Experiment
Spurlock made rules for himself governing his eating habits:
On February 1, Spurlock started the month with breakfast near his home in Manhattan, where there were an average of four McDonald's locations (and 66,950 residents, with twice as many commuters) per square mile (2.6 km²). He aimed to keep the distances he walked in line with the 5,000 steps (approximately 2 mi) walked per day by the average American.
The second day brought Spurlock's first (of nine) Super Sized meals, which he ate at the McDonald's on 34th Street and Tenth Avenue. It consisted of a Double Quarter Pounder with Cheese, Super Size French fries, and a 42-ounce Coca-Cola, which took him 22 minutes to eat. He experienced steadily increasing stomach discomfort during the process, and then finally vomited in the McDonald's parking lot.
After five days, Spurlock gained 9.5 lb (from 185.5 to about 195 pounds). It was not long before he found himself experiencing depression, and he claimed that his bouts of it, along with lethargy and headaches, could be relieved by eating a McDonald's meal. His gastroenterologist, Dr. Lisa Ganjhu, described him as being "addicted". At his second weigh-in he had gained another 8 lb, putting his weight at 203.5 lb. By the end of the month he weighed about 210 lb, an increase of about 24.5 lb. Because he only wanted to eat McDonald's food, Spurlock refused to take any medication at all. At one weigh-in, Spurlock had lost 1 lb. from the previous weigh-in, and a nutritionist hypothesized that he had lost muscle mass, which weighs more than an identical volume of fat. At another weigh-in a nutritionist said Spurlock had gained 17 lb in 12 days.
Spurlock's then-girlfriend, Alexandra Jamieson, attested to the fact that Spurlock lost much of his energy and sex drive during his experiment. It was not clear at the time whether or not Spurlock would be able to complete the entire month of the high-fat, high-carbohydrate diet, and his family and friends began to express concern.
On day 21, Spurlock had heart palpitations and liver damage. His internist, Dr. Daryl Isaacs, advised him to stop what he was doing immediately to avoid any serious health problems. He compared Spurlock with the protagonist played by Nicolas Cage in the movie Leaving Las Vegas, who intentionally drinks himself to death in a matter of weeks. Despite this warning Spurlock decided to continue the experiment.
On March 2, Spurlock reached day 30 and achieved his goal. His physicians were surprised at the degree of deterioration in Spurlock's health. He noted that he has eaten as many McDonald's meals as most nutritionists say the ordinary person should eat in eight years. (He ate 90 meals, which is close to the number of meals consumed once a month in an eight-year period.)
- He will fully eat three McDonald's meals daily: breakfast, lunch, and dinner.
- He will consume every item on the McDonald's menu at least once over the course of the 30 days (he managed this in nine days).
- He will ingest only items offered on the McDonald's menu, including bottled water. All outside consumption of food is prohibited.
- He will Super Size the meal if offered (as upselling), but not by his own request. (He Supersized a total of nine times, five times while in Texas and four times while in New York).
- He will attempt to walk about as much as a typical United States citizen, based on a suggested figure of 5,000 standardized distance steps per day,[13][14] but he did not closely adhere to this, as he walked more while in New York than in Houston.
Findings
The documentary's end text states that it took Spurlock five months to lose 20.1 lb and another nine months to lose the last 4.5 lb. His then-girlfriend Alex, now his ex-wife, began supervising his recovery with a vegan "detox diet", which became the basis for her book The Great American Detox Diet.[15]
The movie ends with a rhetorical question, "Who do you want to see go first, you 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.[14]
A short epilogue showed that the salads can contain even more fat and calories than burgers if the customer adds liberal amounts of cheese and dressing before consumption. It also described McDonald's discontinuation of the Super Size option six weeks after the movie's premiere, as well as its recent emphasis on healthier menu items such as salads, and the release of the new "Go Active! Adult Happy Meal." McDonald's denied that these changes had anything to do with the film.[16]
