# Was Morgan Spurlock's "Super-size Me" choreographed or faked in any way? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [August 6, 2011, 4:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-morgan-spurlocks-super-size-me-choreographed-or-faked-in-any-way/591687 "2011-08-06T04:05:40Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 5
**Author:** ![Peremensoe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ce7236/32.png) [@Peremensoe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Peremensoe)\ **Post date:** [August 9, 2011, 9:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-morgan-spurlocks-super-size-me-choreographed-or-faked-in-any-way/591687/81 "2011-08-09T21:14:42Z")
Fair points. I don’t really disagree with any of that, though the “comparing like items” qualifier seems pretty big. But you’re right, a lot of people eat pretty badly regardless of where they are. Some people argue that the ease and affordability of fast food has shaped tastes (and degraded cooking skills) to that effect. ---
**Author:** ![devilsknew](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/4da419/32.png) [@devilsknew](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/devilsknew)\ **Post date:** [August 9, 2011, 10:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-morgan-spurlocks-super-size-me-choreographed-or-faked-in-any-way/591687/82 "2011-08-09T22:37:24Z")
> [@bump](#): > > T] > > My contention is that their burgers and fries aren’t any more caloric than you’d expect from what you’d expect from the ingredients they use. They probably use a higher fat burger patty and more salt than we’d use, but that’s because fat & salt are what tend to taste good on a burger. Actually, MCD’s burgers and fries probably have less fat and salt or are equal than the equivalent I would make at home. First, there is nothing magical or adulterated about their beef… it has no salt and is relatively lean 100% beef, no adulteration- as lean as, or leaner than the package of the cheapest per pound regular “hamburger” that I would grab at a grocery store. They give one side of a 1/10 th of a pound patty a dash of mixed salt and pepper, literally a light dash from a shaker. Now, I don’t know about anybody else, but I usually make about 1/3 pound patties and I season both sides quite liberally with salt and other seasonings. All the condiments I would use are essentially identical. Also, when I make fries, I’d bet that the ones that I fry carnival style on my stovetop absorb more fat than they would in a calibrated and heat controlled fryer built especially for the purpose. As far as salt on the fries, maybe they get a little more residual salt from being cooled and salted in the fry bin where many such batches have gone before, but I salt my fries and most people I know do… they just aren’t as good without it. Mc D’s employees are taught to salt the fries properly… but not oversalt. ---
**Author:** ![Hentor\_the\_Barbarian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/8edcca/32.png) [@Hentor\_the\_Barbarian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hentor_the_Barbarian)\ **Post date:** [August 10, 2011, 2:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-morgan-spurlocks-super-size-me-choreographed-or-faked-in-any-way/591687/83 "2011-08-10T02:06:29Z")
> [@devilsknew](#): > > Actually, MCD’s burgers and fries probably have less fat and salt or are equal than the equivalent I would make at home. First, there is nothing magical or adulterated about their beef… it has no salt and is relatively lean 100% beef, no adulteration- as lean as, or leaner than the package of the cheapest per pound regular “hamburger” that I would grab at a grocery store. They give one side of a 1/10 th of a pound patty a dash of mixed salt and pepper, literally a light dash from a shaker. Now, I don’t know about anybody else, but I usually make about 1/3 pound patties and I season both sides quite liberally with salt and other seasonings. All the condiments I would use are essentially identical. Also, when I make fries, I’d bet that the ones that I fry carnival style on my stovetop absorb more fat than they would in a calibrated and heat controlled fryer built especially for the purpose. As far as salt on the fries, maybe they get a little more residual salt from being cooled and salted in the fry bin where many such batches have gone before, but I salt my fries and most people I know do… they just aren’t as good without it. Mc D’s employees are taught to salt the fries properly… but not oversalt. This website provides estimates of calories and fat for different types of fries prepared at home and fast food. Fast food fries are demonstrably worse, even when deep frying at home. > **[Calories in Deep Fried Potato French Fries (from Frozen) and Nutrition Facts](https://foods.fatsecret.com/calories-nutrition/generic/white-potato-french-fries-from-frozen-deep-fried)** > > There are 112 calories in 1 10 strip portion (1" to 2") of Deep Fried Potato French Fries (from Frozen). Get full nutrition facts and other common serving sizes of Deep Fried Potato French Fries (from Frozen) including 1 oz, raw, yields and 1 10... **Manda Jo** , of course it’s possible to cook food at home that is as bad in terms of calories and fat than at fast food places. One can even make it worse. However, there are lots of ways to prepare it better. I think that Morgan Spurlock did a great job in trying to address the ignorance and assumptions that people make about fast food. Even here, people appear to both assume that fast food is bad for you, but also assume that you cannot really do much better at home! ---
**Author:** ![RickJay](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/bb73d2/32.png) [@RickJay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RickJay)\ **Post date:** [August 10, 2011, 2:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-morgan-spurlocks-super-size-me-choreographed-or-faked-in-any-way/591687/84 "2011-08-10T02:26:20Z")
> [@Hentor\_the\_Barbarian](#): > > Even here, people appear to both assume that fast food is bad for you, but also assume that you cannot really do much better at home! Who the heck ARE these people? Who doesn’t know that it is possible to consume food that’s healthier than McDonald’s? My five year old knows McDonald’s is junk. ---
**Author:** ![devilsknew](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/4da419/32.png) [@devilsknew](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/devilsknew)\ **Post date:** [August 10, 2011, 2:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-morgan-spurlocks-super-size-me-choreographed-or-faked-in-any-way/591687/85 "2011-08-10T02:32:07Z")
> [@Hentor\_the\_Barbarian](#): > > This website provides estimates of calories and fat for different types of fries prepared at home and fast food. Fast food fries are demonstrably worse, even when deep frying at home. > > [Calories in Deep Fried Potato French Fries (from Frozen) and Nutrition Facts](http://fatsecret.com/calories-nutrition/generic/white-potato-french-fries-from-frozen-deep-fried?portionid=21281&portionamount=1.000) > > **Manda Jo** , of course it’s possible to cook food at home that is as bad in terms of calories and fat than at fast food places. One can even make it worse. However, there are lots of ways to prepare it better. > > I think that Morgan Spurlock did a great job in trying to address the ignorance and assumptions that people make about fast food. Even here, people appear to both assume that fast food is bad for you, but also assume that you cannot really do much better at home! Sure, but that’s a base ten fry “serving”, which is totally ridiculous and neglects surface size of the fries. I guarantee ten of my large handcut potato french fries exceed a whole potato… and then when I’m crowding them in my copper bottom and stainless classic saucepan over a dial 8 on my electric burner (no thermometer), long fblanche and oil absobing low heat fry, I guarantee that my fries ten by ten of MC’Ds fries is more caloric, more carb, more fat and more salt. And I’m not making it worse, Im making it “better”. ---
**Author:** ![DiosaBellissima](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/a8b319/32.png) [@DiosaBellissima](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DiosaBellissima)\ **Post date:** [August 10, 2011, 2:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-morgan-spurlocks-super-size-me-choreographed-or-faked-in-any-way/591687/86 "2011-08-10T02:48:48Z")
> [@RickJay](#): > > Who the heck ARE these people? Who doesn’t know that it is possible to consume food that’s healthier than McDonald’s? > > My five year old knows McDonald’s is junk. Of course McDonald’s is junk- I can make a delicious grilled turkey burger on a whole wheat bun with oven fries that’ll taste 1,000 x better than anything at McDonald’s while being a million times healthier- BUT that’s not what anyone is claiming. What folks are claiming is that if we get the same fat content beef the McD’s uses, make the same size patties, and cook them in the same way . . . well, then it’s going to be more or less the same. ---
**Author:** ![MandaJo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ac91a4/32.png) [@MandaJo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MandaJo)\ **Post date:** [August 10, 2011, 3:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-morgan-spurlocks-super-size-me-choreographed-or-faked-in-any-way/591687/87 "2011-08-10T03:04:35Z")
> [@Hentor\_the\_Barbarian](#): > > **Manda Jo** , of course it’s possible to cook food at home that is as bad in terms of calories and fat than at fast food places. One can even make it worse. However, there are lots of ways to prepare it better. > > I think that Morgan Spurlock did a great job in trying to address the ignorance and assumptions that people make about fast food. Even here, people appear to both assume that fast food is bad for you, but also assume that you cannot really do much better at home! My point is that Spurlock’s message gets over-simplified into “Care about your health? Don’t eat trashy fast food like poor people do”.Being healthy takes a lot more thought and awareness than that. I really think a lot of the objection to McDs and fast food in general is really more rooted in snobbery than any sort of actual understanding of one’s own body, and Supersize Me feeds into that (even if the actual documentary is making a wider point). ---
**Author:** ![devilsknew](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/4da419/32.png) [@devilsknew](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/devilsknew)\ **Post date:** [August 10, 2011, 3:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-morgan-spurlocks-super-size-me-choreographed-or-faked-in-any-way/591687/88 "2011-08-10T03:55:36Z")
> [@DiosaBellissima](#): > > Of course McDonald’s is junk- I can make a delicious grilled turkey burger on a whole wheat bun with oven fries that’ll taste 1,000 x better than anything at McDonald’s while being a million times healthier- BUT that’s not what anyone is claiming. What folks are claiming is that if we get the same fat content beef the McD’s uses, make the same size patties, and cook them in the same way . . . well, then it’s going to be more or less the same. I wouldn’t be so spurious or light thinking of McD’s. Many of the advantages and :current food reality: of your “taken for granted” eating priveleges today were guaranteed and surety in the groundwork and innovation oif MCDonald’s, miss Starbuck’s Mochachi- late -to- the- party. ---
**Author:** ![DiosaBellissima](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/a8b319/32.png) [@DiosaBellissima](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DiosaBellissima)\ **Post date:** [August 10, 2011, 5:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-morgan-spurlocks-super-size-me-choreographed-or-faked-in-any-way/591687/89 "2011-08-10T05:02:39Z")
> [@devilsknew](#): > > I wouldn’t be so spurious or light thinking of McD’s. Many of the advantages and :current food reality: of your “taken for granted” eating priveleges today were guaranteed and surety in the groundwork and innovation oif MCDonald’s, miss Starbuck’s Mochachi- late -to- the- party. What the hell are you babbling about?😕 I suppose I’m sorry for not treating McDonald’s with the utter respect and adulation you feel they are deserving of. ---
**Author:** ![devilsknew](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/4da419/32.png) [@devilsknew](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/devilsknew)\ **Post date:** [August 10, 2011, 5:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-morgan-spurlocks-super-size-me-choreographed-or-faked-in-any-way/591687/90 "2011-08-10T05:11:54Z")
I don’t worship martyr McD’s - I simply elucidate. ---
**Author:** ![DiosaBellissima](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/a8b319/32.png) [@DiosaBellissima](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DiosaBellissima)\ **Post date:** [August 10, 2011, 5:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-morgan-spurlocks-super-size-me-choreographed-or-faked-in-any-way/591687/91 "2011-08-10T05:25:26Z")
“Elucidate” is the nice way of putting it, I suppose. ---
**Author:** ![Johnny\_Angel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/d26b3c/32.png) [@Johnny\_Angel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_Angel)\ **Post date:** [August 10, 2011, 2:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-morgan-spurlocks-super-size-me-choreographed-or-faked-in-any-way/591687/92 "2011-08-10T14:39:29Z")
> [@Cubsfan](#): > > Like most of these shockumentaries there is a counter-shockumentary out there called “Fathead”[…] > > Granted who knows how honest the Fathead guy was but his info was pretty straightforward and seemed on point. > > [Fathead](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1333994/) It was on Netflix streaming. Not sure if it is now or not. Turns out Netflix doesn’t have Super Size Me available in streaming, so I wasn’t able to refresh my memory for the sake of this discussion, but they did have Fathead, so I started watching that as I got ready for work. It starts out pretty shaky when Tom Naughton declares that scientists and researchers are full of baloney. We soon find out that, indeed, Naughton subscribes to quackery. Specifically, he cites Gary Taubes, who has been debated elsewhere on this board. In a nutshell, Taubes rejects the calories-in-calories-out notion of weight loss and instead asserts that the amount of carbohydrates consumed determines the amount of fat retained. But right after giving an even briefer explanation of the notion than this, Naughton then goes on to specify his plan to eat only 2000 calories per day, with at most 100 “carbs”. The problem is that a restricted-calorie diet makes his claims about carbohydrates meaningless, because since I presume he will have lost weight by the end, that result will be consistent with the calories-in-calories-out explanation. Of course, having shot his own credibility in the foot and exposed his wooly thinking, he does go on to make the damaging point referred to above that the arbitrarily 5000 calories per day mentioned in _Super Size Me_ are highly suspect. That’s as far as I got. ---
**Author:** ![Red\_Barchetta](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/da6949/32.png) [@Red\_Barchetta](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Red_Barchetta)\ **Post date:** [August 10, 2011, 6:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-morgan-spurlocks-super-size-me-choreographed-or-faked-in-any-way/591687/93 "2011-08-10T18:35:09Z")
> [@Johnny\_Angel](#): > > Turns out Netflix doesn’t have Super Size Me available in streaming, so I wasn’t able to refresh my memory for the sake of this discussion, but they did have Fathead, so I started watching that as I got ready for work. It’s available for free on [Hulu](http://www.hulu.com/watch/63283/super-size-me). ---
**Author:** ![The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/the_other_waldo_pepper/32/12370_2.png) [@The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Other_Waldo_Pepper)\ **Post date:** [August 11, 2011, 1:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-morgan-spurlocks-super-size-me-choreographed-or-faked-in-any-way/591687/94 "2011-08-11T13:13:35Z")
> [@Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](#): > > McDonald’s was chosen simply as a symbolic example. If you eat nothing but McDonald’s, and follow their every suggestion and pitched portion size, you will die. Thanks to Red, I just watched the movie on Hulu. The first meal Spurlock gets is an Egg McMuffin combo meal with hash browns and a drink – but he for some reason adds a sausage biscuit instead of sticking to the pitched portion size. As far as I can tell, his lunch was a burger-and-fries-with-a-coke combo meal which _ **would** _ be the pitched portion size – except he for some reason gets a chocolate shake, too. Googling around a bit, it seems he for some reason never released the food diary we see a couple of times during the documentary. I think he wanted to hint at that “pitched portion size” conclusion, but he doesn’t and can’t actually make the claim. ---
**Author:** ![Lust4Life](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/ecc23a/32.png) [@Lust4Life](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lust4Life)\ **Post date:** [August 11, 2011, 1:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-morgan-spurlocks-super-size-me-choreographed-or-faked-in-any-way/591687/95 "2011-08-11T13:58:57Z")
So a Vegan sets out to make a doc. who’s conclusion has already been reached before he’s started it. Otherwise why make it ? As a vegan I ate McDs for a month and discovered that I was perfectly healthy at the end of the month, oh dear, I’ve just wasted a month of my life, not promoted my diet of choice in any way, haven’t made any money, and haven’t received any personal publicity as a result of it. No sorry it won’t wash. And with that preconception would it be a source of astonishment that he suffered from a psychosomatic illness at the end of it ? I don’t think so. The so called experiment was a travesty from the very beginning. Science it wasn’t. A dishonest attempt to publicise your own dietary beliefs ? It was. ---
**Author:** ![Justin\_Bailey](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/justin_bailey/32/8792_2.png) [@Justin\_Bailey](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Justin_Bailey)\ **Post date:** [August 11, 2011, 2:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-morgan-spurlocks-super-size-me-choreographed-or-faked-in-any-way/591687/96 "2011-08-11T14:01:35Z")
> [@Lust4Life](#): > > So a Vegan sets out to make a doc. who’s conclusion has already been reached before he’s started it. Spurlock wasn’t a vegan, his then-girlfriend was. ---
**Author:** ![Johnny\_Angel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/d26b3c/32.png) [@Johnny\_Angel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_Angel)\ **Post date:** [August 11, 2011, 2:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-morgan-spurlocks-super-size-me-choreographed-or-faked-in-any-way/591687/97 "2011-08-11T14:20:02Z")
Having seen more of this _Fathead_, now I’m going to have to see _Super Size Me_ again in order to compare who undermines his own good points with nonsense more. Really, it deserves its own thread. But more in line with the point of the thread: the dietary stunts in both seem to be pointless. They aren’t capable of providing evidence of either of these people’s purposes. Spurlock’s numbers don’t add up, and if they did they wouldn’t prove anything we didn’t already know, and what we already know isn’t really an evil conspiracy. Naughton’s diet doesn’t prove that calories don’t matter because he also restricts calories, but he is dishonest in insisting that there is no obesity epidemic while claiming that people are in fact getting fatter and lazier when it serves his thesis. ---
**Author:** ![Freudian\_Slit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/5daacb/32.png) [@Freudian\_Slit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Freudian_Slit)\ **Post date:** [August 11, 2011, 2:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-morgan-spurlocks-super-size-me-choreographed-or-faked-in-any-way/591687/98 "2011-08-11T14:50:01Z")
> [@Justin\_Bailey](#): > > Spurlock wasn’t a vegan, his then-girlfriend was. He was eating a vegan diet, too, though, I’m pretty sure. ---
**Author:** ![Justin\_Bailey](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/justin_bailey/32/8792_2.png) [@Justin\_Bailey](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Justin_Bailey)\ **Post date:** [August 11, 2011, 4:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-morgan-spurlocks-super-size-me-choreographed-or-faked-in-any-way/591687/99 "2011-08-11T16:06:22Z")
> [@Freudian\_Slit](#): > > He was eating a vegan diet, too, though, I’m pretty sure. Nope. He ate vegan meals with his girlfriend, but Spurlock himself was an omnivore. ---
**Author:** ![Great\_Antibob](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/e47c2d/32.png) [@Great\_Antibob](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Great_Antibob)\ **Post date:** [August 11, 2011, 4:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-morgan-spurlocks-super-size-me-choreographed-or-faked-in-any-way/591687/100 "2011-08-11T16:25:20Z")
> [@The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](#): > > Thanks to Red, I just watched the movie on Hulu. The first meal Spurlock gets is an Egg McMuffin combo meal with hash browns and a drink – but he for some reason adds a sausage biscuit instead of sticking to the pitched portion size. As far as I can tell, his lunch was a burger-and-fries-with-a-coke combo meal which _ **would** _ be the pitched portion size – except he for some reason gets a chocolate shake, too. This is what I noticed when I watched it. You got to see him ordering more than a normal customer would be expected to order. If you eat twice as much per meal as normal, you’re going to experience health consequences no matter the diet. > [@Justin\_Bailey](#): > > Nope. He ate vegan meals with his girlfriend, but Spurlock himself was an omnivore. Definitely true. Before the end credits, there’s some text explaining that Spurlock lost most of the weight gain over the next year by switching to his girlfriend’s Vegan diet and getting the rest of the way there by going back to his normal eating habits, which were presumably non-Vegan. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-morgan-spurlocks-super-size-me-choreographed-or-faked-in-any-way/591687.md?page=4) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-morgan-spurlocks-super-size-me-choreographed-or-faked-in-any-way/591687.md?page=6)