What Are The Three Doctors In Super Size Me

2004 documentary film past Morgan Spurlock

Super Size Me
Theatrical release poster
Directed by	Morgan Spurlock
Written past	Morgan Spurlock
Produced by	Morgan Spurlock
Starring	Morgan Spurlock Alexandra Jamieson
Cinematography	Scott Ambrozy
Edited by	Julie "Bob" Lombardi
Music past	Steve Horowitz
Production company	The Con
Distributed by	Samuel Goldwyn Films Roadside Attractions
Release date	May 7, 2004 (2004-05-07)
Running fourth dimension	98 minutes
Land	Usa
Linguistic communication	English
Budget	$65,000^[one] ^[two]
Box office	$22.2 million^[ii]

Super Size Me is a 2004 American documentary moving-picture show directed by and starring Morgan Spurlock, an American independent filmmaker. Spurlock'due south picture show follows a xxx-twenty-four hours period from February i to March 2, 2003, during which he ate only McDonald'south nutrient. The film documents the desperate consequence on Spurlock'southward physical and psychological health and well-being. Information technology also explores the fast food industry'south corporate influence, including how it encourages poor nutrition for its ain profit and proceeds.

Spurlock ate at McDonald's restaurants 3 times per 24-hour interval, eating every item on the concatenation's card at to the lowest degree once. Spurlock consumed an boilerplate of 20.nine megajoules or 5,000 kcal (the equivalent of ix.26 Large Macs) per day during the experiment. An intake of around two,500 kcal inside a good for you counterbalanced diet is more generally recommended for a human being to maintain his weight.^[3] As a result, the then-32-year-one-time Spurlock gained 11.i kilograms (24 lb), a 13% body mass increase, increased his cholesterol to 230 mg/dL (6.0 mmol/L), and experienced mood swings, sexual dysfunction, and fat accumulation in his liver. Information technology took Spurlock fourteen months to lose all the weight gained from his experiment using a vegan diet supervised by his then-girlfriend, a chef who specializes in gourmet vegan dishes.

The reason for Spurlock'due south investigation was the increasing spread of obesity throughout U.S. gild, which the Surgeon General has declared an "epidemic", and the corresponding lawsuit brought confronting McDonald's on behalf of two overweight girls, who, it was alleged, became obese equally a result of eating McDonald's food (Pelman v. McDonald'due south Corp., 237 F. Supp. 2d 512).^[4] Spurlock argued that, although the lawsuit confronting McDonald's failed (and subsequently many state legislatures take legislated confronting production liability actions against producers and distributors of "fast food") as well equally the McLibel case,^[5] ^[6] much of the same criticism leveled against the tobacco companies applies to fast food franchises whose product is both physiologically addictive and physically harmful.^[seven] ^[eight]

The documentary was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Documentary Characteristic^[ix] and won Best Documentary Screenplay from the Writers Lodge of America.^[x] A comic volume related to the movie has been made with Night Equus caballus Comics every bit the publisher containing stories based on numerous cases of fast food wellness scares.^[11]

Spurlock released a sequel, Super Size Me 2: Holy Craven!, in 2017.^[12]

Synopsis [edit]

As the moving-picture show begins, Spurlock is in physically above average shape according to his personal trainer. He is seen by three physicians (a cardiologist, a gastroenterologist, and a general practitioner), likewise as a nutritionist and a personal trainer. All of the wellness professionals predict the "McDiet" volition have unwelcome effects on his body, but none expected anything too drastic, one citing the human body as being "extremely adaptable". Prior to the experiment, Spurlock ate a varied diet but always had vegan evening meals to accommodate his girlfriend, Alexandra, a vegan chef. At the beginning of the experiment, Spurlock, who stood half dozen anxiety two inches (188 cm) tall, had a trunk weight of 185 pounds (84 kg).

Experiment [edit]

Spurlock followed specific rules governing his eating habits:

He must fully eat three McDonald's meals per mean solar day: breakfast, dejeuner, and dinner.
He must consume every item on the McDonald's menu at least once over the course of the thirty days (he managed this in nine days).
He must simply ingest items that are offered on the McDonald'southward bill of fare, including bottled h2o. All outside consumption of food is prohibited.
He must Super Size the meal if offered, but he cannot request to Super Size on his own.
He will attempt to walk about as much every bit a typical U.s.a. citizen, based on a suggested effigy of 5,000 standardized distance steps per solar day,^[13] but he did not closely adhere to this, as he walked more while in New York than in Houston.

On February 1, Spurlock starts the calendar month with breakfast near his dwelling house in Manhattan, where there is an average of four McDonald's locations (and 66,950 residents, with twice equally many commuters) per square mile (2.6 km²). He aims to keep the distances he walks in line with the five,000 steps (approximately two miles) walked per day by the average American.

Twenty-four hour period 2 brings Spurlock'due south first (of 9) Super Size meal, at the McDonald's on 34th Street and Tenth Avenue, which is a meal fabricated of a Double Quarter Pounder with Cheese, Super Size French fries, and a 42-ounce Coca-Cola, which took him 22 minutes to swallow. He experiences steadily increasing tummy discomfort during the process, and then finally vomits in the McDonald's parking lot.

After five days Spurlock has gained ix.5 pounds (4.iii kg) (from 185.five to about 195 pounds). It is not long before he finds himself experiencing depression, and he claims that his bouts of it forth with languor, and headaches could be relieved past eating a McDonald's meal. His general practitioner describes him equally being "fond". At his second counterbalance-in, he had gained another 8 pounds (three.half dozen kg), putting his weight at 203.5 pounds (92.three kg). By the end of the calendar month he weighs about 210 pounds (95 kg), an increment of virtually 24.5 pounds (about 11 kg). Considering he could only eat McDonald's nutrient for a calendar month, Spurlock refused to take whatsoever medication at all. At ane weigh-in, Spurlock lost 1 lb. from the previous weigh-in, and a nutritionist hypothesized that he had lost musculus mass, which weighs more than an identical volume of fat. At some other weigh-in, a nutritionist said that he gained 17 pounds (7.7 kg) in 12 days.

Spurlock'southward then-girlfriend, Alexandra Jamieson, attests to the fact that Spurlock lost much of his free energy and sex drive during his experiment. It was not clear at the time whether or not Spurlock would be able to complete the full month of the high-fat, high-carbohydrate diet, and family and friends began to express business.

On Day 21, Spurlock has heart palpitations. His internist, Dr. Daryl Isaacs, advises him to finish what he is doing immediately to avoid any serious wellness bug. He compares Spurlock with the protagonist played by Nicolas Cage in the moving-picture show Leaving Las Vegas, who intentionally drinks himself to death in a affair of weeks. Despite this alarm, Spurlock decides to go along the experiment.

On March ii, Spurlock makes it to day xxx and achieves his goal. In thirty days, he has "Supersized" his meals nine times forth the style (v of which were in Texas, four in New York City). His physicians are surprised at the caste of deterioration in Spurlock's wellness. He notes that he has eaten as many McDonald's meals as nigh nutritionists say the ordinary person should consume in eight years (he ate 90 meals, which is shut to the number of meals consumed once a month in an eight-year flow).

Findings [edit]

The documentary's end text states that it took Spurlock five months to lose twenty.i pounds (nine.i kg) and another nine months to lose the last 4.5 pounds (2.0 kg). His then-girlfriend Alex, now his ex-wife, began supervising his recovery with her "detox diet", which became the basis for her volume, The Slap-up American Detox Nutrition.^[fourteen]

The movie ends with a rhetorical question, "Who exercise you want to encounter go outset, yous or them?" This is accompanied by a cartoon tombstone, which reads "Ronald McDonald (1954–2012)", which originally appeared in The Economist in an article addressing the ethics of marketing to children.^[15]

A curt epilogue was added to the film. Information technology showed that the salads tin can contain even more than calories than burgers if the customer adds liberal amounts of cheese and dressing prior to consumption. Also, information technology described McDonald'southward discontinuation of the Super Size option six weeks later the movie's premiere, likewise as its recent accent on healthier bill of fare items such every bit salads, and the release of the new developed Happy Meal. McDonald's denied that these changes had annihilation to practice with the film.^[16]

Reception [edit]

Super Size Me premiered at the 2004 Sundance Moving picture Festival, where Morgan Spurlock won the G Jury Prize for directing the film.^[17] The picture show opened in the U.South. on May 7, 2004, and grossed a total of $11,536,423 worldwide, making it the 22nd highest-grossing documentary movie of all time.^[18] It was nominated for an University Award for All-time Documentary Feature, merely lost to the film Born into Brothels. It did, however, win the award for Best Documentary Screenplay from the Writers Guild of America.^[10]

The motion picture received overall positive reviews from critics and audiences. It holds a 92% "Certified Fresh" rating on the picture show review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes based on 171 reviews, with an average rating of vii.73/10. The consensus calls the film an "entertaining dr. about the adverse furnishings of eating fast food."^[nineteen] Metacritic assigned the film a weighted boilerplate score of 73 out of 100, based on 37 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews".^[20]

Super Size Me received two thumbs up on At the Movies with Ebert and Roeper. Caroline Westbrook for BBC News stated that the hype for the documentary was proper "to a certain extent", considering of its serious bulletin, and that, overall, the picture show's "high one-act gene and over-familiarity of the subject matter return information technology less powerful than other contempo documentaries – just information technology even so makes for enjoyable, thought-provoking viewing."^[21] Ane reviewer said "he's telling the states something everyone already knows: Fast nutrient is bad for you."^[22]

Robert Davis of Paste said the movie accomplished some of its goals and addressed an important topic, simply, at the same time, sometimes looked more than like a publicity stunt than a documentary. He primarily criticized the dramatic and unscientific approach of Super Size Me, saying Spurlock unnecessarily ate more than than he had to and ignored his nutritionist's advice. Davis explained he would have been more interested had the documentary been near trying to eat as healthy as possible at McDonald'south: "You could cull low-fat options, but information technology would be incommunicable to go enough vegetables and fiber, and the low-fatty meal would be incredibly bland, the product of a system that has worked to optimize food commitment and consistency and, in doing then, has invented foods and then devoid of season that they require dressings, oils, beefiness tallow and goopy coatings to make them more than just textured blobs. The industry has worked hard to convince consumers that these odd, sugariness flavors are non only good only as well unique, recognizable parts of a brand. Spurlock doesn't attempt to convey this bulletin, presumably because the affects [sic] of likewise few vegetables and as well little fiber aren't every bit dramatic equally speedy weight-and-cholesterol gains."^[23]

McDonald'southward Great britain responded that the writer intentionally consumed an boilerplate of 5,000 calories per day and did non do, and that the results would accept been the same regardless of the source of overeating.^[24]

Counter-claims [edit]

In his reply documentary Fat Head, Tom Naughton "suggests that Spurlock'southward calorie and fat counts don't add up" and noted Spurlock's refusal to publish the Super Size Me food log. The Houston Relate reports: "Different Spurlock, Naughton has a page on his Spider web site that lists every item (including nutritional information) he ate during his fast-nutrient month."^[25]

After eating exclusively at McDonald's for one month, Soso Whaley said, "The first fourth dimension I did the diet in April 2004, I lost 10 pounds (going from 175 to 165) and lowered my cholesterol from 237 to 197, a drop of 40 points." Of detail note was that she exercised regularly and did not insist on consuming more food than she otherwise would. Despite eating at merely McDonald's every mean solar day, she maintained her caloric intake at effectually ii,000 per day.^[26]

After John Cisna, a high school science teacher, lost 60 pounds while eating exclusively at McDonald's for 180 days, he said, "I'm not pushing McDonald's. I'm non pushing fast nutrient. I'thou pushing taking accountability and making the right choice for you lot individually... As a science teacher, I would never evidence Super Size Me because when I watched that, I never saw the educational value in that... I mean, a guy eats uncontrollable amounts of food, stops exercising, and the whole world is surprised he puts on weight? What I'yard non proud about is probably seventy to lxxx percent of my colleagues across the U.s.a. still bear witness Super Size Me in their health class or their biology class. I don't get information technology."^[27]

As a counterpoint, the film features interviews with Large Mac addict Don Gorske, who eats an boilerplate of 2 Large Macs a day, yet maintains his weight and cholesterol.

Impact [edit]

Half-dozen weeks after the film'south debut, McDonald's discontinued its supersize portions.^[28] In the U.k., McDonald's publicized a website which included a response to and criticisms of the picture show.^[29] In theaters in the United kingdom of great britain and northern ireland, the company placed a brief advertising in the moving picture's trailers, pointing to the URL and stating, "Encounter what we disagree with. See what we agree with."

Internationally, Super Size Me was a major success in the box office of Australia.^[30] McDonald'southward in Australia responded with an advertising campaign that included three elements: two advertisements for TV and one produced to be shown in movie theaters.^[30]

The film was the inspiration for the BBC tv set series The Supersizers... in which the presenters dine on historical meals and take medical tests to ascertain the bear on on their health.^[31]

The film was also inspiration for the 2007 documentary film Super High Me directed by Michael Blieden. The film follows Doug Benson, a comedian and cannabis enthusiast, equally he becomes the subject to a multitude of tests designed to measure the physical and mental impacts of, first, not smoking cannabis for 30 days, and so smoking non-terminate for 30 days. The poster for the movie was modeled subsequently one of the promotional posters from Super Size Me.

References [edit]

^ Lee, Christina (2004). "Super Size Me". The Film Journal. Archived from the original on May 12, 2014.
^ ^a ^b "Super Size Me". The Numbers. Nash Information Services.
^ "What should my daily intake of calories be?". NHS. June 27, 2018.
^ "McFat Litigation I – Pelman v. McDonald'south Corp., 237 F.Supp.2d 512 (S.D.North.Y. January 22, 2003)". The Climate Change and Public Health Constabulary Site, Louisiana State University. January 22, 2003. Retrieved Dec 31, 2012.
^ Smith, Melissa Diane (August 12, 2008). "'Supersize Me' and 'McLibel' – More Movies that Go Against the Grain". Against the Grain Nutrition.
^ "The McLibel Trial Story". McSpotlight. Archived from the original on January 19, 2001.
^ Barnard, Neal (June 2003). Breaking the Food Seduction: The Hidden Reasons Behind Food Cravings and Seven Steps to Terminate Them Naturally . New York Urban center: St. Martin's Press. ISBN978-1-42997-058-7.
^ Laurance, Jeremy (January 30, 2003). "Fast food is addictive in same way as drugs, say scientists". The Independent. London, United kingdom. Archived from the original on May xi, 2010.
^ "Super Size Me". Movies & TV Dept. The New York Times. 2009. Archived from the original on February xvi, 2009. Retrieved November 23, 2008.
^ ^a ^b "WGA serves up 1st doc kudo to 'Super'". diversity.com. Variety. Feb 15, 2005. Retrieved February xviii, 2019.
^ Slaton, Joyce (July 23, 2009). "Coming Soon: Super Size Me, the Comic Book". Grub.com.
^ Gleiberman, Owen (September 14, 2017). "Toronto Moving-picture show Review: 'Super Size Me 2: Holy Chicken!'". Multifariousness . Retrieved November 19, 2018.
^ Figure supplied past Marking Fenton, former editor Walking Mag, in a scene from the movie.
^ Jamieson, Alex. "The Groovy American Detox Diet". HowToBeFit.com . Retrieved May 15, 2007.
^ Spurlock, in audio commentary track.
^ "McDonald'due south phasing out Supersize chips, drinks". NBC News . Retrieved December sixteen, 2020.
^ Spurlock, Morgan (2005). Don't Eat This Book . New York City: K.P. Putnam Sons. p. 245. ISBN9780399152603.
^ "Documentary Movies, 1982–Present". Box Part Mojo . Retrieved May 15, 2007.
^ "Super Size Me (2004)". Rotten Tomatoes . Retrieved May 8, 2019.
^ "Super Size Me". Metacritic.
^ Westbrook, Caroline (September 10, 2004). "Review: Super Size Me". BBC News . Retrieved May 20, 2012.
^ Muller, Bill. "Super Size Me". The Arizona Republic . Retrieved April xxx, 2012.
^ Davis, Robert (July 20, 2004). "Super Size Me, directed past Morgan Spurlock". Paste . Retrieved April xxx, 2012.
^ "McDonald's UK position on 'Super Size Me'". McDonald's U.k.. August 2004. Archived from the original on October 12, 2007. Retrieved Apr 22, 2009.
^ Hoffman, Ken (Jan xv, 2008). "Ordering up some food for thought". Houston Chronicle.
^ "Soso, And then Good". National Review. June 23, 2005. Retrieved Nov 19, 2018.
^ Carlton, Bob (August 12, 2015). "Meet the scientific discipline teacher who lost lx pounds eating goose egg but McDonald'due south three meals a day". al.com . Retrieved November 19, 2018.
^ Meg Mclagan, p.304.^{[ full commendation needed ]}
^ "Super Size Me - The Fence". McDonald'due south UK. Archived from the original on February 2, 2007. Retrieved February two, 2007.
^ ^a ^b "Super Size Me: A comparative analysis of responses to crisis by McDonald's' America and McDonald's Australia". Public Relations Bug and Crisis Management. Cengage Learning Australia. Jan 1, 2005. pp. 67–78. ISBN0170122700.
^ Roberts, Rachel (June ten, 2009), "Interview: Sue Perkins and Giles Coren – Gluttons for penalty", The Scotsman