What if you ate nothing but McDonald's three times a day for a month, neglecting no items? It was the shocking but funny premise of the 2004 movie, Super-Size Me, directed by and starring Morgan Spurlock who recently died from cancer. The actor/director was only 53.
One of the movie's first shockers is that children shown photos of U.S. presidents by Spurlock failed to recognize the prior U.S. leaders but did recognize the "Golden Arches" food mascot, Ronald McDonald when shown the latter.
But the main shocker in the movie was the effects of an all-McDonald's diet on human health. After only five days of eating McDonald's entrees and side dishes three times a day, Spurlock had gained 9.5 pounds; 30 days after his Happy Meal experiment he packed on a walloping 24.5 pounds.
Since 3,500 excessive calories add one pound, Spurlock had consumed 87,500 excessive calories in one month of eating her fat loyal diet. One doctor in the movie suggests that Spurlock is losing muscle at the same time as he gains fat and a girlfriend assures viewers that the additions do not denote better or more sex but their opposite.
Four years after Super-Size Me, a movie called Food, Inc. continued the charm offensive, further exposing how fast food producers discovered, perfected and popularized the industrialization of cheap and plentiful meat.
