD’s.

@Wee Bairn

And on closer inspection, those are McDonald’s fries in his mouth on the DVD box and posters, right, not the trademark crinkle cut school lunch fries?

WTF? All schools serve the same cut of fries? I’ve heard a lot of carping about Spurlock, but this is the loopiest objection yet.

@Wee Bairn

Plus every interview I’ve seen with the guy focuses on the McDonald’s part.

So blame the interviewers, who ignore the more substantive part of Spurlock’s work in favor of focusing on the stunt.

@Wee Bairn

Without that, an expose on the school lunch progam wouldn’t even merit a segment on 60 minutes. Include McDonald’s, you get attention and riches.

Sounds to me like Spurlock did exactly the right thing in that case.

[BiblioCat]

@Dingbang

From http://www.mcdonalds.com/app_controller.nutrition.index1.html:

Big Mac: 560 calories, 30 g fat

Asian Salad with Crispy Chicken (worst salad on the list) plus creamy caesar dressing (worst on the list): 560 calories, 35 g fat

Caesar Salad with Grilled Chicken (best you can do and still get chicken) plus low fal balsamic (best dressing on the list): 260 calories, 9 g fat

So it really is about what you choose.

I like the Asian Salad, but I get it with the grilled chicken (no breading) and the low-fat balsamic dressing. I use about half of what comes in the packet, because otherwise the salad is just swimming in it. Sometimes they give you croutons, sometimes they don’t. I skip them, but add the slivered almonds.

[DrDeth]

@lissener

These “experimenters” who had explicitly stated agendas, and carefully limited their diet to achieve those atgendas? Who’s got the biased approach here; Bairn’s examples, or Spurlock, who sampled everything available, rather than stick to a narrowly limited diet chosen specifically to fulfill an agenda?

*Exactly * what Spurlock did. He did not attempt to eat a balanced eit, he ate 2-3X a healthy caloric intake. Sure, he ate one of everything on the menu, but he unfairly concentrated on a diet heavy on burgers, fries and sugared sodas, and also overate heavily. Indeed Spurlock stuck to a “narrowly limited diet chosen specifically to fulfill an agenda”. Spurlock went in to make this film with a clear agenda which I think anyone who is unbiased can see.

You seem also to equate (in your back&forth with the very patient Wee Bairn) “understanding = agreement”. Many zealots do exactly the same thing, they feel that since you don’t agree, you didn’t *understand. *

I understood exactly what Spurlock was up to- to demonize the biggest target in the FF industry and make a cool pile by cashing in with a rather large audience that agrees with him that Ronald Mcd is Satan. He was preaching to the choir- and you seem to be singing along.

[BiblioCat]

A bit off-topic again:
I went to the McD’s website referenced and calculated the Asian Salad with grilled chicken and the low-fat balsamic dressing.
It has 330 calories, 12 grams of fat (1.5 saturated), 1620 mgs of sodium (okay, that’s kinda high), 27 carbs, and 31 grams of protein. I’m actually impressed.

Again, it’s all about choices.

[JohnT]

The “super size” meme was common in fast food a few years ago; I don’t recall it being specific to McD’s.

Wrong. “Super Size” was a registered trademark of McDonalds at the time of shooting and release. Because of the upcoming controversy that they saw coming, McDonalds allowed the trademark to lapse just two months prior to the films release.

Any argument that this film doesn’t focus on McDonalds for the vast majority of its message, content, and marketing is not substantiated by the filmmaker himself, the films content or its marketing and promotional materials. Nor is it substantiated by the number of newspaper articles written about the film, nor by the press releases issued by the filmmaker during the films release.

Following are some of the “fun facts” from the official website - I edited everything down that wasn’t about McDonalds, fast food restaurants or school lunches:

These facts? Uh, Not So Fun.
Each day, 1 in 4 Americans visits a fast food restaurant
In 1972, we spent 3 billion a year on fast food - today we spend more than 110 billion
McDonald’s feeds more than 46 million people a day - more than the entire population of Spain
French fries are the most eaten vegetable in America
You would have to walk for seven hours straight to burn off a Super Sized Coke, fry and Big Mac
Only seven items on McDonald’s entire menu contain no sugar
Willard Scott was the first Ronald McDonald - he was fired for being too fat
McDonald’s distributes more toys per year than Toys-R-Us
McDonald’s: “Any processing our foods undergo make them more dangerous than unprocessed foods”
Eating fast food may be dangerous to your health
McDonald’s calls people who eat a lot of their food “Heavy Users”
McDonald’s operates more than 30,000 restaurants in more then 100 countries on 6 continents
Before most children can speak they can recognize McDonald’s
Surgeon General David Satcher: “Fast food is a major contributor to the obesity epidemic”
Most nutritionists recommend not eating fast food more than once a month
McDonald’s represents 43% of total U.S. fast food market

Damn. Not a mention of school lunches in the bunch.

[Diogenes_the_Cynic]

Do you actually think you’re proving something about the content of the movie by quoting from its promotional copy? The movoe wasn’t about McDonalds. Sorry to disappoint you, but that’s simply not the case.

[lissener]

@Wee Bairn

And what I said was, my inattentive watching of the film afforded me a darn similar summary as to the one on IMDB, which means that I got the same understanding from my watching that I would have gotten with attentive watching- documentaries usually don’t require the same attention from the viewer as Momento.

Dude, bottom line is you didn’t pay enough attention not to miss the bits that you missed. Trust me, if all the “gist” of the documentary could be communicated in an IMDB blurb, well then there’d be no reason to make the movie, would there? Me, I just read movie-poster blurbs and then write my own in-depth reviews.

[Skywatcher]

@DrDeth

I understood exactly what Spurlock was up to- to demonize the biggest target in the FF industry and make a cool pile by cashing in with a rather large audience that agrees with him that Ronald Mcd is Satan.

And that’s part of why I have a problem with this whole thing. Notice how Spurlock has not done a thing to disuade people from thinking that the movie is about McD’s? We’ve got random people on message boards doing that but Spurlock himself keeps mum. Something’s wrong with this picture.

[Dingbang]

@Diogenes the Cynic

No, it really isn’t [about what you choose]. There is no significant difference in calories or fat between the burgers and the salads but the dressings are loaded with sugar (something that’s not in the burgers), so the burgers are marginally less toxic.

Let me get this straight. Now you’re going so far as to say that choosing a salad with half the calories and a third of the fat of a Big Mac doesn’t make any difference? Because there’s some sugar in the dressing?

So your reasoning seems to be that no matter what McD sells, it’s EEEVIL. If they start offering a plain head of lettuce and a side of raw carrot, I suppose you’re going to say they’re still just trying to kill people with raw vegetables.

You’ve got some pretty hardcore agenda here that makes you immune to logic.

[Diogenes_the_Cynic]

They changed the salads after the movie, but they’re still loaded with fat and sugar and they’re not good for you… I don’t care if you eat them, though. It baffles me why anyone is so invested in denying that fast food is bad for them.