Super Size It

Anyone seen this movie? I went and saw it tonight and had to discuss it. It is a documetary about a guy that eats McDonalds only, for 30 days. This guy put his body thru hell. I tell patients on a daily basis to stay away from fast foods all together, but I really had no idea that food could do this to a person within 30 days. The rules were, no food but McDonalds, he had to eat everything on the menu at least once, he had to eat 3 meals per day, he could only supersize it if they asked. He had checkups by 3 doctors before he started and he was in much better than average health. The end result was a weight gain of 25LBS in 30 days, high cholesterol(up 70 points), hyperuricemia, fatty liver, depression, lethargy, vomitting, light headedness. Addiction to the food. His doctors were shocked. They begged him to stop. None of them could believe that food could do this in 30 days. They also had a piece of the movie on school lunches. I was pretty shocked about what they served kids in our schools. Pretty pathetic.

 

You know what's funny? I have heard the phrase, Super Size It so many times, I got the title of the thread wrong. The movies actual name is Super Size Me. The power of advertising.

 

Funny thing. We drove 20 miles home from the movie in a very sparsley populated area and we saw 5 McDonalds and 3 billboards for McDonalds on the way home. In the movie they said that Manhatten had the most McDonalds at 4 per square mile.

 

I think most people are too stuck on this fat content thing. There are lots of fatty foods out there that are not really that detrimental to your health. Take nuts and avacodos for instance. You won't ever get heart disease or any type of illness for that matter eating these. As a matter of fact, the eskimos have the highest fat diet in the world, but almost no heart disease. The real problem with fast food is it's processing. The chemicals that are in the food you eat, don't just magically leave your body. Many of them get stored in the fat cells of your body, just waiting to mess you up. I looked up the content of chicken Mcnuggets and the list is scary.

Chicken nuggets
Boneless chicken breast, water, modified cornstarch, salt, chicken flavor (yeast extract, salt, wheat starch, natural flavoring (animal source), safflower oil, dextrose, citric acid, rosemary), sodium phosphates, seasoning (natural extractives of rosemary, canola and/or soybean oil, mono-and diglycerides, and lecithin). Battered and Breaded with: Water, enriched bleached wheat flour (flour, niacin, reduced iron, thiamine mononitrate, riboflavin, folic acid), yellow corn flour, bleached wheat flour, modified corn starch, salt, leavening (baking soda, sodium acid pyrophosphate, sodium aluminum phosphate, monocalcium phosphate, calcium lactate), spices, wheat starch, whey, corn starch. Breading set in vegetable oil. Cooked in partially hydrogenated vegetable oils, (may contain partially hydrogenated soybean oil and/or partially hydrogenated corn oil and/or partially hydrogenated canola oil and/or cottonseed oil and/or sunflower oil and/or corn oil).
Check out the big mac bun. I have studied alot of human biochemistry and organic chemistry and I have no idea what some of those things are.

Bun
Big Mac® Bun: Enriched bleached flour (bleached wheat flour, malted barley flour, thiamine, riboflavin, niacin, folic acid, reduced iron), water, high fructose corn syrup, sesame seeds, partially hydrogenated soybean oil, yeast, contains less than 2 % of each of the following: salt, calcium sulfate, calcium carbonate, calcium silicate, wheat gluten, soy flour, baking soda, emulsifier (mono- and diglycerides, diacetyl tartaric acid esters of fatty acids, ethanol, sorbitol, polysorbate 20, potassium propionate), sodium stearoyl lactylate, dough conditioner (corn starch, ammonium chloride, ammonium sulfate, calcium peroxide, ascorbic acid, azodicarbonamide, enzymes), calcium propionate (preservative).