You know, the movie about a guy who eats nothing but McDonald's for a month as a documentation on what fast food will do to a person. Did you watch the movie? What did you think of it?

Personally, I found the movie okay at first.
But over the years, I realized why I do not consider the movie a proper documentation and more a movielength scare tactic ad. While I cannot deny that eating nothing but fast food can lead to physical health problems... it doesn't work in the movie. First of all, the person who is the guinea pig? A vegetarian (or was he vegan?), physically active athelete guy, who barely ever ate fast food.
Immediately, that proves how this experiment doesn't work on the average person. Majority of humanity are not vegetarians and they do not do all that much fitness or sport. Some do, but the point stands. He was pretty much the picture of health to begin with.

Then the whole point of eating nothing but fast food. The average person doesn't eat fast food three times a day. Not even every day. Just one more point on how this guy was among the worst choices for this. His diet was so contrary to what fast food is, that his body exaggerated the symptoms it can cause, because it was such a drastic change.

Look at the average person. Not that much sport, but enough; maybe fast food now and then; maybe vegetarian, maybe vegan or even the typical omnivore. These people are not suffering huge health problems because of fast food, because they have MODERATION. Which the movie is going against. It takes the stand of Either/Or, not the option of Sometimes It's Okay, But Not Too Much.
Which is actually a good position for majority of things in life. But documentations don't seem to realize it exists.

So, for me? Supersize Me is not a good movie to serve as a documentation.
It's not even really funny to watch.

C-A

---

Yes, the experiment was greatly exaggerated, though it was done when obesity rates were skyrocketing (I guess they really haven't stopped). No one with the exception of the Big Mac guy eats McDonald's everyday.

Still, it was interesting to see the results of fast food's effect on a human body. It's been about ten years since I've seen the film, so I can't remember if Spurlock talked about this at all, but it might have been better to spin it into a piece about unhealthy but affordable food sources for those who are poor or lower class. Of course, if he hadn't specifically ripped on McDonald's, then the film might not have been so popular.

One of the best things to happen, just before this film was released, was McDonald's quietly eliminating the supersize menu and focusing on things like "real" white meat chicken for their nuggets.

And then Hardees gave everyone the finger and rolled out their line of thickburgers.

---

pretty sure he states multiple times throughout the movie that he's not vegetarian. heck he even makes a joke about how after he lost all of the weight he went back to eating meat, much to his vegan girlfriend's dismay


https://www.rt.com/usa/315664-usa-children-eat-fast-food/


i havent seen the movie in awhile, but where does it tell you to either get fat eating fast food or not get fast food at all?


truly a god among men

Funnilly enough, I was just forced to watch this movie during health.

I think that it hasn't aged very well. By now, most of their "facts" and statistics are probably outdated, and no longer true. A lot of the things the movie says might not even apply anymore.

There is also the part where the movie frequently calls people "fat" while showing a bunch of images of obese people, which I thought was a little rude for my tastes. They entire movie is about obesity, there's really no reason for them to outright call people fat.

But, I think the weirdest thing about this movie was something pretty hard to explode. A few parts of it just seemed like a joke. It seemed as if a bunch of comedians go together to make a serious documentary. There were a bunch of parts where they gave statistics over grotesque and emphasized animations. There was also the part where they placed peaceful music over a needlessly large surgery montage, which didn't seem like it needed to be in the movie. Plenty of people can't even stand to look at surgury, so I'm not sure why they wanted to show a bunch of pictures of it for literally no reason.

---

how is that rude in any way

I think what he means by that is something like being fat is more "you could lose a few pounds", and obese is more "you could lose a few hundred pounds." As I recall, fat and obese are two different degrees of being overweight, so calling people who are obese as simply "fat" is a bit of an insult to people who aren't as overweight.

---

i mean im pretty sure that fat is a catch-all term for people who are overweight

"Fat" is the derogatory way to say "obese". It technically means the same thing, but is pretty much akin to calling a mentally disabled person "retarded", somebody's girlfriend a "chick", or an abortionist a "baby murderer". It's not the nice thing to say.

First of all, "fat" is not just another way to say "obese," it's a way to describe, as I stated before, "having a large amount of excess flesh." Second, the word "fat" is not derogatory unless it's used to mock someone, like any term with a negative context.


No, it's not akin to that.


oh no someone called my girlfriend a "chick" i can't think of any other words that could be more demeaning to women


You can't compare these at all, since "fat" is an actual term to describe someone who is overweight while "baby murderer" has yet to be another word for an abortionist personal beliefs aside


I guess there are kinder words but it's a movie that's trying to get people to not be morbidly obese. It's not like they're trying to make it appealing.

You're mistaken, and that's all I'm going to say about this.

whatever you say, pal

Honestly, some people are just way too oversensitive when it comes to certain terms. Where I'm from, using the word fat is far from a derogatory term unless it's used to insult someone. Heck, I've met people where calling them obese when it's used correctly, insults them more than when calling them fat.

I won't deny that there are universal terms out there that are derogatory and shameful to call others, but then are so many words that have since become that way moreso because people have become much more sensitive than they used to be. To me, it feels like in this day and age, people are just looking for an excuse to feel insulted so they can whine about it.

It's like you can't even say two words nowadays without trampling and hurting someone's feelings. It's disgusting. I'm not saying to be more tolerant of others putting people down, but people need to toughen up and stop treating everything like it's an insult.

---

I don't find the word "fat" to be offensive at all. It's not the word, it's the context.

---

I absolutely agree.

Though this could also play into each person's perception of what consists of 'fat' or 'obese'. I'd say my mom is... well, chubby-fat. She could (and should) lose a few kilos and is working on it, but she is not so heavy that it is a huge threat to her health. Me, I am slightly overweight, but would not even call myself chubby.

Now, fat can range a lot for me. But if I call someone obese, it means to me that they are really, really 'fat'. As in, they likely have dozens of health issues caused by their weight. Whether they can lose the weight, I don't know. Some can, some can't, all for different reasons.

But yes, people are much too sensitive. They need to stop looking for excuses to whine because they were 'insulted'.
If I call you obese, then it means because you are. Stating a fact does not equal insult.
Sure, you may not like hearing it, but that doesn't make it any less true.

C-A

---

A dodgy biology teacher which we had in high school showed us this "movie", I remember it well.

I guess the exaggeration of the portions and the man's diet was because the film crew NEEDED results - other wise everybody's money and time was wasted.

It was probably a good idea on paper, but you are completely right in saying that it didn't translate well onto television, thus did not work.

---

I like how I start a discussion and then completely miss the entire thing.

I think what's more rude than using the word fat is using films of real people and openly calling them fat. Sometimes, they don't even cover up their face. Unless they're actually getting permission from them to do that, I personally think that it's kind of rude.

---