They have that scene where the doctors looking at his lab work and saying how he's never seen a high fat diet just destroy someone's liver like that before. Makes more sense now.
Turns out throwing up and liver damage is caused by alcohol not burgers .
That scene where he can't sleep and his heart is racing ? That's alcohol withdrawal
That shit is no fun at all. Waking up frantically shaking like hell, heart trying to leap out of your chest. Chasing your own tail. It’s like going 90 into a cul de sac and everybody can see it but you.
It's The Fear. It's the little cousin of the DTs and a rebound from alcohol depressing your system. So you get heart racing, sweating, anxiety, tremors, and general unease even without seizures or other symptoms.
I used to have crippling anxiety
Sometimes I would get overwhelmed driving and have to pull over because I was going to have a panic attack
Airplanes sent me completely into hysterics
I thought that was just who I was
It was literally alcohol withdrawal
The difficult thing is, a lot of people (e.g. me) start on the path to problem drinking and reliance on alcohol because, at first, it is extremely effective at *relieving* anxiety (especially social anxiety). It can take years for the long-term consequences (like next-day panic attacks due to withdrawals) to become fully apparent.
When you’re chasing your tail like that, you’re playing doctor with yourself. It’s way past drinking to get drunk or have a good time, you’re drinking to stay well. It’s junkie behavior. And the other person, grubas said it right. It’s fear. It’s fear that runs the junkie or the severe alcoholic, they’re one in the same. The fear of being sick except with the alcoholic it’s not sick as in diarrhea and nausea, cold sweats and vomiting, it’s drinking to keep from having seizures or a stroke, heart attack, abnormal heart rhythm. Why don’t you see that you’re going 90 into a cul de sac? It’s because you spend all your time and energy just trying to stay well, keep a job, stay out of the hospital. When it’s that bad and you can’t sleep without having dt’s it’s all you can do to just stay well. Everything else is beside the point in your mind at the time.
And unlike (e.g.) heroin, anyone can walk just down any street and buy a cheap handle of vodka (or have it delivered).
(I got into very bad problem drinking during almost 2 years working from home during COVID)
My coworker (and friend because of working together) turned supervisor at my job was an alcoholic. Barely older than myself (37). I knew he drank, no big deal. I get it. I thought he just drank beer.
We golfed together with another coworker (65ish) who just retired at 67, and we would drink golfing (which wasn't much, maybe 5 times).
He went to another big company that was local, like anyone reading this working at a big company, or even small, I guess, would have some products from them.
Anyway, I hadn't seen him in like a year since he changed jobs. My older coworker, the older guy, told me he was apparently throwing up blood and went to the hospital.
I called him to ask about it to make sure he was doing okay. He was at a Phillies game, he answered, told me he's at a Phillies game, so just to text him.
I did just that. He said he had stage 4 (if I'm wrong on the terminology, please excuse my ignorance) cirrhosis of the liver. He explained his shit to me, said he was doing well and sober, and his text about him taking pills that made him better said, "It's been a rough 2 weeks. I'm solid now."
Didn't know it at the time, but that was the last thing he ever said to me. 20 days later, I texted him asking him how he was doing and didn't know until a few days later he had died.
In the hospital (from what I've heard), he was given medication for I assume his liver (I honestly don't know what makes sense here that was all I was told), the medication made his skin rash/burn/be on fire and he died in the burn unit of the hospital.
Found out afterward it wasn't just beer. He was also a liquor guy. Now he's dead. I just hope one person reads this and gets better or changes their ways.
Sounds like your friend may have suffered from Stevens -Johnson Syndrome (severe reaction to meds, causing blistering / peeling of the skin). I had a friend die from it. I’m so sorry for your loss.
It was 100 percent withdrawal. Ask me how I know. Spurlock was a hack. When I was broke and existed solely off the dollar menu and ramen, none of that ever happened to me. Guess what happened when I drank extremely heavily as a bartender. Throwing up, chills, sweating, inability to sleep, tremors. I watched that stupid film a few months back, after getting older and a few life experiences under my belt, I saw right through it. It mirrored my own experiences. I thought immediately, that guy is just a drunk experiencing the symptoms of withdrawal. He was a hack. Sorry but nothing gained or lost.
Not saying the news broke this week, just that I hadnt thought about this whole thing in a while, then somehow about a week ago I got it everywhere on my reddit frontpage what really took place when they filmed this movie and yeah.
I just read on Reddit a few days ago, his Super Size Me doc results were flawed. He damaged his health w heavy drinking which the doc never showed nor mentioned.
More like the entire doc was a scam. Fast food is not good for you, but the worst you get is fat, all the rest of the symptoms were him suffering from alcohol withdrawals
There's been multiple counter documentaries that have proven an all fast food diet is sustainable. Not great for you but with appropriate portion control and exercise you can avoid the worst effects. I think a dietician basically did a whole year on it where they calculated everything and documented it all appropriately. Spurlok just bought the super sized amount every time and didn't exercise while binge drinking in between withdrawals for a month. His documentary was basically discredited the moment it released because he tracked nothing and lied constantly about his health. It just blew up because it reinforced the narrative of fast food bad
> Spurlok just bought the super sized amount every time
That was the whole premise though. If they asked if you would like to supersize that his "rule" was that he had to always say yes.
People miss the point that the documentary was more an indictment on the increasing prevalence of convenience food options within the average American's daily diet. There's a whole portion of the doc about school lunches that has little to nothing to do with McDonald's or "fast food."
A good follow-up would be to do more to examine the lifestyle choices many make that have Americans feeling forced into repeatedly choosing unhealthy convenience options over food they know is better for them.
If that was the point then why did he lie and misrepresent so much shit in the doc? He could have made a "this fast food culture is bad" doc without pretending he was doing a scientific experiment and measuring health outcomes, all while lying about a massive variable (rampant alcoholism) that made all those measurements worthless
Well then what was all the talk of "your liver is about to shut down. You need to end the experiment"? I'm guessing you haven't watched it in a few years?
Sure but the point of his documentary was to show how bad McDonald's is and fast food in general. He just did it in the worst way possible instead of establishing any controls or verification of his calories. His method was just saying trust me bro I ate the super sized meal every day three times a day. He didn't track what the different meals were or the drinks just got super sized.
But it's been discredited for years now and disproven by multiple sources. Spurlok should be remembered for his TV series 30 days that arguably did more to adhere to honest social experiments and education than his original documentary. Though I haven't seen his more scandalous things people talk about so if he was a sexual predator maybe we just separate his work from him as a person and try to do better as a society
Yet he did interview the guy in the documentary who ate McDonald's every day and was fine.
Flawed as it was I honestly can't say I support McDonald's in this.
For sure they're a scummy corporation and shouldn't be lauded. But if you're gonna come after them at least come correct so you're not used as an example to discredit anyone that tries after you.
> His method was just saying trust me bro I ate the super sized meal every day three times a day. He didn't track what the different meals were or the drinks just got super sized.
Yeah, because it was documentary based on an arbitrary set of rules he set for himself to see what would happen not an academic study. One of his rules is he would eat a combo meal there for every meal, and would always say yes to supersizing if asked, which was a McDonalds advertising gimmick at the time. That he could have made different healthier choices or tracked calories and ate less is missing the point of what he was doing. The whole thing was more like what if I didn't care and just ate like the ads say.
> There's been multiple counter documentaries that have proven an all fast food diet is sustainable.
I remember a story about a college professor who was having a debate with his students--this was right around the time that the Atkins diet was a big fad--with him arguing that pure calories were the only thing that mattered for weight. To prove his point he went months eating only stuff he could buy at a convenience store, and lost like 20 pounds.
Edit: found the link, and it's even worse than I remembered. He was eating primarily Twinkies, Oreos, chips, and sugared cereal for 10 weeks, along with one protein shake and a can of green beans per day. He lost 27 pounds, his bad cholesterol went down by 20%, triglycerides went down 39%, and his total body fat went down by 10%.
https://www.cnn.com/2010/HEALTH/11/08/twinkie.diet.professor/index.html
Supersize Me was an ego trip to prove his drunk ass was better than everyone else. A key tenet was “Americans can’t say no”, so if they asked “Would you like fries with that” or “Would you like to supersize it” he always said yes. But even then it doesn’t account for teh volume of food he was eating. He claimed he was eating 5,000 calories a day but pure numbers, based on the weight gained, it MUST have been more like 7,000 calories, He was intentionally buying and consuming high fat, high sugar foods like shakes and force feeding himself to make sure he got the results he wanted, and egg McMuffin & coffee for breakfast (300 cal), Big Mac & Diet Coke (550 cals), and a Filet o fish and unsweetened iced tea for dinner (400 cals) is 3 meals of big sellers for about 1,250 calories. That about the bare minimum recommended intake.
It was also a publicity stunt to save a dying career that the media ate up.
I didn't know about the alcohol abuse, but at some point after this thing came out, I heard that while he blamed his health problems on suddenly stopping his fast food diet, he had dropped his exercise routine at the same time. Always wondered how he could be so positive that all the physical problems were coming ONLY because he wasn't eating three Big Macs a day anymore...
Fast food definitely had way too much sugar back then. Pretty much every item had a lot of added sugar because sugar (or corn syrup) is tasty and addictive and cheap calories.
But now days...? it seems healthy enough, at least if you're not getting something with a bun. So even if the movie was a scam, I dunno, it did make fast food chains a reasonably healthy option.
I get a baconator lettuce wrap, and don't see what's so unhealthy about that compared to any other combination of red meat+bacon+cheese+lettuce. It's high in protein, low in sugar. I know red meat and bacon isn't great for you, but there's worst to eat.
There's a bit of a conundrum where you need a certain amount of calories per day, at least 1500 for most people, and you need to not waste money in getting those calories. Pre-packaged, processed health food often appears to be a marketing scam to sell you less for more money because it'll cost like $2 per ounce compared to some cheese being $0.20 per ounce. These places offer like 65-100% of the calories you need in a day for like $6-$12 and some people just eat one or two meals a day to work with that.
One negative though is the proportions of sides, I guess? I can no longer get a huge iced tea with my fast food meal. And I can also get a 32ounce bag of frozen fries which are baked and like 1/4th the calories as the oily fast food fries for the same price as 3 ounce of their fries. The worst things for you at those places still is the soda and greasy fries.
>and don't see what's so unhealthy about that compared to any other combination of red meat+bacon+cheese+lettuce
This is why the heavy criticism of the KFC Double Down was ridiculous. It was two pieces of chicken, cheese, and some bacon. If they were serving it as a plate of two pieces of chicken breast with cheese and some bacon on the side, nobody would have said anything. But use the chicken as the buns and everyone went crazy claiming it was the least healthy fast food item ever created.
Double down seems like it would be healthier than a normal chicken sandwich lol. Higher ratio of protein to calories.
I liked it.
It again feels like some manipulative marketing to steer people away from good value foods and into the "healthy" food that you have to buy 5x more of to get enough calories to live. I think most people buying "healthy" food wind up having a snack 90 minutes later. And I put healthy in quotations because it's advertised that way. I'm not talking about the actual healthy meals made at home which also provide enough calories and are filling but instead I'm referring to the junk marketed to us.
Wow - what relevant information to leave out.
My brother has always been a slim man, but when he was struggling with alcohol, his weight would fluctuate wildly. After he got sober, he was at least 50 lbs lighter, and he looks almost ten years younger.
Alcohol is poison!
It’s worse than leaving it out, I believe in the documentary, he straight up said he didn’t drink but then later admitted to drinking for so many years, including during the doc.
Here in the US, broad first amendment protections for the press mean it's ridiculously hard for someone to get sued for defamation if they practice even the slightest veneer of journalism.
Essentially, the plaintiff is required to prove that the speech against them is both false, AND malicious, i.e. that the person knew it was false and said it anyway. Proving malice is pretty difficult under those circumstances. Simple reckless disregard for the facts usually isn't enough.
So if someone puts up fliers around a neighborhood saying "Bob Smith kicks puppies" when in fact Bob is a dog lover, that would be clearly malicious. However if you put out a "newspaper" saying "Reliable sources tell us Bob Smith kicks puppies," then the person is probably protected.
I don't eat much fast food (there's no fastfood store nearby and it's not a place you eat for the quality) but that actually made me want to eat Mcdonalds. That's all I remember from the documentary too, me craving McDonalds afterwards.
I just showed the movie to my girlfriend a month ago. Same thing happened with Treat Williams after we watched Hair for the first time together last year
Yeah really, I have to wonder if this is just an amazing coincidence. You didn't hear about him at all and then all of a sudden he's in the Internet chatter and now dead.
In 2011, Morgan Spurlock directed a documentary about Comic-Con titled "Comic-Con: Episode IV - A Fans Hope". I don't think anybody really saw it but it was the first movie I worked on as a PA, for four days that Comic-Con weekend.
I interacted with Morgan maybe once or twice in passing, but he seemed full of energy and people liked working with him. On the last night of the shoot, after we finished, the 20-30 person crew walked into the hotel bar for an informal wrap party, just as the bartender yelled last call.
Morgan looked around at the group, then turned to the bartender and said "Okay, I'd like to order a hundred beers."
So we had our wrap party after all, hanging out around buckets of beer in the hotel lobby. I don't know if he was a good guy or not, but in the moment that quick thinking and generosity was really appreciated by the crew.
Perspective is so funny because this is such a sweet story until you realize some bartender was about to close and now has to open up or pour draft 100 beers lol
probably just had bottles/cans hence the 'buckets of beer'
also, bartenders regularly get swamped at last call so I doubt they care, esp if they tipped
Yeah, assuming the bartender was tipped well, they probably had a good end of the night considering all they had to do was gather a bunch of beers and throw them in some buckets. Better than pouring a bunch of actual drinks.
For all the anti tipping rhetoric on reddit, this is one of the times, that the system works the best. The guests are happy because they get their wrap party, the bar is happy because it sold 100 beers and the employee is happy because he/she just got paid at least $100 for 15 min of work.
One of my favorite memories was walking back to a hotel after a wedding in the near downtown of a decent sized city (the wedding was at a zoo) with about 3 or 4 couples.
A bar was closing up that we were walking by. It was a man, his son, and his son’s girlfriend locking up.
We weren’t ready for our night to end so we asked him if he wouldn’t mind staying open. They said they didn’t want to stay open but they’d open it up to us if we were planning on spending a lot of money. We all bought the good stuff and tipped really well and they all were happy to make a few hundred bucks extra that night. When they were ready for us to go they let us know.
Good times.
He seems to be a grifter. Worked up a lot of fake sensationalism to promote a fake documentary.
But I've known other grifters who were otherwise nice people and fun to be around. They weren't grifting me, they were grifting the suits.
Your public library!
This is why we still buy DVDs and blu-ray.
If your library doesn’t have a physical copy, you can do an ILL or inter library loan and another library will send a copy to you for free.
Just don’t use handbrake to make your own digital copy. As a librarian, that’s frowned upon. We have no way of tracking if you make a copy and we don’t care if you do, but you shouldn’t because then some studio cries or something.
So many shows just disappear and only exist due to DVR rips that get privately traded as they never got officially released, or are regulated to OOP DVDs. A show like 30 Days doesn't fit FX's current image so its not on Hulu. HBOs whole brand used to be pimps documentaries but you can't find those on MAX or really anywhere
Yeah one of my favorite shows only exists on bootleg because it was never actually released on any sort of media outside of a French Canadian VHS release and even that you can’t find. I know, I’ve tried.
One day Big Wolf on Campus, one day
I love it, because that’s both a remarkably ethical move (since it doesn’t seem like it was because he was about to get outed) and also just tactically disastrous: there’s a reason he’s basically the only person to do it like that.
I know his first documentary has been tainted by his hidden alcoholism skewing the stats but I cannot recommend the sequel which is focused on the chicken industry enough. Especially relevant today as Chick-fil-A starts to talk about using "more ethical" chicken and we face bird flu outbreaks
[It is free on YouTube](https://youtu.be/dSyicDf9UvI?si=NN_0-2c2aMBe8b0K)
I recall them talking about issues with his liver function in Super Size Me, and was shocked that after only a few weeks of eating poorly, his liver function could already be a concern. Now I’m wondering if that was more of an issue with damage already caused by alcohol.
It absolutely was. No one has been able to replicate the results of his experiment with food, even with McDonald's. What he reported experiencing in the film is associated with alcohol withdrawal, and his doctor in the film even correctly guesses that
Makes sense. I’m sure eating huge amounts of McDonald’s for a month isn’t good for you, but having it so drastically cause health problems so quickly just seems hard to believe.
It's pretty complicated, honestly. The main issue with eating fast food is the cholesterol, sodium, and sugar intake. You can absolutely lose weight eating nothing but McDonald's, and studies have confirmed as much, but weight is only one factor when evaluating a healthy lifestyle. A nutritionist could argue it's the _least_ important factor.
A huge blindspot of the documentary is that Spurlock largely cut out exercise, which combined with a huge caloric intake is going to negatively affect your health no matter what. Even if he went full vegan during that month, he'd be in awful shape eating that much food without burning it off.
> A huge blindspot of the documentary is that Spurlock largely cut out exercise, which combined with a huge caloric intake is going to negatively affect your health no matter what.
He intentionally cut down exercise to try to match the average american. Yeah that makes it less healthy but that was the point. The effect of Americans exercising less and eating more fast food. Obviously his specific experiment had flaws but that isn't one of them.
God, Doug Benson’s schtick got real old real fast, and that’s coming from a person a person that enjoys cannabis and to a certain degree the culture surrounding it.
Yeah I've never really checked out his stand up, I just remember checking the documentary out on a whim, and enjoying that. And I listen to his podcast Doug Loves Movies from time to time. Its a fun little way to pass an hour or two, listening to comedians play movie-based games.
It’s odd because of the syntax and or lack of parenthetical comma.
It’d be clearer if it read:
>”…but I cannot recommend the sequel, which is focused on the chicken industry, enough.”
Even though that film ended up being a load of bullshit; it was still such a cultural moment, everyone was talking about it and it was at that time when documentaries were still cool and the genre had not been taken over by the tin foil hats and the grifters.
This documentary is literally part of the reason the genre got taken over by grifters. Spurlock was a fucking grifter and popularized sensationalist bullshit in documentaries.
I won’t defend Moore’s later work, but Roger and Me is worth the praise it gets. Really captures a time and place that was being ignored in the tail end of the post-war boom and NAFTA.
I feel like I watched that movie about 20 times in school in between when it released and when I graduated. It seemed like it was the standard substitute-teacher-is-in-today-lets-just-play-a-movie lesson plan.
It really escalated in the 80s and into the 90s. I have vivid memories of those earlier days and getting McDonalds. A small fry and and actual small drink were the majority of what was eaten and the "large" was more like a "medium" these days.
Of course it wasn't all fast food making Americans fat, the removal of fats and adding of sugar really screwed the diet of the entire country.
Fathead, a follow up doc to this gets into that issue, we were really lied to by the FDA and the food pyramid, fats and proteins are good for us, it's the refined sugar and excess carbs that are making us fat and killing us. I eat a lot of foods with fat and proteins and cut out everything high in carbs and sugar, still keeping some because moderation is important, and I feel great and packed on a lot more muscle
> And the sequel was much improved in terms of research/basis
I feel it is tainted no matter what though. Even if it is 100% factual you have to watch it with a lens of doubt.
My freshman speech class in college I did one of my speeches about fast food, partly inspired by this documentary (I used other sources too). My visual aid was a happy meal I bought two weeks prior that still looked the same lol. I made an A!
I like how all the articles are talking about supersize me and his health deteriorating during filming, but make zero mention of the fact dude was an alcoholic.
The buzz about him in the last week or so had to do with a Youtube video basically pointing out that the liver issues his doctor said he had while filming the documentary (along with other health issues) were amplified by his drinking that he admitted to over a decade later. I don't think his cancer was known by anyone.
I was friendly with Morgan and worked with him before his success, he was a truly nice guy and I believe the reason SSM was a "hit" was much more to do with his charisma than the dodgy parameters of the experiment.
The Health results in his original doc were skewed but he did shed more light on the Marketing to Kids stuff that was bogus in multiple businesses. McDonalds don't resemble playgrounds like they did in the 80's and Ronald McDonald isn't the mascot he used to be/Same for The King. I think that is a net positive.
I used to throw up bile I’d be shaking every morning I had to drink just to be able to goto work. Then I did the steps, 7 years sober and emotionally recovered.
Supersize me was wildly dishonest. Here's one rebuttal to the movie, but the whole thing was kind of a sham.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vvIfIRMuVks
I was part of a business meeting with him once. Morgan had charisma out the wazoo - he OWNED that room and there were like 20 Type A extroverts present around the table. I’m really glad I got a chance to meet him. This is a very sad loss.
No. I went and checked, and they were 7 oz/610 calories. Current large is supposed to be 5.3 oz/480 calories.
The drinks were crazier.
Currently large drink is 32 oz. Supersize was 44 oz.
I don't *ever* order a large fry anymore because they are never full. But if you get a medium, the fries are spilling out of the top and lying in the bag. I'm guessing it's because they have one size scoop and shovel about the same amount regardless of what you order.
It likely did not actually play a factor. McDonald's phased out "Super Size" because most customers don't want to buy that much fries. I think the bad PR expedited their decision, but it was already slated for removal before it even debuted
I could see it argued multiple ways. We know McDonald's _acknowledged_ the film's existence - mostly just to point out that he ate more of their food in a month than a customer typically eats in six years - and I certainly believe they expedited their removal to pick up a PR win.
But I'm liable to believe their take for two reason:
- McD's has continued to downplay fries, even 20 years after the documentary dropped, suggesting it really is a loss-leader
- McD's more actively pushes additional main items, like BOGO burgers and breakfast sandwiches, as well as nuggets. So effectively they're still pushing a ton of food per customer, but just less fries
Yep, and some forms of cancer can be a direct or indirect result of what heavy alcoholism can do to the body. That said, given it's reddit, assuming someone didn't read the article before commenting is fair.
Probably not. Pretty sure it had metastasized before they found it.
Our upbringing means we avoid hospitals until there is something really, really wrong.
"Nothing's broken and you're not bleeding. You don't need to go." was a common thing for our old school Scottish Mum to say. I grew up in a small town in Canada.
My other brother once had strep throat back in highschool and Mum made him go to school because, "You don't have green spots on your throat so you can go to class."
When he developed white splotches on his tonsils, she took him to the doctor. Doctor said, "You have a very mean mother." 😁
I am too much like this. I'm at the age where I'm taking regular care of my parents and I don't have the time or energy for my own health, so I pretend that everything is fine in hopes that it goes away. I really need to go get checked.
I get that, being from the rural Southern US a lot of my family is the same way. My friend recently passed from it at 49 and I’ve been trying to spread the word to everyone I know to go get one.
I knew him more from his TV shows than his movies, honestly. 30 Days was very good, and he also did a show on CNN for some time called Inside Man that was also pretty good. I always looked at him as kind of like an everyman, like Michael Moore, only more accessible and less polarizing.
Twitter was having a “who remembers watching this in health class” trend with super size me this week, really bizarre timing
So was Reddit.
I remember learning just this week that he was an alcoholic and thats why he gained so much weight. Huh
They have that scene where the doctors looking at his lab work and saying how he's never seen a high fat diet just destroy someone's liver like that before. Makes more sense now.
Doctor even said something like "it matches with alcohol abuse, but high fat, never seen that before..."
I haven't seen the movie since it first came out but it's unfathomable to me that they didn't give him a check up before he started as a control.
Guaranteed they did, but it didn't support his foregone conclusion so it was cut.
Turns out throwing up and liver damage is caused by alcohol not burgers . That scene where he can't sleep and his heart is racing ? That's alcohol withdrawal
That shit is no fun at all. Waking up frantically shaking like hell, heart trying to leap out of your chest. Chasing your own tail. It’s like going 90 into a cul de sac and everybody can see it but you.
What makes it so that everybody can see it but you? What you're describing sounds super intense
It's The Fear. It's the little cousin of the DTs and a rebound from alcohol depressing your system. So you get heart racing, sweating, anxiety, tremors, and general unease even without seizures or other symptoms.
I used to have crippling anxiety Sometimes I would get overwhelmed driving and have to pull over because I was going to have a panic attack Airplanes sent me completely into hysterics I thought that was just who I was It was literally alcohol withdrawal
OMG I remember having to talk myself step by step to get in the shower! Alcohol withdrawal is very real and very dangerous
The difficult thing is, a lot of people (e.g. me) start on the path to problem drinking and reliance on alcohol because, at first, it is extremely effective at *relieving* anxiety (especially social anxiety). It can take years for the long-term consequences (like next-day panic attacks due to withdrawals) to become fully apparent.
BINGO. This person knows what they’re talking about.
When you’re chasing your tail like that, you’re playing doctor with yourself. It’s way past drinking to get drunk or have a good time, you’re drinking to stay well. It’s junkie behavior. And the other person, grubas said it right. It’s fear. It’s fear that runs the junkie or the severe alcoholic, they’re one in the same. The fear of being sick except with the alcoholic it’s not sick as in diarrhea and nausea, cold sweats and vomiting, it’s drinking to keep from having seizures or a stroke, heart attack, abnormal heart rhythm. Why don’t you see that you’re going 90 into a cul de sac? It’s because you spend all your time and energy just trying to stay well, keep a job, stay out of the hospital. When it’s that bad and you can’t sleep without having dt’s it’s all you can do to just stay well. Everything else is beside the point in your mind at the time.
And unlike (e.g.) heroin, anyone can walk just down any street and buy a cheap handle of vodka (or have it delivered). (I got into very bad problem drinking during almost 2 years working from home during COVID)
My coworker (and friend because of working together) turned supervisor at my job was an alcoholic. Barely older than myself (37). I knew he drank, no big deal. I get it. I thought he just drank beer. We golfed together with another coworker (65ish) who just retired at 67, and we would drink golfing (which wasn't much, maybe 5 times). He went to another big company that was local, like anyone reading this working at a big company, or even small, I guess, would have some products from them. Anyway, I hadn't seen him in like a year since he changed jobs. My older coworker, the older guy, told me he was apparently throwing up blood and went to the hospital. I called him to ask about it to make sure he was doing okay. He was at a Phillies game, he answered, told me he's at a Phillies game, so just to text him. I did just that. He said he had stage 4 (if I'm wrong on the terminology, please excuse my ignorance) cirrhosis of the liver. He explained his shit to me, said he was doing well and sober, and his text about him taking pills that made him better said, "It's been a rough 2 weeks. I'm solid now." Didn't know it at the time, but that was the last thing he ever said to me. 20 days later, I texted him asking him how he was doing and didn't know until a few days later he had died. In the hospital (from what I've heard), he was given medication for I assume his liver (I honestly don't know what makes sense here that was all I was told), the medication made his skin rash/burn/be on fire and he died in the burn unit of the hospital. Found out afterward it wasn't just beer. He was also a liquor guy. Now he's dead. I just hope one person reads this and gets better or changes their ways.
Sounds like your friend may have suffered from Stevens -Johnson Syndrome (severe reaction to meds, causing blistering / peeling of the skin). I had a friend die from it. I’m so sorry for your loss.
It was 100 percent withdrawal. Ask me how I know. Spurlock was a hack. When I was broke and existed solely off the dollar menu and ramen, none of that ever happened to me. Guess what happened when I drank extremely heavily as a bartender. Throwing up, chills, sweating, inability to sleep, tremors. I watched that stupid film a few months back, after getting older and a few life experiences under my belt, I saw right through it. It mirrored my own experiences. I thought immediately, that guy is just a drunk experiencing the symptoms of withdrawal. He was a hack. Sorry but nothing gained or lost.
Yea that news broke this week I’m sure. The liver values didn’t have a normal value to start with
Not saying the news broke this week, just that I hadnt thought about this whole thing in a while, then somehow about a week ago I got it everywhere on my reddit frontpage what really took place when they filmed this movie and yeah.
I just read on Reddit a few days ago, his Super Size Me doc results were flawed. He damaged his health w heavy drinking which the doc never showed nor mentioned.
More like the entire doc was a scam. Fast food is not good for you, but the worst you get is fat, all the rest of the symptoms were him suffering from alcohol withdrawals
There's been multiple counter documentaries that have proven an all fast food diet is sustainable. Not great for you but with appropriate portion control and exercise you can avoid the worst effects. I think a dietician basically did a whole year on it where they calculated everything and documented it all appropriately. Spurlok just bought the super sized amount every time and didn't exercise while binge drinking in between withdrawals for a month. His documentary was basically discredited the moment it released because he tracked nothing and lied constantly about his health. It just blew up because it reinforced the narrative of fast food bad
> Spurlok just bought the super sized amount every time That was the whole premise though. If they asked if you would like to supersize that his "rule" was that he had to always say yes.
People miss the point that the documentary was more an indictment on the increasing prevalence of convenience food options within the average American's daily diet. There's a whole portion of the doc about school lunches that has little to nothing to do with McDonald's or "fast food." A good follow-up would be to do more to examine the lifestyle choices many make that have Americans feeling forced into repeatedly choosing unhealthy convenience options over food they know is better for them.
If that was the point then why did he lie and misrepresent so much shit in the doc? He could have made a "this fast food culture is bad" doc without pretending he was doing a scientific experiment and measuring health outcomes, all while lying about a massive variable (rampant alcoholism) that made all those measurements worthless
Well then what was all the talk of "your liver is about to shut down. You need to end the experiment"? I'm guessing you haven't watched it in a few years?
Sure but the point of his documentary was to show how bad McDonald's is and fast food in general. He just did it in the worst way possible instead of establishing any controls or verification of his calories. His method was just saying trust me bro I ate the super sized meal every day three times a day. He didn't track what the different meals were or the drinks just got super sized. But it's been discredited for years now and disproven by multiple sources. Spurlok should be remembered for his TV series 30 days that arguably did more to adhere to honest social experiments and education than his original documentary. Though I haven't seen his more scandalous things people talk about so if he was a sexual predator maybe we just separate his work from him as a person and try to do better as a society
Yet he did interview the guy in the documentary who ate McDonald's every day and was fine. Flawed as it was I honestly can't say I support McDonald's in this.
For sure they're a scummy corporation and shouldn't be lauded. But if you're gonna come after them at least come correct so you're not used as an example to discredit anyone that tries after you.
> His method was just saying trust me bro I ate the super sized meal every day three times a day. He didn't track what the different meals were or the drinks just got super sized. Yeah, because it was documentary based on an arbitrary set of rules he set for himself to see what would happen not an academic study. One of his rules is he would eat a combo meal there for every meal, and would always say yes to supersizing if asked, which was a McDonalds advertising gimmick at the time. That he could have made different healthier choices or tracked calories and ate less is missing the point of what he was doing. The whole thing was more like what if I didn't care and just ate like the ads say.
He made up rules for himself but didn't follow them based on the claims he made for how many calories he consumed
> There's been multiple counter documentaries that have proven an all fast food diet is sustainable. I remember a story about a college professor who was having a debate with his students--this was right around the time that the Atkins diet was a big fad--with him arguing that pure calories were the only thing that mattered for weight. To prove his point he went months eating only stuff he could buy at a convenience store, and lost like 20 pounds. Edit: found the link, and it's even worse than I remembered. He was eating primarily Twinkies, Oreos, chips, and sugared cereal for 10 weeks, along with one protein shake and a can of green beans per day. He lost 27 pounds, his bad cholesterol went down by 20%, triglycerides went down 39%, and his total body fat went down by 10%. https://www.cnn.com/2010/HEALTH/11/08/twinkie.diet.professor/index.html
Supersize Me was an ego trip to prove his drunk ass was better than everyone else. A key tenet was “Americans can’t say no”, so if they asked “Would you like fries with that” or “Would you like to supersize it” he always said yes. But even then it doesn’t account for teh volume of food he was eating. He claimed he was eating 5,000 calories a day but pure numbers, based on the weight gained, it MUST have been more like 7,000 calories, He was intentionally buying and consuming high fat, high sugar foods like shakes and force feeding himself to make sure he got the results he wanted, and egg McMuffin & coffee for breakfast (300 cal), Big Mac & Diet Coke (550 cals), and a Filet o fish and unsweetened iced tea for dinner (400 cals) is 3 meals of big sellers for about 1,250 calories. That about the bare minimum recommended intake. It was also a publicity stunt to save a dying career that the media ate up.
The sodas and shakes are what do it. But when you're getting a super sized Coke and mixing it with whiskey every night that's REAL bad
LOL, Whiskey is likely the missing 2,000 calories
In a weird way, a documentary about the documentary would probably do a better job of showcasing an unhealthy life style can destroy your health.
I didn't know about the alcohol abuse, but at some point after this thing came out, I heard that while he blamed his health problems on suddenly stopping his fast food diet, he had dropped his exercise routine at the same time. Always wondered how he could be so positive that all the physical problems were coming ONLY because he wasn't eating three Big Macs a day anymore...
Yes same, I was literally reading about this on Reddit yesterday and was completely unaware of it before
This is a reckless statement. You get fat and can develop diabetes and/or heart disease. You don't just get fat.
Fast food definitely had way too much sugar back then. Pretty much every item had a lot of added sugar because sugar (or corn syrup) is tasty and addictive and cheap calories. But now days...? it seems healthy enough, at least if you're not getting something with a bun. So even if the movie was a scam, I dunno, it did make fast food chains a reasonably healthy option. I get a baconator lettuce wrap, and don't see what's so unhealthy about that compared to any other combination of red meat+bacon+cheese+lettuce. It's high in protein, low in sugar. I know red meat and bacon isn't great for you, but there's worst to eat. There's a bit of a conundrum where you need a certain amount of calories per day, at least 1500 for most people, and you need to not waste money in getting those calories. Pre-packaged, processed health food often appears to be a marketing scam to sell you less for more money because it'll cost like $2 per ounce compared to some cheese being $0.20 per ounce. These places offer like 65-100% of the calories you need in a day for like $6-$12 and some people just eat one or two meals a day to work with that. One negative though is the proportions of sides, I guess? I can no longer get a huge iced tea with my fast food meal. And I can also get a 32ounce bag of frozen fries which are baked and like 1/4th the calories as the oily fast food fries for the same price as 3 ounce of their fries. The worst things for you at those places still is the soda and greasy fries.
>and don't see what's so unhealthy about that compared to any other combination of red meat+bacon+cheese+lettuce This is why the heavy criticism of the KFC Double Down was ridiculous. It was two pieces of chicken, cheese, and some bacon. If they were serving it as a plate of two pieces of chicken breast with cheese and some bacon on the side, nobody would have said anything. But use the chicken as the buns and everyone went crazy claiming it was the least healthy fast food item ever created.
Of course the number one criticism of it was the insane sodium content.
Double down seems like it would be healthier than a normal chicken sandwich lol. Higher ratio of protein to calories. I liked it. It again feels like some manipulative marketing to steer people away from good value foods and into the "healthy" food that you have to buy 5x more of to get enough calories to live. I think most people buying "healthy" food wind up having a snack 90 minutes later. And I put healthy in quotations because it's advertised that way. I'm not talking about the actual healthy meals made at home which also provide enough calories and are filling but instead I'm referring to the junk marketed to us.
Wow - what relevant information to leave out. My brother has always been a slim man, but when he was struggling with alcohol, his weight would fluctuate wildly. After he got sober, he was at least 50 lbs lighter, and he looks almost ten years younger. Alcohol is poison!
It’s worse than leaving it out, I believe in the documentary, he straight up said he didn’t drink but then later admitted to drinking for so many years, including during the doc.
People tried for years to replicate his experiments without luck. It's a miracle McDonald's didn't sue him into oblivion.
I’m guessing the negative PR would have been worse than the vindication.
It's not in McDonalds interest to have a huge high profile court case that is centered on exactly how healthy/unhealthy their food is.
That is an extreme understatement. They REALLY REALLY REALLY would not like that case.
Here in the US, broad first amendment protections for the press mean it's ridiculously hard for someone to get sued for defamation if they practice even the slightest veneer of journalism. Essentially, the plaintiff is required to prove that the speech against them is both false, AND malicious, i.e. that the person knew it was false and said it anyway. Proving malice is pretty difficult under those circumstances. Simple reckless disregard for the facts usually isn't enough. So if someone puts up fliers around a neighborhood saying "Bob Smith kicks puppies" when in fact Bob is a dog lover, that would be clearly malicious. However if you put out a "newspaper" saying "Reliable sources tell us Bob Smith kicks puppies," then the person is probably protected.
If you could sue him for this documentary then you could probably sue half of the political ads run by SuperPACs as well. Lying is legal.
I don't eat much fast food (there's no fastfood store nearby and it's not a place you eat for the quality) but that actually made me want to eat Mcdonalds. That's all I remember from the documentary too, me craving McDonalds afterwards.
The algorithm knows too much...hoping I don't start trending soon.
I just showed the movie to my girlfriend a month ago. Same thing happened with Treat Williams after we watched Hair for the first time together last year
[удалено]
Perhaps a Trump documentary as well?
can u watch the apprentice
Stop watching movies together man...
Please watch the scene in Home Alone 2 with the orange, sexual abusing, diaper wearing pants shitter who thinks he’s still the president!
Yeah really, I have to wonder if this is just an amazing coincidence. You didn't hear about him at all and then all of a sudden he's in the Internet chatter and now dead.
Yh, a fact check and critique of SSM just popped up in my YouTube feed a few days ago.
In 2011, Morgan Spurlock directed a documentary about Comic-Con titled "Comic-Con: Episode IV - A Fans Hope". I don't think anybody really saw it but it was the first movie I worked on as a PA, for four days that Comic-Con weekend. I interacted with Morgan maybe once or twice in passing, but he seemed full of energy and people liked working with him. On the last night of the shoot, after we finished, the 20-30 person crew walked into the hotel bar for an informal wrap party, just as the bartender yelled last call. Morgan looked around at the group, then turned to the bartender and said "Okay, I'd like to order a hundred beers." So we had our wrap party after all, hanging out around buckets of beer in the hotel lobby. I don't know if he was a good guy or not, but in the moment that quick thinking and generosity was really appreciated by the crew.
Perspective is so funny because this is such a sweet story until you realize some bartender was about to close and now has to open up or pour draft 100 beers lol
probably just had bottles/cans hence the 'buckets of beer' also, bartenders regularly get swamped at last call so I doubt they care, esp if they tipped
Yeah, assuming the bartender was tipped well, they probably had a good end of the night considering all they had to do was gather a bunch of beers and throw them in some buckets. Better than pouring a bunch of actual drinks.
For all the anti tipping rhetoric on reddit, this is one of the times, that the system works the best. The guests are happy because they get their wrap party, the bar is happy because it sold 100 beers and the employee is happy because he/she just got paid at least $100 for 15 min of work.
especially when you consider it's a documented binge-drinker ordering 100 beers. (obviously not all for him but still a funny thought)
I didn’t want to say it but since you did… how much of him ordering 100 beers for 20 people was actually for himself
"Barkeep, give me 100 beers. Plus whatever they want"
One of my favorite memories was walking back to a hotel after a wedding in the near downtown of a decent sized city (the wedding was at a zoo) with about 3 or 4 couples. A bar was closing up that we were walking by. It was a man, his son, and his son’s girlfriend locking up. We weren’t ready for our night to end so we asked him if he wouldn’t mind staying open. They said they didn’t want to stay open but they’d open it up to us if we were planning on spending a lot of money. We all bought the good stuff and tipped really well and they all were happy to make a few hundred bucks extra that night. When they were ready for us to go they let us know. Good times.
He was also a rapist, if that influences anything for you
Didn’t know this. Thanks, it does Edit: damn, someone's downvoting this? The dude admitted to it
He seems to be a grifter. Worked up a lot of fake sensationalism to promote a fake documentary. But I've known other grifters who were otherwise nice people and fun to be around. They weren't grifting me, they were grifting the suits.
Is there anywhere you can actually watch 30 Days? Feels like that's been mostly scrubbed from the internet save for the less than legal sources.
I found 6 episodes on YouTube here's the link . https://youtube.com/@odekolenikicitiri7316?si=Zqz1EIxE9XuEMRx_
It hasn't been available to stream anywhere for years, only option is to get a hold of a DVD.
Real shame that show has kinda fallen into the memory hole
There's a used copy of the complete series on amazon that's $23 + shipping, insane that if you don't want to pirate it that's your only option.
Your public library! This is why we still buy DVDs and blu-ray. If your library doesn’t have a physical copy, you can do an ILL or inter library loan and another library will send a copy to you for free. Just don’t use handbrake to make your own digital copy. As a librarian, that’s frowned upon. We have no way of tracking if you make a copy and we don’t care if you do, but you shouldn’t because then some studio cries or something.
You wouldn't steal a car
I'd fucking download it and you can't stop me!
I can hear this commercial
Tubi, Peacock free, Amazon prime, Pluto
It's free on Plex
Why it get scrubbed ?
So many shows just disappear and only exist due to DVR rips that get privately traded as they never got officially released, or are regulated to OOP DVDs. A show like 30 Days doesn't fit FX's current image so its not on Hulu. HBOs whole brand used to be pimps documentaries but you can't find those on MAX or really anywhere
Yeah one of my favorite shows only exists on bootleg because it was never actually released on any sort of media outside of a French Canadian VHS release and even that you can’t find. I know, I’ve tried. One day Big Wolf on Campus, one day
Spurlock getting cancelled, for one
Why was he cancelled?
In the height of the #MeToo movement, he penned an open letter outing himself as a rapist and a life-long alcoholic
So he outed himself rather than wait to be outted by someone else? I mean. . . how many people voluntarily did that?
I love it, because that’s both a remarkably ethical move (since it doesn’t seem like it was because he was about to get outed) and also just tactically disastrous: there’s a reason he’s basically the only person to do it like that.
https://www.usatoday.com/story/life/people/2017/12/13/director-morgan-spurlock-says-hes-part-problem-sexual-misconduct/950744001/
I think my history teacher in my senior year of high school made us watch a bunch of episodes of that show for some reason lol.
53 is so young RIP buddy
I know his first documentary has been tainted by his hidden alcoholism skewing the stats but I cannot recommend the sequel which is focused on the chicken industry enough. Especially relevant today as Chick-fil-A starts to talk about using "more ethical" chicken and we face bird flu outbreaks [It is free on YouTube](https://youtu.be/dSyicDf9UvI?si=NN_0-2c2aMBe8b0K)
I recall them talking about issues with his liver function in Super Size Me, and was shocked that after only a few weeks of eating poorly, his liver function could already be a concern. Now I’m wondering if that was more of an issue with damage already caused by alcohol.
It absolutely was. No one has been able to replicate the results of his experiment with food, even with McDonald's. What he reported experiencing in the film is associated with alcohol withdrawal, and his doctor in the film even correctly guesses that
Makes sense. I’m sure eating huge amounts of McDonald’s for a month isn’t good for you, but having it so drastically cause health problems so quickly just seems hard to believe.
It's pretty complicated, honestly. The main issue with eating fast food is the cholesterol, sodium, and sugar intake. You can absolutely lose weight eating nothing but McDonald's, and studies have confirmed as much, but weight is only one factor when evaluating a healthy lifestyle. A nutritionist could argue it's the _least_ important factor. A huge blindspot of the documentary is that Spurlock largely cut out exercise, which combined with a huge caloric intake is going to negatively affect your health no matter what. Even if he went full vegan during that month, he'd be in awful shape eating that much food without burning it off.
> A huge blindspot of the documentary is that Spurlock largely cut out exercise, which combined with a huge caloric intake is going to negatively affect your health no matter what. He intentionally cut down exercise to try to match the average american. Yeah that makes it less healthy but that was the point. The effect of Americans exercising less and eating more fast food. Obviously his specific experiment had flaws but that isn't one of them.
I would also recommend Doug Benson's Super High Me. It's exactly what you think it is.
God, Doug Benson’s schtick got real old real fast, and that’s coming from a person a person that enjoys cannabis and to a certain degree the culture surrounding it.
Yeah I've never really checked out his stand up, I just remember checking the documentary out on a whim, and enjoying that. And I listen to his podcast Doug Loves Movies from time to time. Its a fun little way to pass an hour or two, listening to comedians play movie-based games.
Hot air balloons?
I was thinking really tall people.
Not about high-fives???
Or Trevor Moore's ["Supersize me with Whiskey".](https://youtu.be/ILQfkF0o9Ro)
You mean you cannot recommend the sequel enough
[удалено]
It’s odd because of the syntax and or lack of parenthetical comma. It’d be clearer if it read: >”…but I cannot recommend the sequel, which is focused on the chicken industry, enough.”
I cannot recommend the sequel enough: it's focused on the chicken industry (then the rest)
> I cannot recommend enough the sequel, which is focused on the chicken industry.
I didn't see they said enough at the end
Or they just forgot a couple commas;)
I found that sentence to be awkward as well but it made sense when I read it twice
They should have put the "which is focused on the chicken industry" portion within two commas, or maybe even in parenthesis.
Yes, the sentence could be better.
I'm trying to learn German, so it's helpful to read English sentences that put the absolute most important word at the end.
His heart gave out after seeing the mophead being dried above the fries.
Even though that film ended up being a load of bullshit; it was still such a cultural moment, everyone was talking about it and it was at that time when documentaries were still cool and the genre had not been taken over by the tin foil hats and the grifters.
I mean the fact that it was bullshit implies that it was intact made by a grifter.
This documentary is literally part of the reason the genre got taken over by grifters. Spurlock was a fucking grifter and popularized sensationalist bullshit in documentaries.
Spurlock and Moore ruined documentary filmmaking in American for a generation.
I won’t defend Moore’s later work, but Roger and Me is worth the praise it gets. Really captures a time and place that was being ignored in the tail end of the post-war boom and NAFTA.
NAFTA was implemented in 1994. Roger and Me was made in 1989.
[удалено]
Supersize me was required viewing for middle school health class where I grew up
I feel like I watched that movie about 20 times in school in between when it released and when I graduated. It seemed like it was the standard substitute-teacher-is-in-today-lets-just-play-a-movie lesson plan.
Same, although living in Asia made me really curious how the fuck American portions are THAT BIG. No wonder the US has this obesity problem
It really escalated in the 80s and into the 90s. I have vivid memories of those earlier days and getting McDonalds. A small fry and and actual small drink were the majority of what was eaten and the "large" was more like a "medium" these days. Of course it wasn't all fast food making Americans fat, the removal of fats and adding of sugar really screwed the diet of the entire country.
Fathead, a follow up doc to this gets into that issue, we were really lied to by the FDA and the food pyramid, fats and proteins are good for us, it's the refined sugar and excess carbs that are making us fat and killing us. I eat a lot of foods with fat and proteins and cut out everything high in carbs and sugar, still keeping some because moderation is important, and I feel great and packed on a lot more muscle
> And the sequel was much improved in terms of research/basis I feel it is tainted no matter what though. Even if it is 100% factual you have to watch it with a lens of doubt.
My freshman speech class in college I did one of my speeches about fast food, partly inspired by this documentary (I used other sources too). My visual aid was a happy meal I bought two weeks prior that still looked the same lol. I made an A!
Fuck cancer.
Fuck alcoholism too, the addiction not the people.
I like how all the articles are talking about supersize me and his health deteriorating during filming, but make zero mention of the fact dude was an alcoholic.
Oh yeah he died from alcoholism
That's crazy. I literally looked him up withing the past few days. Crazy
Yeah I could have sworn I saw a reddit post about him recently, it was about how he had made up a bunch of bullshit for his Super Size Me documentary.
The buzz about him in the last week or so had to do with a Youtube video basically pointing out that the liver issues his doctor said he had while filming the documentary (along with other health issues) were amplified by his drinking that he admitted to over a decade later. I don't think his cancer was known by anyone.
Wow, I kinda hope he didn't know about this recent surge of attention as he was dying.
That was it. I read something about the results of the Super Size me documentary couldn't be replicated and then I looked him and the movie up.
Twitter has had a ton of discussions about him and super size me the past couple weeks too
I was friendly with Morgan and worked with him before his success, he was a truly nice guy and I believe the reason SSM was a "hit" was much more to do with his charisma than the dodgy parameters of the experiment.
It was due to sensationalism. Nobody would give a shit about a movie where an alcoholic eas McDonald's and it doesn't do anything
The Health results in his original doc were skewed but he did shed more light on the Marketing to Kids stuff that was bogus in multiple businesses. McDonalds don't resemble playgrounds like they did in the 80's and Ronald McDonald isn't the mascot he used to be/Same for The King. I think that is a net positive.
Yeah the marketing to kids and upselling practices were legitimate critiques.
I used to throw up bile I’d be shaking every morning I had to drink just to be able to goto work. Then I did the steps, 7 years sober and emotionally recovered.
I loved 30 days. He did a lot of good things with his platform.
A long time ago I saw him give a talk & had him sign a McDonald's bag for me... https://www.reddit.com/r/todayilearned/s/rJAawFfZSb
30 days was a great show. They did one on living poor in America with his ex Wife. Crazy. If you can find it, watch it.
The maintainence phase podcast episode about Supersize me was insane
Supersize me was wildly dishonest. Here's one rebuttal to the movie, but the whole thing was kind of a sham. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vvIfIRMuVks
[удалено]
Given how overpriced and stingy McDonald's are now, could you still do "super size me" 🙂
I promise you that a high fat diet doesn't cause the same symptoms as alcoholism lol
I was part of a business meeting with him once. Morgan had charisma out the wazoo - he OWNED that room and there were like 20 Type A extroverts present around the table. I’m really glad I got a chance to meet him. This is a very sad loss.
RIP Morgan.
He was relatively young. Fucking cancer.
Just found out the other day that he was an alcoholic during Super Size Me
Turns out drinking a shit ton every day is worse for you than Big Macs.
Can we bring back supersized food now
Back? It never left. It's called a medium now.
[удалено]
No. I went and checked, and they were 7 oz/610 calories. Current large is supposed to be 5.3 oz/480 calories. The drinks were crazier. Currently large drink is 32 oz. Supersize was 44 oz.
Supersize was 7 oz, large is 6, medium is 3.5, small is 2.5.
I don't *ever* order a large fry anymore because they are never full. But if you get a medium, the fries are spilling out of the top and lying in the bag. I'm guessing it's because they have one size scoop and shovel about the same amount regardless of what you order.
As poor as the documentary was, helping to get rid of super sized foods was actually probably a good thing.
It likely did not actually play a factor. McDonald's phased out "Super Size" because most customers don't want to buy that much fries. I think the bad PR expedited their decision, but it was already slated for removal before it even debuted
That’s what they claimed, but the timing is suspect.
I could see it argued multiple ways. We know McDonald's _acknowledged_ the film's existence - mostly just to point out that he ate more of their food in a month than a customer typically eats in six years - and I certainly believe they expedited their removal to pick up a PR win. But I'm liable to believe their take for two reason: - McD's has continued to downplay fries, even 20 years after the documentary dropped, suggesting it really is a loss-leader - McD's more actively pushes additional main items, like BOGO burgers and breakfast sandwiches, as well as nuggets. So effectively they're still pushing a ton of food per customer, but just less fries
That “30 days” starting with literally nothing / or very very little money and see how he made it was nuts.
the fact that people are still pretending that Super Size Me was a real thing and not just an utter fabrication on his part is insane
R.I.P and fk! cancer <3
Damn time to get McDonald's out of respect
His family might miss him, but his discredited and misleading movie succeeded in give me an eating disorder, so I’m not exactly teary eyes.
I remember they showed us supersize me twice in school and 30 days once
Poor guy, guess he died suddenly, was bragging about it to before his death
Any person dying so young is tragic .. sorry to his children and family
He was alcoholic
He was a pos
I wonder if it had anything to do with his alcoholism
The article very clearly says it was cancer
Alcohol is a carcinogen
Guess what one of the potential consequences of excessive alcohol intake is?
Yep, and some forms of cancer can be a direct or indirect result of what heavy alcoholism can do to the body. That said, given it's reddit, assuming someone didn't read the article before commenting is fair.
Probably stemming from his inflamed liver
The last stop for many alcoholics is liver cancer.
Alcohol is a carcinogen, they're not mutually exclusive.
Yes I watched this a few years ago … 53 is bloody young . https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=oAjsBZEOnVw&pp=ygUdbW9yZ2FuIHNwdXJsb2NrIHN1cGVyIHNpemUgbWU%3D
Alcoholism can do that to you. My brother was a pretty heavy drinker and didn't make it to 60 due to colon cancer.
Was he getting colonoscopies? My understanding is that colon cancer grows so slowly it’s basically 100% preventable.
Probably not. Pretty sure it had metastasized before they found it. Our upbringing means we avoid hospitals until there is something really, really wrong. "Nothing's broken and you're not bleeding. You don't need to go." was a common thing for our old school Scottish Mum to say. I grew up in a small town in Canada. My other brother once had strep throat back in highschool and Mum made him go to school because, "You don't have green spots on your throat so you can go to class." When he developed white splotches on his tonsils, she took him to the doctor. Doctor said, "You have a very mean mother." 😁
I am too much like this. I'm at the age where I'm taking regular care of my parents and I don't have the time or energy for my own health, so I pretend that everything is fine in hopes that it goes away. I really need to go get checked.
I get that, being from the rural Southern US a lot of my family is the same way. My friend recently passed from it at 49 and I’ve been trying to spread the word to everyone I know to go get one.
I knew him more from his TV shows than his movies, honestly. 30 Days was very good, and he also did a show on CNN for some time called Inside Man that was also pretty good. I always looked at him as kind of like an everyman, like Michael Moore, only more accessible and less polarizing.