McDonald’s didn’t actually have salads at all locations in 2004. This documentary actually had an impact. They started offering healthier options, had to list the nutritional value, and got rid of super sizing.
@@Bryanpeacock33 their salads aren’t actually bad buuuuut if you’re online go check out the calories once you add the provided dressing. A low-cal option they are not.
Wow, 2004 seems like a lifetime ago. I remember when that doc came out. Also thank you Dr. Mike for pointing out that people with limited income are more likely to eat unhealthy food because it's usually all they can afford. When I was making $9/hr I would go to McD almost every day. One guy asked me why I'm always coming there and I said, "It's what I can afford". "Fair enough," he said.
@@aytcs Holy Chicken is also an eye opener. I would like that chain he started to expand as well. As an honest product that causes people to have a discussion.
it wasnt a documentary and was proven to be fake, none of his health problems were due tio eating mcds. he was drinking like a bottle a day during this.
I think one factor that really contributes to the popularity of fast food in the US is the low price point. Here in Poland fast food restaurants tend to be similarly priced to traditional restaurants and far more expensive than "home cooked" style joints. They're still fairly popular, but they're more of an occasional treat for most people (and i feel like other European countries share this sentiment)
It's not cheap at all no matter where you go. People just say that as an excuse because they want to eat kid food like nuggets and chips for every meal. Real cheap food is cooking a large batch of rice, mince and veggies and spreading it out to 10 meals. It can be as cheap as $1-2 for a healthy meal whereas fast food is $10-20 a meal.
@@kaiward8163 Exactly, cooking. I'm talking strictly about ordering food. Not saying it's in any way better, but many people choose to order, for various reasons, which I will not be judging. It might be time constraint, inability to cook well, convenience or anything else really. It's definitely more affordable here to order home cooked style, healthy meals, that's all I'm saying.
@@kaiward8163you must br eating at some upscale fast food restaurants if you spending 10-20 a meal. I never spend more than 10 when I eat fast food and its cause I use their apps for deals on their food. And fast food is actually cheaper and convenient for folks depending on what groceries you get. Today you are shamed by others if you dont buy organic produce and organic produce is not cheap. Same for meats, especially chicken breasts. However if you stick with store brands, you can save a bit more. But dont say fast food is more expensive than buying groceries cause its not
Same is the case in India as well. For a middle class family, eating at McDonald's (or KFC or Burger King) is usually a once in a while treat because it is priced the same as a lot of high quality high-end Indian restaurants. Usually when I personally like to eat out, I go to the food court of a mall and then decide if I want to have McDonald's or maybe a nice paratha kurma or maybe Masala dosa. And for people with lower income, McDonald's is just out of the question. Even though there are no 'burger equivalent' food joints at their price range, they still don't eat at McDonald's and stick to Indian food that they cook at home or buy from a cheaper restaurant.
@@properantagonist I was responding to how you said fast food is cheaper than other food options. It isn't. Fast food has an inflated price tag and usually comes much more expensive than healthier options. There isn't a single place in the world where it is the cheap option anymore. People are just good at making excuses. Everything people don't want, they can't afford or they don't have the time for.
I feel like the other thing that often gets glossed over when discussing this movie is that his wife at the time was a vegan, and he therefore ate mostly vegan for a long time leading up to the movie. So, not only did he change his eating habits in terms of fat, sugar, etc, but also with meat and dairy.
@@Groggle7141 it address the factors of person choice and being in control of your diet.Also fat head i fell treat the viewer intelligence better. It a good documentary and the guy who made it a comedian so it a fun watch. I recommend it cause it goes a lot deeper than I could explain. I don't think either documentary are perfect but they give you a more well round picture of the issue. That lead to the best decision making cause it let you take in everything and make your own choices. I think it free on UA-cam still
My cousin worked on this documentary. I can answer some of the questions you asked because I asked him many of the same ones. Bringing in the extra doctors and the dietician was seen as pointless by most of the production but it was decided that the viewer would take it more seriously coming from a larger group of professionals. The dietitian was there to outline what a healthy persons caloric intake would be to better highlight how awful this diet was. As for ordering a salad? It was 2004. There was barely any healthy options available.
i figured it was something to do with people more likely to believe a specialist even though a gp would know it all. and i think this documentary ia what led maccies to get healthier options
I once had a salad at McDonalds as a kid, my mom wanted me to try it. It was a few bits of lettuce with two carrot-shavings, half a radish and some slime on top. I don't recommend.
@@inlinechris during the time that the documentary was made, very few McDs had salads. They came out before the movie but majority but only one or two of them per area served them. And let's be real, are you going to drive down the street where there's a McD that doesn't have the salad but is close to your place or drive an extra 10 minutes for it?
@@Widdekuu91 Gotta try the McDonald's salad in Vienna, Austria. I got a properly dressed bowl with a whole boiled egg cut into halves on top, it was actually tasty.
I remember having to watch this several times over the years after it came out because of health class. My biggest issue with it though is it doesn't explain how he went from being a vegan to eating McDonald's everyday for 30 days. That drastic change is going to cause all kinds of issues, including a lot of the symptoms he experienced early on.
Not to mention he was also a heavy drinker, and included the liver issues in the documentary as part of the issue with fast food. You can't say it wasn't a result, but the fact he didn't say that variable doesn't make him look good.
@@melodicsatisfactionproductions agreed! The show was definitely not anything that should be taken as undeniable fact but it did have some truth to it. Over the years mcdonalds and a lot of other fast food have changed their offerings so I wonder how this would go if it were to be repeated today. There are a lot of salads, the chicken is not as bad as it was, and there is no more super size (that is in part due to the documentary).
@@R1532K1LL I'm surprised that McDonald's uses whole wheat tortillas, unlike other fast food places, they still use white tortillas,. The grilled chicken is not even that bad, so, the salads are awesome, even without the dressing (not a huge fan of dressings)
I remember watching it, and he was throwing up so early. So I knew there was something else going on because I don't remember anyone I knew throwing up for the longest time over fast food.
I watched this in health class in 2009. We later learned that this documentary was partially responsible for the inclusion of calories and nutrition facts being placed out in the open in these places
For reference, this documentary was before Mcdonald's offered any comparatively healthy options like salad and was one of the major factors that led to their addition
The issue with that is, that their salads are a trap, too. Some of their salads have more calories and fat (due to dressing) than the burgers. It's not a healthy option either.
@@mandie17 In other words, McDonald's is doubling down on the deep-fried grease. Meanwhile, it's been over 2 years since I last ate any junk food or restaurant food. Unhealthy foods weaken the immune system and promote inflammation. Gone are the days when higher blood cholesterol was the biggest health risk. Oh, and I've been avoiding McDonald's ever since I first watched _Super Size Me_ back in 2004. Yes, I was so grossed out that I've been avoiding the Golden Arches ever since, long before the pandemic prompted me to ditch all unhealthy foods.
One thing not really touched on in your discussion of this documentary is that he also stopped exercising, which has a big impact on both the physical and mental health metrics he was talking about. He also seems to have been eating more during these 30 days than he normally would have. Not to defend McDonald's (I can't remember the last time I went to one, since I'm not a fan of the food), but his claims got a lot of pushback when this came out because he changed so many variables in his life at once.
Yeah, I remember that he was emulating some of the most unhealthy averages in the country, one of them being walking less than 5000 steps a day I think. So he drove a lot more during the month.
Yeah. Like, in terms of making a message about how unhealthy fast food can be, and how they sometimes push things (like asking if you want to supersize your order for a very small amount of money or the free refills on sodas and how many of them charge roughly the same price for all sizes and encourage you to drink so many refills) to make it more unhealthy, it’s good. But, in terms of any real scientific value, it’s pretty weak, and not just because of the sample size of one. Like, there are people who have eaten McDonald’s every day and lost weight or maintained their weight, because they kept track of calories. It’s hard to separate out which of his impacts were from the general unhealthy food, the increase in quantity consumes, the not working out, or a mix. It was mostly about shock value.
I did notice that when they showed us this in health class. It wasn't just that he changed his diet, he also said "I walk a lot, and most people don't, so I need to walk less." and I was like... okay but wait a minute, that's too many variables. At that point, it's not just McDonald's.
I think a big thing to remember is that McDonalds was only just considering the health benefits of its foods when Supersize me came out. While some of the side-effects of Supersize Me were disproportionate and played up, it did lead to a wider conversation of what fast food places are providing. It certainly had a big impact in Australia, of all places, where McDonalds did a full 180 on its menu and actively tried to make things healthier. It's still not healthy, but it's better. A lot of the alternate options that Mike specifies came out after Supersize Me.
What people seem to miss most of the times with these places is that if they offer you super size you can say no. They don't force you to buy it or compel you
They did the same in the UK. Got rid of extra large, double quarter pounders, changed the sauce in the "big tasty". It used to be you could get a super size big tasty meal with a milkshake and it'd be over 2000kcal
Spurlock was an alcoholic. He was asked if he ever abused alcohol by one of the doctors and he replied "No" and then a couple years ago he said he hadnt been sober for a week in over 30 years
Regardless, they took his blood markers twice 30 days apart and noted such drastic changes. Seems more plausible that it was tied to the food, seeing as he would’ve already been 10+ years into his alcoholism at the time of the documentary.
Something else that was discovered about this “documentary” is that he suffered from alcoholism and was drinking during this experiment, hence why his kidney looks like “somebody who drinks every day.” Honestly this documentary did help shine some light on the dangers of fast food, but the fact that it was mostly staged to show the extremes of eating nothing but fast food.
@@andianderson3017 to my knowledge no McDonald’s has never served alcohol in America. But pretty much the idea goes that he relapsed into drinking heavily again during the experiment.
I'm glad he's still willing to talk about obesity in a negative way, and explain why it's an issue and that it is one to begin with. No one cares what you look like, we care whether you're going to die young or not.
It should also be understood if someone makes a choice to look a certain way and doesn't want help, they shouldn't be forced, that will basically feel like harassment. At the same time, they should understand that a doctor will not have good things to say about their health as a result, the same way a smoker shouldn't expect to hear about how good his lungs are.
@@solarflare_1940 its good to atleast make them aware and teach them. true if they dont want it they wont but let them know so they atleast can say they dont regret it because they knew it was gonna happen
actually, people care a LOT about what people look like. Psychology tests have shown that people prefer others who are more physically attractive. and thats just the way it is; our genes just tell us that prettier people are better
@@solarflare_1940 problem is, nowadays there's pro-fat movement, actually encouraging people to be fat. If you wanna be fat, fine by me, but don't peddle this bullshit to everyone else
I know a lot of this may seem a bit exaggerated or over the top, but this documentary actually got McDonalds to eliminate the super size option and really put focus on the unhealthiness of the fast food industry. *edit: thanks guys I’ve never gotten this much likes before 😂😅
@@thunberbolttwo3953 Yeah but less unhealthy, which is a good thing. The corporation did change a bit. People expect to get a burger at McDonalds. So not selling a burger won't be an option. However people themselves need to make the decision whether to get one every day or maybe once a year. I eat a burger sometimes, just like once half a year. Nothing wrong with that type of consumption.
Perhaps a little late to the party but Morgan Spurlock released a document in around 2017 where amongst his statements of mistreating people, he also stated that he'd been drinking since the age of 13 and hadn't been sober for more than a week straight. So during his challenge in 2004, he was drinking and apparently a lot since when he went to the doctor again to get his tests done. The doctor told him that the results looked like someone who's abusing alcohol and not a fatty diet.
I believe that after this documentary aired it was discovered that Mr Spurlock actually was not nearly as healthy as it was put forth in the film. He had drinking issues that were not disclosed to the medical professionals he visited.
so the fatty liver was probably more so from the drinking than a month of mcdonald’s. although they didn’t say anything about his liver enzymes being elevated before the challenge
Doc you should check out the counter to "Super Size Me" where a science teacher did the same challenge of 30 days only mcdonalds, but he actually tracked his nutrients and calorie intake with his class, and he ended up getting healthier. It shows you are right that it's not just "McDonalds unhealthy urgh bad" it's about what you are eating and how much and how often.
But he probably wasn’t tracking stuff before. Simply being aware of your diet and actively controlling it will give you a better life. even if you still eat at less than ideal places
@@zachcreaghcoen2389 read what I typed bro. The point isn’t that eating McDonald’s inherently makes you healthy/unhealthy, it’s that tracking nutrition is healthy and means ANY source of nutrients can lead to positive results. If you eat like a pig and only down milkshakes and soda and all the only high fat high sugar stuff in unhealthy proportions, yeah it’s bad.
I remember watching this documentary as a kid in middle school and it was actually one of the first times I started to think more about diets and health related to our consumption of food. I really enjoyed Doctor Mike's commentary, it's not where you're eating that necessarily matters as much as what you're eating and how often you're eating it. The food industry needs to take some responsibility but we also need to be aware and educated when it comes to health and nutrition. Not just in a general sense, but health as it pertains to you- the individual.
While I agree with most of what you're saying, the part that is missing is that most of us grew up on fast food... maybe not everyday, but at least once or twice a week. What none of us understood is we were being fed food that is formulated to trigger the brain's reward center and trigger cravings for more. So while there is a degree of personal responsibility... there is also manipulation on the part of the fast food industry.
Morgan Spurlock was also drinking heavily during the production of this documentary, which wasn't revealed until years later. Even he has admitted that his steady decline in health had WAAAY more to do with his drinking habit than his poor diet.
He was also eating 5000 calories a day which is basically impossible if you're just eating three square meals. He had to have been eating extra servings and multiple desserts each sitting.
One thing I think Dr. Mike didn't pick-up on when he said that "you could choose healthy options", is that Supersize Me is from 2004, and a lot of the 'healthier' options we have now in 2022 just didn't exist back then. Fast food still sucks, but the options from EIGHTEEN years ago to now are like night and day.
I don't know if it was the same in the US but I worked at a McDonald's in Canada when this movie came out and I am pretty sure we had side salads and parfaits at least.
@@livelifeincolour yeah a sallad that has such a high suger content lol. I see people defending garbage fat foods saying you can choose salads but when they checked the salads (this was some time ago) they all had a high suger content not at all like when you do your own salad.. Same in schools where the carots can be 50% sugar.. its disgusting. And one of those salad with 1ton ranch on top is just as unhealthy as there disgusting burgers
@@livelifeincolour I worked at McD's from 1999-2001 and they definitely sold salads because I had a customer I LOATHED over her salad dressing complaints and I remember her twenty years later. The whole "they're just as bad" isn't true in the least. the calorie count from the dressing or the toppings (which were like, eggs and ham) could be high, but compared to the burgers with all that grease run-off and the deep fried foods? Not "just as bad," lol.
Not to mention that we technically owe all of those "healthy" options to that movie.. I think Dr. Mike wasn't paying much attention, or got only shown parts of the movie (11 minute reaction ??) B/c there's a whole section there about Morgan trying to find the nutritious poster and what a salad looked like back then..
yeah this documentary changed on how McDonald's changed the script on "do you want to super size that order".. sad part is they quietly dropped the salads during the lockdown & got rid of the wraps...I'm sad about the wraps because I loved those things
I love how he’s not making fun of obese people, he politely explains what are the non-benefits of it and what you can do to help. Congrats on 10 Million!
As someone who used to weigh 335, I really appreciate how Dr Mike addressed obesity. I’m down to 310 now (yay!) and it’s a journey. Soda is a major factor, when I manage to cut it for a few weeks I usually see pretty good losses. I understand that I _need_ to lose weight. I have a bad ankle, and weighing this much only exacerbates the injuries. I don’t have as much energy as I did when I weighed 280 back in the day. Some of my old suits don’t fit properly. And, I’ll admit, I don’t look as good as I could. I want to lose weight and I _need_ to lose weight, medically speaking. I’m not “fatphobic” and I’m not “body shaming” myself, I’m looking at a 23 year old man who’s well into the obese category (39.8 BMI).
Ya, I've told this to most people who were unaware of just how bad a large cup of Soda is, the fountain drips give you the information, but people barely read it, plus it's of course in small text. But when your realize that based on the size you could be ingesting 300-600 calories from sugar water alone, it makes sense why so many people end up gaining weight without realizing the why.
Been there, done that. It can be frustrating, speciality with all the horrible medical advice that floats around when it comes to nutrition (and I'm including this channel. Nutrition is a minimal part of medical school unfortunately). Check out Dr. Jason Fung channel. He's being doing wonders with patients, reversing diabetes and a bunch of other conditions associated with obesity. Really good and scientifically sound information.
Good job! It’s so hard to lose weight nowadays, there’s carbs sugar tons of sodium and fat in EVERYTHING. I’ve dropped 48.6lbs in the last 4 months myself. Had Covid twice in January and it has wrecked my digestive system, had to cut out sugar and carbs completely and limit my sodium intake. Granted the pounds are falling off, and my binge eating disorder is mostly reversed but I miss cake lmfao.
My issue with his experiment was that he also stopped a rigorous workout routine at the same time he changed his diet so the side effects were from BOTH.
@@83gemm yeah. He only admitted his addicted in 2017 and said he'd been drinking since 13 and in his 30 years since starting he hadn't been sober for more than a week at a time. So it's highly likely he was STILL drinking massive amounts of alcohol leading up to the final week of the 30 days.
But the thing about the lack of a workout routine during this was because he was mirroring what more than 2/3rds of Americans are like in that they don’t get enough exercise in their day-to-day routine and many of those same people are the ones who choose to eat this food way too often. Therefore the results are still pretty much the same in terms of drastic effects.
@@meatusshaft300 doesn't matter in this. If you want to show upsides and/or downsides of a diet, you have to do it under the same circumstances you usually have. Fast food is by no means healthy, but stopping to work out while you did it before dilutes the outcome. Same thing with alcoholism. That one I know first hand. Appetite varies. At times you wolf down unhealthy amounts of any food, at other times your body just rejects it. Not even throwing up, you simply can't bring yourself to swallow anything solid, as it feels like it impacts your breathing. That can be helped with vitamine b12, but show me an alcoholic who keeps that in check
The thing I love most about Dr. Mike and what a lot of negative reviewers need to understand is that he never makes fun of situations like this and takes a very professional approach to how he discusses each problem. Even during the one piece, mentioning how he would never tell you not to eat the way you want, he WOULD remind you of the health factors you are risking by eating foods like this regularly. No doctor should tell you to eat outright, not the way you want. Dr. Mike is so professional and so polite when addressing this topic. As an obese person myself, I appreciate his take and advice and pray that he does more videos like this.
I found his approch pretty weak. He is always so cautious tip toeing around to not step on an a fattys toes.. Like srsly its disgusting being fat as a fockin mountain.. Needs to be whiped with motorcycle chains (not the drive chain i mean the chain you lock it with like the big thick 20pound chains)
Doctor Mike. You say there's exceptions to the BMI index however said you cannot become depressed by eating McDonald's. I would disagree and say there are alot more exceptions in regards to diet vs BMI inaccuracies
That particular comment was a bit misplaced. There's no need for him to preach about not controlling patients' lives when it wasn't even about a patient. The doctors were _asked_ , and it was a general question. Of course they can say what they think.
He literally diagnosed a patient with lime disease after multiple doctor told him "you're not sick, you're just fat." But people conveniently don't remember that video.
I remember we watched this Documentary in school during health class. As a swiss kid in fifth grade, i was shocked at how many ppl in the US were that intensely overweight. While there are certainly ppl in switzerland that are obese, you don't really see ppl that are overweight to that extend here. Also to me and most of my friends, McDonalds was something you'd go to maybe a few times in a year, definitly not regularly, especially not as a kid.
when we did a trip to Zürich in high school i remember we only ate at McDonald's and at the hostel, because all the restaurants were like 2-3x more expensive compared to € countries, but McD was about the same.
@@michellehawk282 $2 doesnt buy anything in switzerland McD? that's probably why you only went every so often then. back in high school, when a parent only gave ~$5-10 a week as allowance, kids had to stretch that dollar if they wanted to go out with friends. it wasnt about quality of food, it was about price and thats it. fast food dollar menus were the saving grace in the lives of kids like me, and thats just high school. even before that, mcdonalds would advertise happy meals and the play place areas like crazy. it was absolutely marketed for children here in the US. and interestingly they are still doing it; those same kids now are old enough to buy the adult happy meals and mcdonalds took advantage of the nostalgia.
Several other “researchers” have tried to duplicate Spurlock’s results and he refused to release his food diary. And I think he was only offered supersized meal a few times during the 30 day period.
Was looking to see if anyone else commented this. As influential as this documentary was, Morgan Spurlock's overall douchiness has not helped in going deeper. Kinda makes you wonder what his actual goal was if not science
I remember when this came out - while he didn't put McDonalds out of business he made a huge difference. This was the time that McDonalds brought out salads and stopped asking to supersize their meals (at least in Australia). McDonalds lost a lot of business over it. They're a multimillion dollar company so they recovered, but this guy and his doco definitely put a (small) dent in the profits and made them become at least a little bit more responsible with their food offerings!
@@Ailieorz Not true at all. Salads and grilled chicken had long been available by the early 2000s, at least in Canada. Perhaps he changed how the US mcdonalds did their business, though I suspect all they did was start marketing those items more heavily, and that they had long been available there.
@@samurphy salads at McDonald’s in the early 2000s had as much salt and trans fat as 3 burgers regardless if they were grilled chicken or not. They were NOT healthy by any means.
I remember this ..I found it odd he never shared his food blogs. McDonald's stopped the super size but obesity hasn't gone away. The documentary was certainly eye opening.
Sadly obesity is only getting worse worldwide... Its almost unbelievable that every second human outside is overweight now from where I am... And every 5th obese... Insane numbers
So in ny country they stopped super size but basically got rid of the small portion of sides and drink and the minimum you can order is "regular" which used to be medium, "medium" which used tk be large and "large" which used to be supersize. I suspect this is a worldwide move McDonald's made to get rid of the stigma
@@urusledgehe also are exclusively low carb egg muffins that were removed from the menu because no one eats healthy food at McDonald's, started exercising way more just as the documentary started, and was distanced from McDonald's after publishing a book on how to get more horny.
I remember watching this as a kid (it was being shown to us for a class) and even though I was definitely a young child, I still felt like there was something about the entire thing that rubbed me the wrong way. Imagine a 9 or something year old kid literally asking something along the lines of "if the point is just to eat only mcdonald's when you're hungry, why eat THAT much" in their own way. It still rubs me the wrong way, but at least people know why now.
The main problems with super size me is that he always ate even when he wasn't hungry and always supersized when asked even if he wasn't that hungry. The other problem is afterwards he went on a "detox" diet that was vegan because his wife is a self-certified nutritionist. Then there have been multiple attempts to reproduce this experiment and with vastly different results(sometimes positive). The guy didn't log his diet and apparently he was drinking a lot of alcohol. There is a lot of problems with fast food but this doc was extremely misleading.
@@shadoudirges I mean that is all documentaries. Even simple ones like wildlife documentaries tend to be misleading but when they get into social issues they are almost guaranteed to be setup to sell something or appeal to a bias. They can be good to open issues up but they often create more problem than solutions.
@AlyFrederi That's my biggest problem with the film, it was presented at schools to children/minors with minimal critical thinking. Now we have many adults that think fast food is poison and the main reason for obesity. _(Which neither reflect reality.)_
@@RaindropsOnLichen if this movie was purely meant for entertainment, then I have no problem with that. The problem with this film is that it was paraded around as a documentary and shown to kids in school everywhere. If you’re trying to change the minds of children, glossing over facts and scientific methods should be the last thing you do, even if you’re trying to bump up the entertainment value.
My biggest issue with this documentary is that we never see him exercise or try to do anything other then sit in his car/hotel room when he eats. I also remember that he actually was on a vegan diet, because of his girlfriend, before starting the diet. MAJOR change from a vegan diet to one where you have meat in every single meal is gonna have a BIG effect on how your body responds to certain foods.
You think he has the energy for exercise eating that much Mcdonalds? LOL Thing is, this was made in 2004 and the number of fat americans has skyrocketed since then.
Yeah, we're talking about a systemic issue where the healthier alternative (which is likely more satisfying at lower calories and good for you on top) is displaced by calorie dense foods everywhere. McD isn't even that freaking bad (well, bad enough) in comparison. Try pastries, fat-sugar dough rolls you can just inhale are completely insane, all things considered. But well, watermelons cost way too much if you're a poor family with kids who want sweets. It's a huge thing. So much nonsense, starting with the "preservatives bad"-argument where they demonstrate how "bad" McD is by showing us the oldest trick in the book... old, not very moist fries that don't rot. Great, my oven fries I yeeted behind the counter don't really do that either. What's the point? The core message is "don't freaking eat over your calorie budget and don't order the unhealthiest items all dang day long." Just the most basic nutritional advice. Turn that into a documentary, leaving people with more knowledge about how all this works without being constantly alarmist about things that are pretty well manageable, and people wouldn't call him such a hack. Not a great documentary.
He was sitting more and walking less to make his lifestyle more comparable to the average American man. He said so in the beginning of the documentary. I don't remember how much he decreased his daily steps but it was a significant percantage.
There's a really neat documentary that acted as a rebuttal that we were shown in my college health class called Fat Head. I remember we were learning there were some issues with this movie with how they went about it, transparency, the science, things they left out, etc (essentially iirc a lot of the stuff Dr.Mike is saying here). I would really love if Dr. Mike watched that one too to see what he says!
I definitely think he should react to Fat Head next. I’m surprised he didn’t notice how many calories Spurlock ate every day supposedly only super sizing when they offered.
What this documentary didn't tell you is that he gorged himself on 5000 calories of mediocre food and was a severe alcoholic for years. Others have tried to replicate his experiment and their health improved. If they had just been honest, this would have been a great doc about the dangers of excessive drinking.
I feel like the correlation between weight loss and sitting down for meals is establishing a routine. Once that routine is followed, assuming you're not overeating during the sit-down meal, weight loss becomes less strenuous.
Spurlock stopped exercising, which is fair since he was trying to emulate the average ameriacan, but he also refused to release his food log. When others tried to recreate his meals they found the most calories dense options added up to about 3500, 1500 short of his claimed 5000 average. Spurlock also later confessed to being a major alcholic, unable to go a week sober.
Thank you! I just commented this somewhere else. But there are genuine criticisms to this documentary that just make Spurlock look...more than a bit sketchy.
He couldn’t be sober? Then he’s a high-functioning alcoholic because I don’t think I have ever seen someone speak so clearly and have such completely normal motor skills while drunk. And if he was already a drunk prior to the documentary, it’s great that all his blood levels were in such great shape! He must have amazing genes to be constantly drunk but not a single one of his doctors noticed!
@@lenagraham2093 I can tell you're being sarcastic. At least I hope you are. Spurlock's alcoholism was intentionally left out of the docu and hidden by all the doctors/professionals. It's a misleading documentary.
I remember watching this back in like 2010 and my biology teacher basically did a live commentary on why this isn't good science. Basically a continuous multi-hour version of this video. 12 years on I hope that teacher is going as strong as Dr Mike is.
Yeah we watched this in home economics. Which is a class that teaches you how to cook from scratch and they try and make the meals really healthy like soup, spaghetti, cottage pie, quiche. Even healthier treats. It also taught us what a balanced diet is and nutrients/vitamins in food. Probably the few classes I took the most from.
@@xquahd making spaghetti bolognaise is much healthier than eating macdonalds. I buy mince, tomatoes onions garlic carrots and it all gets cooked in a small amount of oil. I also buy 20% less fat mince. Also do I not understand how much extra stuff is in that burger. When they say a 100% beef they mean the meat is a 100% beef. There is sugar in the patty on top of all the additives that aren’t naturally found in meat. Also portion size is really important but do you know what the most important thing about learning how to make spaghetti bolognaise is that your actually learning a skill that once you know a few basic meals ur already eating healthier than buying ready made meals or fast food. So in what world U ask is spaghetti bolognaise healthy? In everyone’s else’s world except yours because your clearly uneducated on what goes into food.
Loved that movie when it came out. While everyone was expecting him to get some kind of damage to his health, the amount of bad things that actually happened surprised me (and even his doctor, if I recall correctly). Besides, the scariest part was that he really liked eating at McDonalds, after 30 days he was basically addicted that that food.
Part of it is he lied. Nobody could actually replicate what happened to him in these experiments with what he ate. He was not being truthful about his diet, and he was doing something not on camera. Not to say this kind of diet ISN'T bad... but he definitely falsified some things in order to make it a bigger headline, which is really too bad.
@@candykit5382 Was going to say this. It wasn't just some of it. He lied about basically everything. None of what he did was real, at all. As you said, this kind of diet is absolutely bad and will cause damage to you. Just not in this timeframe. The entire movie was fake. Not sure if anyone remembers when Animal planet aired "Mermaid the body found" or the megaldon shows, but those are as truthful as this was.
Being a personal trainer, there is a lot of misconceptions about Body Mass index. My own Dr. Once told me I was considered obese (BMI scale) even though my body fat percentage was 12% and I had muscle. You always explain things very well and seem like and amazing Dr. Thank for all the awesome content. 💪💪
I agree about BMI. I disagree about Mike's response. It's as useless as saying 98.6 is "normal" body temperature. BMI's problem isn't that it's one size fits all. It' problem is that it is one size fits no one. I'm 6-3. According to BMI I should weigh ~185lbs. Which is what I weighed when I was 17-years old. By the time I was 18 I weighed 200lbs, and you could still count my ribs. I couldn't get down to 185 if I lopped off a leg. BMI is a dangerous farce.
@@joebob1538 I'm a climber who can hang off a 10 milimeter edge and according to BMI I'm overweight, I can absolutely relate to your experience of how ridiculous BMI can be.
BMI is a statistical tool amd not entirely linear. The human body works differently at different heights. If you're over 6 foot 5 you need a smaller BMI to maintain heart health than a 5 foot person. This is why tall people are naturally skinny with longer limbs. The human body ia only designed to work within a certain size range and anything beyond requires a different design or else you run into problems. Statistically the risk to the heart at 300 pounds at 5 foot 5 is pretty much the same. Most doctors prefer individual analysis though as this is more valuable. The ideal BMI is a huge range but if your muscles are taking you beyond that range then you are risking health for performance. It's a common trade off athletes make, this should show people that the risk of being heavy is actually small and the real danger is malnutrition and sugar.
Keep in mind this was 18 years ago. Back then we had king size and super size. Also they did not sell salad back then. The fries were so greasy they were limp. No crunch in fries. Life was different and fast food actually tasted amazing that's why it caused such an increase in weight and health issues.
It did not taste amazing. It tasted like fast food. Also _taste_ does not cause health issues. It was all the fat, salt and sugar that did, and still does, cause those.
this was interesting to watch. I love how doctor mike clearly points out that being obese is negative, but not that people should judge you for it but that it decreases quality of life ❤️ ✨
Fun fact: I have seen this film back in school, in Italy. The funny part is that our bigger McDonalds servings are basically a little less than an medium in the US; also, a McMenu will probably cost as much as a dish of pasta or a business menu in a restaurant (or a poke, if we want to stay on fast food). Just a quick comparison between a system that wants you to get sick throu food and a decent food culture. P.S. Sorry if the comment sounds a bit harsh but what I read about fast food vs healthy food in the US really seems a huge fattening scheme
Yup here in India, McDonalds and other fast food are much more expensive than home cooked food, Also local restaurants are much cheaper than McDonalds etc
As a tall person (6'4", 194 cm), I am considered overweight at 95 kilograms (25.24 BMI), but I've tried lowering my weight to 90 kilograms (23.91 BMI), and I look downright unhealthy. As you say, the BMI system can be pretty inaccurate. The problem is that it's often used in the medical profession to gauge individuals.
This sounded off to me so I looked up what healthy weight for your height is and I got 82.5-100.7kg. And then when I checked BMI for someone at your height at 95 kg it did give overweight like you said. So I digged a little deeper and apparently BMI isn't a very good metric for extremes. So it's not very accurate for very short people and very tall people and it says BMI shouldn't be used for people 150cm and shorter or those 190cm and taller. Sounds like you're better off sticking to 95kg. :)
@@ramblingmillennial1560it's not just that, muscle mass matters as well. Muscle is more dense than fat, you can have a very low percentage of fat, very very high percentage of muscle be absolutely jacked but be considered obese in bmi even with 10% fat , which isn't obese, neither overweight, just jacked and strong.
I'm 6'5 and at my lowest I was 195 lbs. I couldn't see how I could get lower without looking like I was starving. My BMI at that weight is 23.1 seemingly just barely below the overweight point. (25) It goes all the way down to 18.5 before considered underweight. I know I have muscular thighs, but I doubt they are that muscular to "Throw off" my BMI.
When this came out I was 100 pounds overweight and ate a lot of fast food. It was more just exhaustion working, raising a child, and running a non profit group on the weekends. This show opened my eyes and I started a major change in my life. Almost 20 years later we rarely have fast food and do mostly homemade meals. These home delivery meals really help.
those homemade delivery meals are also expensive af. maybe if i could actually use food stamps to buy them, but as it is my options are limited to groceries i'm too tired to cook, or fast food.
@@dietotaku Not sure what it's like where you live, but a good (and reasonably healthy) microwave meal in the Netherlands is generally cheaper than a meal at McDonalds. Tbh, McDonals is super expensive over here.
There was a documentary that counter argues Spurlock's "Super size me", it's called, "Fat head". He did the same thing except ate below 2000 calories a day eating nothing but fast food and actually lost weight after 30 days.
Yeah, but that's because calories in calories out always causes weight loss. Doesn't mean he's healthy. Plus, one meal at McDonald's is about 15/1600 calories. So 2000 is still too low 😐
you can lose weight but still have fatty deposits on your arteries. not all people who died w/ heart attack are obese. the documentary is shitty because it's not transparent but that doesn't debunked the fact that fast food aren't meant to be consumed everyday
@@justakidtrainingforstrengt1258 watch the doc before saying it’s wrong. Fat head actually showed data and explained everything properly. It wasn’t to show that fast food is good but to show how flawed supersize me was.
@@justakidtrainingforstrengt1258 when you remove the bread, sugar and salt you're left with perfectly normal plates of meat, vegetables and dairy products.
I remember watching this in school (health class). One of the immediate questions asked was does it make a difference if you eat this same stuff at home vs out? This was to challenge the idea the people are absolved of responsibility for what they ingest. We all as a class agreed that eating this stuff all day every day is bad, but shifting blame from one's self is even worse. Great discussions we had.
No one could duplicate Spurlock’s results, and when people tried to contact him to get specifics about his diet during the 30 days, Spurlock (who made a huge deal about people seeming suspicious for not calling him back) never got back to them. This was a goosed documentary, and while it is obviously not good for you, it was not as bad as Spurlock portrayed in the movie.
Later it was found out he was an alcoholic whilst doing this and this was why no one could replicate the experiment. If he truly did not consume anything that wasn’t available at McDonald’s then it was no wonder he was experiencing withdrawals.
@@lizziedavidson1987 how did 3 doctors not notice his alcoholism? Other than that, this documentary was a huge BS. Anyone eating 4k+ calories a day with that much carbs and fat, even from healthy foods would have the same results. This Just shows people are ignorant, easy to manipulate and stupid AF
@@Indipender your guess is as good as mine but he did come out recently and tell us he was suffering alcoholism at this point in his life. Perhaps the production persuaded the doctors to keep it quiet somehow…idk.
@@lizziedavidson1987 Him abusing alcohol prior to the challenge is literally irrelevant. Does it somehow make the food healthier than before? Let’s not pretend a 1500 calorie meal is any less than what it is just because the guy had a drinking problem.
You joke about him "wanting to take McDonalds down", but when this came out, it was EVERYWHERE, and was actually instrumental in McD's making several changes to add healthier options to their menu, and remove the "supersize" option
A Swedish study couldn't replicate his results even with a 5,000+ calorie a day of junk food requirement. Might look that up. Supersize Me! struck me as a very dramatized "documentary" and he may have exaggerated his results to align with his point, he isn't exactly conducting a rigorously controlled experiment. We know fast food is not good for you, but it's not 'nearly kill you in a month' bad.
Since the original reason of the film was about McDonalds pushing customers to supersize their meals, hence people overeating fast food, and was only offered to supersize 9 times over that month, Spurlock couldn't prove that McDonalds was being willfully negligent. But he sure did infer that McDonalds adds some unidentified nefarious chemicals to the food and that's what make it addicting _(I'm like, you mean sugar, salt, and fat Spurlock?)_ but never dug further into it, because there was none. Instead he focused on his health when he completely changed his diet and lifestyle over that month. _(Which of course your health will be affected when you make such abrupt and drastic dietary and lifestyle changes like that.)_
@@HaydensDinoHaven He wasn’t vegan pre-Supersize but he was after to reduce his weight, that and actually exercising and not overindulge himself ever chance he got.
I remember watching this as a kid. It caused such a scare with my family that they ended up with unrealistic health goals which were just as unhealthy as fastfood.
That was always my criticism with this documentary, he went into it with an agenda, pre decided what the message of the documentary would be under false pretense. He never intended to see if he could survive on eating McDonald's for a month, or if it could be done in a healthy way. He intentionally got value meals for every meal, and regularly chose some of the worst options on purpose. It paints the picture of a person that doesn't exist, nobody that can afford to eat three value meals a day actually would. Anyone that actually does eat only McDonald's everyday is on the lower income side and is probably getting things from the dollar menu, which he was not. He went the most gluttonous route possible which defeats any value from the experiment.
Also, I get the feeling that his whole "experiment" was purposely set up that way as a scare tactic. "Don't eat fast food kids, or your health will go to complete sh*t. Sure, eating fast food like McDonald's isn't that good for you, but as people point out, there will inevitably be some fast food component in most people's diets, so might as well teach them to work the menu to get the healthier options more and to minimize their reliance on fast food meals. To me, this whole thing had the same energy as the abstinence only approach to sex education taught in schools. Instead of giving people tips on dieting, meal planning and preparation, etc., just make a dramatic scene of putting your body through a gluttonous wringer and then be like "don't eat fast food. It'll basically kill ya."
@@allPodd LOL! Privilege is thinking that purchasing three super sized meals a day from McDonald's is sustainable for people with low income. It's not.
He was a self admitted raging alcoholic. So when he got tested later all that liver damage was due, in part, to his excessive drinking... Which he doesn't disclose in the documentary. That's additional calories, additional stress, additional factors that he didn't disclose! He 100% went into this to make a point. A stupid point. Of course he gained weight.
Dr Mike this documentary I'm afraid has been called into question in a few places due to others attempting to replicate the experiment. I think you did a fantastic job on your end sharing your medical input, but do you think you can discuss those points as well?
I was like 12 when this came out and felt it was shady. It also felt very much "look how much better I was, and then I became like you, and now I can't get a boner." As an adult, I still think the guy is a prick, and all the criticisms levied against the documentary are genuine. I was hoping Dr. Mike would be more critical tbh. But the doc changed fast food as a whole, so I can't judge too much.
Medical input without actually investigating the facts - one of the points he stresses doctors have to do to provide adequate care to their patients - is worse than worthless. And what Mike did. I like Dr Mike's videos. Usually. But this one is a HUGE FAIL.
@@joebob1538 I mean not really. Nothing Dr Mike really said was wrong and even pointed out the flaws to the documentary's challenge. He also pointed out the false dichotomy between market and personal responsibility. And even if we're concluding super size me wasn't accurate I don't think any sane person can say eating EVERY item of McDonald's menu at the time wouldn't screw up your body on some level.
I suggest you watch the “response” documentary called Fat Head and let us know your thoughts. He does the same fast food diet with the ability to choose what he eats at McDonalds and debunks a lot of the claims Supersize Me has. He also showed it was impossible to consume as many daily calories as Spurlock claimed.
I came to say the same thing. Super Size Me has largely been debunked and I'm a little sad he didn't do a little more research before posting this reaction video. I hope he does watch Fat Head also.
Came here to say this. This documentary has been debunked and to be honest I'm a little disappointed in Dr. Mike for not doing proper research into it. Not that it's healthy to eat fast food, but that guy lied a lot.
@@robot7935 You can do some research about the topic and still do a live reaction. Lots of react channels do it. You can even do the research after recording the reaction and post a follow up at the end. Channels do that too.
A study was done and there were preexisting conditions and cheating this man did while eating McDonald's that skewed his results. Groups have tried to replicate the results, but none have done so.
Something Morgan Spurlock did not mention in the documentary but he later admitted to is his consumption of alcohol during that time. Per his own confession, he has been consistently drinking since the age of 13 and hasn't been sober when he made the revelation more than a decade later.
thanks you for mentioning this. i really dislike how people took this movie as gospel when he was hiding so much stuff that he did BEFORE filming this. it's a terrible movie, and an awful take.
They also don't mention that he cut way back on his excercise when he started this. Other people have tried this while maintaining their normal excercise routine and eating the recommended 2000 calories a day and had way different results.
Well to be fair, if he's been drinking since he was 13, the tests he took before starting the experiment would still be based on his health while being an alcoholic, surely? Which means his health still deteriorated severely in just 30 days, which likely wouldn't be caused by a drinking habit he must've had for a good long while before the making of this video?
Wouldn’t that be ideal that he was drinking during those 30 days if that was his normal behavior?? If he suddenly quit alcohol during the testing period, then it would throw off the results. Wouldn’t we want someone to continue their normal daily patterns to get the most accurate results? 🤔 He May not have been in the best health due to the drinking, but the results clearly showed a difference from the time he started to the time it was over... Or are u saying he quit drinking during the experiment? Not trying to be argumentative, I’m just genuinely curious.
I watched this full documentary during health class in May, and being someone who probably eats at McDonald’s / Fast Food Restaurants once a year, I felt all the “oily-ness” that he was consuming through the screen.
@@Creatorsan I do admit that I sometimes crave their food, but it’s not something I can’t live without and like you said, it’s not high quality food both in nutritional value and in satisfying terms.
I haven't eaten fast food in over a decade. One day I went into a Burger King or something, because my mom wanted to order something during our road trip. I couldn't believe how much the prices went up. Everything was over $7. Also, it looks like the sizes got even bigger. Because apparently more soda is just what Americans needed.
This came out when I was in high-school. They made us watch it and I'm glad they did. I feel this documentary/ social experiment did change fast food. I don't recall many healthy options prior.
I remember seeing this film about 10 to 15 years ago. I found it to be stupid because it is obvious that if you eat nothing but fries, fried burgers on a bun, and soda for 30 days, you are going to have health problems. But I also saw that the film did not give the full problem with the huge health problem we have in America. They were not wanting to show people the problem, they were just out to attack McDonald's. 1. McDonald's is not the only junk food restaurant. 2. Junk food restaurants won't make you unhealthy. It is what you eat and how often. You can go to many junk food restaurants and order healthy. In fact, I did a video on it. In fact, the restaurant this film picks on does have some healthy food options. Isn't it interesting that McDonald's is worldwide but Americans are the only ones offected? #3 will explain the real problem. 3. You do not have to eat out to become overweight and unhealthy. It isn't the restaurant, it is what you eat and how often. You can cook unhealthy foods at home. Are you shocked? I have been to European countries. They have junk food restaurants just like we do in America. The problem we have is not the restaurants, it is what Americans like to overindulge in even at home. Lots of carbs and fried foods. So, I did find this film to be more of attack on McDonald's and not very informative
Kind of a false equivalency on point 3 since it was pointed out in the original documentary and remains true to this day European equivalents of fast food restaurants often host different menus prepared with different standards amd often in smaller proportions. McDonald's was probably chosen because of it's ubiquity around the world at the time and I'd wager it's still the most popular restaurant world over. This was a doc made in the early 2000s by some dude it's not some kind of smear campaign and if it was it 1) didn't work cos McDonald's is still thriving 20 yrs after and 2) maybe only resulted in fast food companies adding healthier options to the menu and telling consumers the calories within their meals which is what he was going for anyway
2:22 the video in reference says it is both. It is asking how much is each party responsible. While some may argue it is solely on the consumer for choosing bad places, I personally would only accept that if the restaurant in question is 100% transparent about the their food... and not limiting their "transparency" to offering nutritional information.
Dr Mike I’m very surprised that you took on this documentary when it was directly discussed in “Fat Head”. Morgen Spurlock NEVER shared his food diary, never showed his activities for the day. I suggest you do a watch of the second documentary by Tom Naughton.
It's interesting that when I was growing up, my mom or grandma would always cook for dinner and we never ate out but it's not a causal relationship, as you've said, and I was still quite overweight as a child
Lots of people cook at home but cook unhealthy food lol. I really do think that portions are wehre a lot of people go wrong, but also using too much oil/butter. Growing up all of my siblings and I except one was a healthy weight and now pretty much all of us are overweight due to dining out or ordering too much takeout.
I would love to see you also review the rebuttal documentary called Fat Head. I think that both of them put together help people understand nutrition and why exercise should maybe be part of what we view as a diet.
Fat Head is a great rebuttal to Supersize Me, but it also has some really bad nutritional science itself. It quickly goes from "actually most of the Spurlock claims are bullshit and you can just order small meals at McD and stay healthy and even lose weight" to keto-bro nonsense and other full-on pseudoscience like "greedy fat cells".
i remember watching this when I was younger. I avoid eating fast food so I guess watching it did have an influence on me, though also as I grew older I started to dislike the taste of most fast food anyway... or just heavy food in general-- I cannot stomach it anymore. I'm grateful that I am privileged enough to just cook instead, it's something I enjoy anyway. Back when I watched this for the first time, I didn't understand much about nutrition, but rewatching this now, I'm making so many more connections.
I’m a vegetarian so there’s not much I can eat at McDonald’s anyways but even before I went veggie I didn’t like McDonald’s mich. The fries were addictive although they didn’t taste that good it was honestly just addictive. The nuggets tasted like chemicals. I didn’t eat their burgers cuz I’ve never eaten a burger. They didn’t look appetizing anyways. It all tastes so much like chemicals even the water.
Sometimes for me it was when we had substitute teachers. We could only stand watching the same Disney movies for so long with substitutes. So playing this movie kept us from goofing off when the lights were out.
my dad told me about this and said the guy passed away already 😢 i hope he's wrong about that or that i misheard him, but if he has indeed passed on then i have respect for him doing this to educate people
I remember watching this video in my personal health class in high school. Crazy how it's been almost 20 years since that documentary came out. Well done.
I would love to see an updated version of this experiment considering portion sizes (at least here in Canada) have decreased, healthier options have been added, and prices have skyrocketed.
I wish the sizes would decrease here in the US, I think they did for a while and have starting sneakily getting larger again, I swear the cup always seems larger than I remember.
@@jus10tje06 Yep! It directly proves that the whole Supersize Me documentary is bullshit. Nobody has been able to even reproduce what Spurlock did because he won't release the information about what he ate to the public.
I remember hearing about this in school in europe in the 2010's, I still remember that his liver took two years to return to normal. wild how big of an impact this doc had.
Wow I love that you considered economic status!! Sometimes I feel like doctors are a bit ignorant or not sensitive when I tell them I can't afford their treatment plans...
This documentary was one of the many things that helped me plant the seeds to try and start getting in shape. I was still over weight through most of school but this documentary did make me realize I should try and start cutting down on fast food where ever I can. Now I only ever eat out if I'm with friends or if I wasn't able to pack a lunch on time before work
As interesting as this is, it needs to be taken with a grain of salt or two. Obviously not too many people have tried, but of those that have there are certain aspects of Spurlock's that no one has been able to replicate. I am not saying go and eat fast food every day, you'll be fine. But its worth noting that it would not have the same effects on everyone, so many more factors come in to play than just what you eat. Genetics are going to play a very big role in the problems that would arise in a diet like this.
Exactly! And this movie has to be compared to individual fast food consumption as well. Certainly there are people who eat nothing but fast food but I imagine they are not the majority...?
I've also seen allegations that even on the worst hypothetical day (eg: super-sizing both lunch and dinner on the largest meal available) it would've been mathematically questionable reaching the calories they claimed he was eating on average, and to the best of my knowledge he still has never revealed his actual logs of what he ate.
@@icefox500 wow i wasn't aware of that. Im quite surprised actually since I know now have quite a few items that are like around 800 calories by themselves. Big Mac for example. I know a super size(when they had it) big Mac meal for example is quite a bit over 1500 calories for one meal wich is pretty insane amount for one meal. You could definitely go over 3000 for just lunch and dinner alone which is quite a bit more than the average person should have in a day
We had to watch this in health class in sixth grade, and it was both interesting, and revolting. I’ve never been to McDonald’s, and I don’t plan on it. I am glad you’re talking about this because it needs to be heard!!
I remember we had to watch this in High school health. The teacher was one of those very strict, judgy vegans (Like she could have been related to That Vegan Teacher). One of the few times I became kinda popular to my class I legitimately just asked her what this was supposed to teach us. Like...Everything in moderation is what I learned from doctors growing up. Like it's okay to eat junk but make sure you eat healthy things too. She was pushing "Fast food and meat bad! Look what happened to this guy!" She didn't like me very much.
my health teacher in middle school was the exact same! he showed us vegan “documentaries” about how eating meat will cause you to die a horrible painful death and how animals are tortured to death (with uncensored footage). he then made us write an essay about why veganism is the right choice. i rebelled in a similar way and wrote about why a balanced diet is best.
I remember watching this in Foods class back in High School. I was certainly shocked. I imagine eating at the same place for 30 days would get tiring after a while. Understanding that some families income are different from others and could result in eating fast food more regularly. Having a family of my own, I understand it. Eating on a healthier budget is challenging as well since it's more expensive since we have a budget every week.
I'd love to see Mike's reaction to the follow up documentary "Fat head". It's not perfect but I do think it shows how one sided Super Size Me and just diet advice is in generally. What I learned from watching them is that nutrition is complicated and not even remotely black and white as we wish it was.
look up kiana docherty’s video on that documentary. it isn’t as great as it was really meant to be,and had no credible sources. and there’s good reason to believe the guy was working with mcdonald’s to make it look good on purpose after the effects of super size me
Me: looks at Morgan Spurlock's symptoms at the end of his 30 days at McDonald's. Also me: looks at the common symptoms of alcoholism, notice a lot of overlap, and Morgan later admitting to already being a 14 year alcoholic at the time of filming SSM. Hmm...
You should react to "Jacked on Jack" where Alex Tima on UA-cam tried to build muscle by only eating Jack in the Box for a month. He does a good job of illustrating that you can be healthy with whatever's available as long as you are mindful about what specifically you are eating.
McDonald’s didn’t actually have salads at all locations in 2004. This documentary actually had an impact. They started offering healthier options, had to list the nutritional value, and got rid of super sizing.
People aren't getting salads at MCD lol stop lying
@@Bryanpeacock33 their salads aren’t actually bad buuuuut if you’re online go check out the calories once you add the provided dressing. A low-cal option they are not.
@@Bryanpeacock33 my friend was obsessed with a salad there called the southwest chicken or something like that? so there are some people out there ig😂
@@marymae8307 Going to McDonalds for a salad is like going to church for info about evolution.
Just stupid
They stopped serving salads in my area since COVID for whatever reason.
Wow, 2004 seems like a lifetime ago. I remember when that doc came out. Also thank you Dr. Mike for pointing out that people with limited income are more likely to eat unhealthy food because it's usually all they can afford. When I was making $9/hr I would go to McD almost every day. One guy asked me why I'm always coming there and I said, "It's what I can afford". "Fair enough," he said.
@@aytcs Holy Chicken is also an eye opener. I would like that chain he started to expand as well. As an honest product that causes people to have a discussion.
That's strange, where I live McDonald's are for rich people.
@@ViAzuaga Yup, here a meal at a restaurant is 8€ - 10€, a McDonald's menu 8€ - 11€
it wasnt a documentary and was proven to be fake, none of his health problems were due tio eating mcds. he was drinking like a bottle a day during this.
I don't know if it's different in the US, but buying food at the supermarket is WAY cheaper than from any fast food place I've ever seen.
I was literally forced to watch this for health last semester and I’ve really wanted Dr. Mike to react to this.
@@𱁬 i wont
The same here
I watched this at least three times in middle school for various health classes
I watched this year's ago in health in middle school, interesting that this movie still gets shown.
@@𱁬 I translated that and I'm not cursed and I will not die and I will not subscribe
I think one factor that really contributes to the popularity of fast food in the US is the low price point. Here in Poland fast food restaurants tend to be similarly priced to traditional restaurants and far more expensive than "home cooked" style joints. They're still fairly popular, but they're more of an occasional treat for most people (and i feel like other European countries share this sentiment)
It's not cheap at all no matter where you go. People just say that as an excuse because they want to eat kid food like nuggets and chips for every meal. Real cheap food is cooking a large batch of rice, mince and veggies and spreading it out to 10 meals. It can be as cheap as $1-2 for a healthy meal whereas fast food is $10-20 a meal.
@@kaiward8163 Exactly, cooking. I'm talking strictly about ordering food. Not saying it's in any way better, but many people choose to order, for various reasons, which I will not be judging. It might be time constraint, inability to cook well, convenience or anything else really. It's definitely more affordable here to order home cooked style, healthy meals, that's all I'm saying.
@@kaiward8163you must br eating at some upscale fast food restaurants if you spending 10-20 a meal. I never spend more than 10 when I eat fast food and its cause I use their apps for deals on their food. And fast food is actually cheaper and convenient for folks depending on what groceries you get. Today you are shamed by others if you dont buy organic produce and organic produce is not cheap. Same for meats, especially chicken breasts. However if you stick with store brands, you can save a bit more. But dont say fast food is more expensive than buying groceries cause its not
Same is the case in India as well. For a middle class family, eating at McDonald's (or KFC or Burger King) is usually a once in a while treat because it is priced the same as a lot of high quality high-end Indian restaurants. Usually when I personally like to eat out, I go to the food court of a mall and then decide if I want to have McDonald's or maybe a nice paratha kurma or maybe Masala dosa.
And for people with lower income, McDonald's is just out of the question. Even though there are no 'burger equivalent' food joints at their price range, they still don't eat at McDonald's and stick to Indian food that they cook at home or buy from a cheaper restaurant.
@@properantagonist I was responding to how you said fast food is cheaper than other food options. It isn't. Fast food has an inflated price tag and usually comes much more expensive than healthier options. There isn't a single place in the world where it is the cheap option anymore. People are just good at making excuses. Everything people don't want, they can't afford or they don't have the time for.
I feel like the other thing that often gets glossed over when discussing this movie is that his wife at the time was a vegan, and he therefore ate mostly vegan for a long time leading up to the movie. So, not only did he change his eating habits in terms of fat, sugar, etc, but also with meat and dairy.
no wonder the boy wanted to do this challenge lol
There was a really good counter documentary made called fathead that people should watch. It show you a lot of the bias in making a documentary
@@soarinpenguinlive6372 Can you sum it up
@@Groggle7141 it address the factors of person choice and being in control of your diet.Also fat head i fell treat the viewer intelligence better. It a good documentary and the guy who made it a comedian so it a fun watch. I recommend it cause it goes a lot deeper than I could explain. I don't think either documentary are perfect but they give you a more well round picture of the issue. That lead to the best decision making cause it let you take in everything and make your own choices. I think it free on UA-cam still
@@BickyToya yeah like 99% of the people would say no for free food + getting paid for a month. Judgmental kid :D
My cousin worked on this documentary. I can answer some of the questions you asked because I asked him many of the same ones. Bringing in the extra doctors and the dietician was seen as pointless by most of the production but it was decided that the viewer would take it more seriously coming from a larger group of professionals. The dietitian was there to outline what a healthy persons caloric intake would be to better highlight how awful this diet was. As for ordering a salad? It was 2004. There was barely any healthy options available.
i figured it was something to do with people more likely to believe a specialist even though a gp would know it all. and i think this documentary ia what led maccies to get healthier options
They literally showed a clip of the menu WITH a salad on it in this video. From the documentary. What are you talking about?
I once had a salad at McDonalds as a kid, my mom wanted me to try it.
It was a few bits of lettuce with two carrot-shavings, half a radish and some slime on top. I don't recommend.
@@inlinechris during the time that the documentary was made, very few McDs had salads. They came out before the movie but majority but only one or two of them per area served them. And let's be real, are you going to drive down the street where there's a McD that doesn't have the salad but is close to your place or drive an extra 10 minutes for it?
@@Widdekuu91 Gotta try the McDonald's salad in Vienna, Austria. I got a properly dressed bowl with a whole boiled egg cut into halves on top, it was actually tasty.
I remember having to watch this several times over the years after it came out because of health class. My biggest issue with it though is it doesn't explain how he went from being a vegan to eating McDonald's everyday for 30 days. That drastic change is going to cause all kinds of issues, including a lot of the symptoms he experienced early on.
Not to mention he was also a heavy drinker, and included the liver issues in the documentary as part of the issue with fast food. You can't say it wasn't a result, but the fact he didn't say that variable doesn't make him look good.
@@melodicsatisfactionproductions agreed! The show was definitely not anything that should be taken as undeniable fact but it did have some truth to it. Over the years mcdonalds and a lot of other fast food have changed their offerings so I wonder how this would go if it were to be repeated today. There are a lot of salads, the chicken is not as bad as it was, and there is no more super size (that is in part due to the documentary).
@@R1532K1LL I'm surprised that McDonald's uses whole wheat tortillas, unlike other fast food places, they still use white tortillas,. The grilled chicken is not even that bad, so, the salads are awesome, even without the dressing (not a huge fan of dressings)
I remember watching it, and he was throwing up so early. So I knew there was something else going on because I don't remember anyone I knew throwing up for the longest time over fast food.
I'm glad I'm not the only one here who is aware of his vegan life style before taking this "project" on.
I watched this in health class in 2009. We later learned that this documentary was partially responsible for the inclusion of calories and nutrition facts being placed out in the open in these places
For reference, this documentary was before Mcdonald's offered any comparatively healthy options like salad and was one of the major factors that led to their addition
??? Salads have been a thing long before this movie came out.
Many McDonald's stopped selling salads during covid and have still left it off the menu in order to simplify the menu
The healthy options arent even that healthy and the food is still hot garbage.
The issue with that is, that their salads are a trap, too. Some of their salads have more calories and fat (due to dressing) than the burgers. It's not a healthy option either.
@@mandie17 In other words, McDonald's is doubling down on the deep-fried grease.
Meanwhile, it's been over 2 years since I last ate any junk food or restaurant food. Unhealthy foods weaken the immune system and promote inflammation. Gone are the days when higher blood cholesterol was the biggest health risk.
Oh, and I've been avoiding McDonald's ever since I first watched _Super Size Me_ back in 2004. Yes, I was so grossed out that I've been avoiding the Golden Arches ever since, long before the pandemic prompted me to ditch all unhealthy foods.
One thing not really touched on in your discussion of this documentary is that he also stopped exercising, which has a big impact on both the physical and mental health metrics he was talking about. He also seems to have been eating more during these 30 days than he normally would have. Not to defend McDonald's (I can't remember the last time I went to one, since I'm not a fan of the food), but his claims got a lot of pushback when this came out because he changed so many variables in his life at once.
Yeah, I remember that he was emulating some of the most unhealthy averages in the country, one of them being walking less than 5000 steps a day I think. So he drove a lot more during the month.
Yeah. Like, in terms of making a message about how unhealthy fast food can be, and how they sometimes push things (like asking if you want to supersize your order for a very small amount of money or the free refills on sodas and how many of them charge roughly the same price for all sizes and encourage you to drink so many refills) to make it more unhealthy, it’s good. But, in terms of any real scientific value, it’s pretty weak, and not just because of the sample size of one. Like, there are people who have eaten McDonald’s every day and lost weight or maintained their weight, because they kept track of calories. It’s hard to separate out which of his impacts were from the general unhealthy food, the increase in quantity consumes, the not working out, or a mix. It was mostly about shock value.
Theres also strong evidence he heavily drank the whole time and beer has alot of calories and effects on sex drive/mood and metabolism
He also drank a lot. Theybdont have that at McD
I did notice that when they showed us this in health class. It wasn't just that he changed his diet, he also said "I walk a lot, and most people don't, so I need to walk less." and I was like... okay but wait a minute, that's too many variables. At that point, it's not just McDonald's.
I think a big thing to remember is that McDonalds was only just considering the health benefits of its foods when Supersize me came out.
While some of the side-effects of Supersize Me were disproportionate and played up, it did lead to a wider conversation of what fast food places are providing.
It certainly had a big impact in Australia, of all places, where McDonalds did a full 180 on its menu and actively tried to make things healthier. It's still not healthy, but it's better.
A lot of the alternate options that Mike specifies came out after Supersize Me.
What people seem to miss most of the times with these places is that if they offer you super size you can say no. They don't force you to buy it or compel you
Aus doesn't have that much Maccas compared to the rest of the world XD
They did the same in the UK. Got rid of extra large, double quarter pounders, changed the sauce in the "big tasty".
It used to be you could get a super size big tasty meal with a milkshake and it'd be over 2000kcal
McDonald's in the US doesn't sell salads anymore or grilled chicken. Post COVID menu.
Bruh wtf is supersize is it something American because the biggest thing we have is a large
Spurlock was an alcoholic. He was asked if he ever abused alcohol by one of the doctors and he replied "No" and then a couple years ago he said he hadnt been sober for a week in over 30 years
Maybe he was talking about not being sober from other substances? Idk but probably not.
Alcohol consumption (1000 daily calories), would be a likely source of calories for the 30 days
Source: Fathead documentary
Regardless, they took his blood markers twice 30 days apart and noted such drastic changes. Seems more plausible that it was tied to the food, seeing as he would’ve already been 10+ years into his alcoholism at the time of the documentary.
He meant not that day
Vegan girlfriend.... what's vegan? Oh that sounds stupid. Luckily that will never catch on.🫠🤦🏻♂️
Something else that was discovered about this “documentary” is that he suffered from alcoholism and was drinking during this experiment, hence why his kidney looks like “somebody who drinks every day.” Honestly this documentary did help shine some light on the dangers of fast food, but the fact that it was mostly staged to show the extremes of eating nothing but fast food.
Wait a minute. I didn’t know McDonalds served alcohol back then! He only ate stuff in the menu, right?
@@andianderson3017 to my knowledge no McDonald’s has never served alcohol in America. But pretty much the idea goes that he relapsed into drinking heavily again during the experiment.
Also explains the impotence
@@andianderson3017 he was drinking alcohol while doing the doc. Thats why his liver was in such a bad state
@@CLNCJD94 He never relapsed because he was never sober for more than a week (that were his own words in 2017)
I'm glad he's still willing to talk about obesity in a negative way, and explain why it's an issue and that it is one to begin with. No one cares what you look like, we care whether you're going to die young or not.
It should also be understood if someone makes a choice to look a certain way and doesn't want help, they shouldn't be forced, that will basically feel like harassment. At the same time, they should understand that a doctor will not have good things to say about their health as a result, the same way a smoker shouldn't expect to hear about how good his lungs are.
I’m not sure why everyone think it’s their business to dictate fat people. Leave them alone, it’s between themselves and their GP.
@@solarflare_1940 its good to atleast make them aware and teach them. true if they dont want it they wont but let them know so they atleast can say they dont regret it because they knew it was gonna happen
actually, people care a LOT about what people look like. Psychology tests have shown that people prefer others who are more physically attractive. and thats just the way it is; our genes just tell us that prettier people are better
@@solarflare_1940 problem is, nowadays there's pro-fat movement, actually encouraging people to be fat. If you wanna be fat, fine by me, but don't peddle this bullshit to everyone else
I know a lot of this may seem a bit exaggerated or over the top, but this documentary actually got McDonalds to eliminate the super size option and really put focus on the unhealthiness of the fast food industry.
*edit: thanks guys I’ve never gotten this much likes before 😂😅
Which is till unhealthy.
@@thunberbolttwo3953 Yeah but less unhealthy, which is a good thing. The corporation did change a bit.
People expect to get a burger at McDonalds. So not selling a burger won't be an option.
However people themselves need to make the decision whether to get one every day or maybe once a year.
I eat a burger sometimes, just like once half a year. Nothing wrong with that type of consumption.
@Isaac Simpson Agreed plus the food still is not healthy at all.
@Isaac Simpson but it makes them spend a lot more than they need too
I don't know how it is today but earlier Mcdonalds did add sugar in salads also.
Perhaps a little late to the party but Morgan Spurlock released a document in around 2017 where amongst his statements of mistreating people, he also stated that he'd been drinking since the age of 13 and hadn't been sober for more than a week straight. So during his challenge in 2004, he was drinking and apparently a lot since when he went to the doctor again to get his tests done. The doctor told him that the results looked like someone who's abusing alcohol and not a fatty diet.
Which explains why he was throwing up while force feeding himself, he was hung over
I believe that after this documentary aired it was discovered that Mr Spurlock actually was not nearly as healthy as it was put forth in the film. He had drinking issues that were not disclosed to the medical professionals he visited.
Ye he also didn’t even eat the food everyday
And also intentionally gave up his normal exercise routine to try and force the lard to build
He was also a vegan apparently, so the effects he felt were worse then if anyone else did this challenge lol
Where'd everyone learn all these facts?
so the fatty liver was probably more so from the drinking than a month of mcdonald’s. although they didn’t say anything about his liver enzymes being elevated before the challenge
Doc you should check out the counter to "Super Size Me" where a science teacher did the same challenge of 30 days only mcdonalds, but he actually tracked his nutrients and calorie intake with his class, and he ended up getting healthier. It shows you are right that it's not just "McDonalds unhealthy urgh bad" it's about what you are eating and how much and how often.
McDonalds is still unhealthy though
When did that happen though? Read somewhere that this documentary made mcdonalds remove supersize option and make the menu healthier.
But he probably wasn’t tracking stuff before. Simply being aware of your diet and actively controlling it will give you a better life. even if you still eat at less than ideal places
You seriously trying to defend McDonald’s my guy it’s still full of sugar and sat/trans fats. It is not good for you!
@@zachcreaghcoen2389 read what I typed bro. The point isn’t that eating McDonald’s inherently makes you healthy/unhealthy, it’s that tracking nutrition is healthy and means ANY source of nutrients can lead to positive results.
If you eat like a pig and only down milkshakes and soda and all the only high fat high sugar stuff in unhealthy proportions, yeah it’s bad.
I remember watching this documentary as a kid in middle school and it was actually one of the first times I started to think more about diets and health related to our consumption of food. I really enjoyed Doctor Mike's commentary, it's not where you're eating that necessarily matters as much as what you're eating and how often you're eating it. The food industry needs to take some responsibility but we also need to be aware and educated when it comes to health and nutrition. Not just in a general sense, but health as it pertains to you- the individual.
YO I WATCHED THIS IN MIDDLE SCHOOL TOO
Me high school.
@@QueenKatania_4077 me too!
While I agree with most of what you're saying, the part that is missing is that most of us grew up on fast food... maybe not everyday, but at least once or twice a week. What none of us understood is we were being fed food that is formulated to trigger the brain's reward center and trigger cravings for more. So while there is a degree of personal responsibility... there is also manipulation on the part of the fast food industry.
Hey man! Could you rate my most recent recording from 1-10 and what I could improve? Thank you!!!!❤️.
Morgan Spurlock was also drinking heavily during the production of this documentary, which wasn't revealed until years later. Even he has admitted that his steady decline in health had WAAAY more to do with his drinking habit than his poor diet.
He was also eating 5000 calories a day which is basically impossible if you're just eating three square meals. He had to have been eating extra servings and multiple desserts each sitting.
As well as pretty much every day of his life since childhood. The whole film is bunk.
RIP Morgan Spurlock
He had been drinking for the past decade. But according to the doctor his liver function tests were fine at the start of the experiment
Maintenance Phase has a good ep. where they debunk this film.
One thing I think Dr. Mike didn't pick-up on when he said that "you could choose healthy options", is that Supersize Me is from 2004, and a lot of the 'healthier' options we have now in 2022 just didn't exist back then. Fast food still sucks, but the options from EIGHTEEN years ago to now are like night and day.
I don't know if it was the same in the US but I worked at a McDonald's in Canada when this movie came out and I am pretty sure we had side salads and parfaits at least.
@@livelifeincolour yeah a sallad that has such a high suger content lol. I see people defending garbage fat foods saying you can choose salads but when they checked the salads (this was some time ago) they all had a high suger content not at all like when you do your own salad.. Same in schools where the carots can be 50% sugar.. its disgusting. And one of those salad with 1ton ranch on top is just as unhealthy as there disgusting burgers
@@livelifeincolour I worked at McD's from 1999-2001 and they definitely sold salads because I had a customer I LOATHED over her salad dressing complaints and I remember her twenty years later. The whole "they're just as bad" isn't true in the least. the calorie count from the dressing or the toppings (which were like, eggs and ham) could be high, but compared to the burgers with all that grease run-off and the deep fried foods? Not "just as bad," lol.
Not to mention that we technically owe all of those "healthy" options to that movie..
I think Dr. Mike wasn't paying much attention, or got only shown parts of the movie (11 minute reaction ??) B/c there's a whole section there about Morgan trying to find the nutritious poster and what a salad looked like back then..
yeah this documentary changed on how McDonald's changed the script on "do you want to super size that order"..
sad part is they quietly dropped the salads during the lockdown & got rid of the wraps...I'm sad about the wraps because I loved those things
I love how he’s not making fun of obese people, he politely explains what are the non-benefits of it and what you can do to help. Congrats on 10 Million!
@@jaydhanaraj5823 They are speaking it into existence.
@@jaydhanaraj5823 just rounded it up :)
Non benefits? What’s a benefit of being overweight? Lol.
@卐-Lakehuntist-卐 seek therapy.
@卐-Lakehuntist-卐 you did not just do that
As someone who used to weigh 335, I really appreciate how Dr Mike addressed obesity.
I’m down to 310 now (yay!) and it’s a journey. Soda is a major factor, when I manage to cut it for a few weeks I usually see pretty good losses.
I understand that I _need_ to lose weight.
I have a bad ankle, and weighing this much only exacerbates the injuries.
I don’t have as much energy as I did when I weighed 280 back in the day.
Some of my old suits don’t fit properly.
And, I’ll admit, I don’t look as good as I could.
I want to lose weight and I _need_ to lose weight, medically speaking.
I’m not “fatphobic” and I’m not “body shaming” myself, I’m looking at a 23 year old man who’s well into the obese category (39.8 BMI).
Ya, I've told this to most people who were unaware of just how bad a large cup of Soda is, the fountain drips give you the information, but people barely read it, plus it's of course in small text. But when your realize that based on the size you could be ingesting 300-600 calories from sugar water alone, it makes sense why so many people end up gaining weight without realizing the why.
Been there, done that. It can be frustrating, speciality with all the horrible medical advice that floats around when it comes to nutrition (and I'm including this channel. Nutrition is a minimal part of medical school unfortunately). Check out Dr. Jason Fung channel. He's being doing wonders with patients, reversing diabetes and a bunch of other conditions associated with obesity. Really good and scientifically sound information.
Soda I’d so hard to give up I’m trying too
@@kaylasimpson4458 try finding alternatives to soda, possibly sparkling water, gives that same fizz but is barely sweet
Good job! It’s so hard to lose weight nowadays, there’s carbs sugar tons of sodium and fat in EVERYTHING. I’ve dropped 48.6lbs in the last 4 months myself. Had Covid twice in January and it has wrecked my digestive system, had to cut out sugar and carbs completely and limit my sodium intake. Granted the pounds are falling off, and my binge eating disorder is mostly reversed but I miss cake lmfao.
R.I.P. Morgan Spurlock. "Spurlock died from complications of cancer on May 23, 2024, at the age of 53."
My issue with his experiment was that he also stopped a rigorous workout routine at the same time he changed his diet so the side effects were from BOTH.
He also was an alcoholic so the liver testing isn’t controlled
@@isisbleck8780 Didn’t know that. That’s very sad!
@@83gemm yeah. He only admitted his addicted in 2017 and said he'd been drinking since 13 and in his 30 years since starting he hadn't been sober for more than a week at a time. So it's highly likely he was STILL drinking massive amounts of alcohol leading up to the final week of the 30 days.
But the thing about the lack of a workout routine during this was because he was mirroring what more than 2/3rds of Americans are like in that they don’t get enough exercise in their day-to-day routine and many of those same people are the ones who choose to eat this food way too often. Therefore the results are still pretty much the same in terms of drastic effects.
@@meatusshaft300 doesn't matter in this.
If you want to show upsides and/or downsides of a diet, you have to do it under the same circumstances you usually have.
Fast food is by no means healthy, but stopping to work out while you did it before dilutes the outcome.
Same thing with alcoholism. That one I know first hand. Appetite varies. At times you wolf down unhealthy amounts of any food, at other times your body just rejects it. Not even throwing up, you simply can't bring yourself to swallow anything solid, as it feels like it impacts your breathing. That can be helped with vitamine b12, but show me an alcoholic who keeps that in check
The thing I love most about Dr. Mike and what a lot of negative reviewers need to understand is that he never makes fun of situations like this and takes a very professional approach to how he discusses each problem. Even during the one piece, mentioning how he would never tell you not to eat the way you want, he WOULD remind you of the health factors you are risking by eating foods like this regularly. No doctor should tell you to eat outright, not the way you want. Dr. Mike is so professional and so polite when addressing this topic. As an obese person myself, I appreciate his take and advice and pray that he does more videos like this.
I found his approch pretty weak. He is always so cautious tip toeing around to not step on an a fattys toes.. Like srsly its disgusting being fat as a fockin mountain.. Needs to be whiped with motorcycle chains (not the drive chain i mean the chain you lock it with like the big thick 20pound chains)
Doctor Mike. You say there's exceptions to the BMI index however said you cannot become depressed by eating McDonald's. I would disagree and say there are alot more exceptions in regards to diet vs BMI inaccuracies
That particular comment was a bit misplaced. There's no need for him to preach about not controlling patients' lives when it wasn't even about a patient. The doctors were _asked_ , and it was a general question. Of course they can say what they think.
He literally diagnosed a patient with lime disease after multiple doctor told him "you're not sick, you're just fat." But people conveniently don't remember that video.
I remember we watched this Documentary in school during health class. As a swiss kid in fifth grade, i was shocked at how many ppl in the US were that intensely overweight. While there are certainly ppl in switzerland that are obese, you don't really see ppl that are overweight to that extend here. Also to me and most of my friends, McDonalds was something you'd go to maybe a few times in a year, definitly not regularly, especially not as a kid.
Fat is disgusting.
when we did a trip to Zürich in high school i remember we only ate at McDonald's and at the hostel, because all the restaurants were like 2-3x more expensive compared to € countries, but McD was about the same.
Afew times a year? Every kid nowadays have a dollar or 2 to buy a burger
@@danieltatum4262 Well you won't get sht in a swiss mc donalds for 2 dollars.
@@michellehawk282 $2 doesnt buy anything in switzerland McD? that's probably why you only went every so often then. back in high school, when a parent only gave ~$5-10 a week as allowance, kids had to stretch that dollar if they wanted to go out with friends. it wasnt about quality of food, it was about price and thats it. fast food dollar menus were the saving grace in the lives of kids like me, and thats just high school. even before that, mcdonalds would advertise happy meals and the play place areas like crazy. it was absolutely marketed for children here in the US. and interestingly they are still doing it; those same kids now are old enough to buy the adult happy meals and mcdonalds took advantage of the nostalgia.
Anyone else here after Morgan Spurlock passed away. He died from complications of cancer.
😂😂😂
@@schadenfreude6274how is that funny?
@@Jorja-wato 😂😂😂
@@schadenfreude6274 what the hell man
Several other “researchers” have tried to duplicate Spurlock’s results and he refused to release his food diary. And I think he was only offered supersized meal a few times during the 30 day period.
Was looking to see if anyone else commented this. As influential as this documentary was, Morgan Spurlock's overall douchiness has not helped in going deeper. Kinda makes you wonder what his actual goal was if not science
@@garaj1 💰
@@garaj1 It wasnt for science, i think it was because he was getting paid. Society is messed up.
Nine times he was offered to super size.
I remember when this came out - while he didn't put McDonalds out of business he made a huge difference. This was the time that McDonalds brought out salads and stopped asking to supersize their meals (at least in Australia). McDonalds lost a lot of business over it. They're a multimillion dollar company so they recovered, but this guy and his doco definitely put a (small) dent in the profits and made them become at least a little bit more responsible with their food offerings!
Correct! He wasn't ordering healthy options because they simply weren't on the menu like they are now. This film was a game changer
@@Ailieorz Not true at all. Salads and grilled chicken had long been available by the early 2000s, at least in Canada. Perhaps he changed how the US mcdonalds did their business, though I suspect all they did was start marketing those items more heavily, and that they had long been available there.
What was that green stuff I used to get from McDonald's at lunchtime in 1989? They even had low-fat Newman's Own dressing.
@@Ailieorz Just wrong.
@@samurphy salads at McDonald’s in the early 2000s had as much salt and trans fat as 3 burgers regardless if they were grilled chicken or not. They were NOT healthy by any means.
I remember this ..I found it odd he never shared his food blogs. McDonald's stopped the super size but obesity hasn't gone away. The documentary was certainly eye opening.
Sadly obesity is only getting worse worldwide... Its almost unbelievable that every second human outside is overweight now from where I am... And every 5th obese... Insane numbers
So in ny country they stopped super size but basically got rid of the small portion of sides and drink and the minimum you can order is "regular" which used to be medium, "medium" which used tk be large and "large" which used to be supersize. I suspect this is a worldwide move McDonald's made to get rid of the stigma
Well a high school science teacher had his class construct an only McDonald’s meal plan and he lost weight.
@@urusledgehe also are exclusively low carb egg muffins that were removed from the menu because no one eats healthy food at McDonald's, started exercising way more just as the documentary started, and was distanced from McDonald's after publishing a book on how to get more horny.
@@lazymasswell yeah with Covid there was nothing else to really do but be depressed and eat that’s why there’s even more
I remember watching this as a kid (it was being shown to us for a class) and even though I was definitely a young child, I still felt like there was something about the entire thing that rubbed me the wrong way. Imagine a 9 or something year old kid literally asking something along the lines of "if the point is just to eat only mcdonald's when you're hungry, why eat THAT much" in their own way.
It still rubs me the wrong way, but at least people know why now.
The main problems with super size me is that he always ate even when he wasn't hungry and always supersized when asked even if he wasn't that hungry. The other problem is afterwards he went on a "detox" diet that was vegan because his wife is a self-certified nutritionist. Then there have been multiple attempts to reproduce this experiment and with vastly different results(sometimes positive). The guy didn't log his diet and apparently he was drinking a lot of alcohol. There is a lot of problems with fast food but this doc was extremely misleading.
Calling it a documentary is a stretch, it's more like reality programing.
@@shadoudirges I mean that is all documentaries. Even simple ones like wildlife documentaries tend to be misleading but when they get into social issues they are almost guaranteed to be setup to sell something or appeal to a bias. They can be good to open issues up but they often create more problem than solutions.
@AlyFrederi That's my biggest problem with the film, it was presented at schools to children/minors with minimal critical thinking. Now we have many adults that think fast food is poison and the main reason for obesity. _(Which neither reflect reality.)_
@@RaindropsOnLichen if this movie was purely meant for entertainment, then I have no problem with that. The problem with this film is that it was paraded around as a documentary and shown to kids in school everywhere. If you’re trying to change the minds of children, glossing over facts and scientific methods should be the last thing you do, even if you’re trying to bump up the entertainment value.
At the end of the day, it is a reality tv show. Not everything is gonna be real.
My biggest issue with this documentary is that we never see him exercise or try to do anything other then sit in his car/hotel room when he eats. I also remember that he actually was on a vegan diet, because of his girlfriend, before starting the diet. MAJOR change from a vegan diet to one where you have meat in every single meal is gonna have a BIG effect on how your body responds to certain foods.
YES, I hated how biased this documentary is, and I don't even eat mcdonalds that much.
You think he has the energy for exercise eating that much Mcdonalds? LOL Thing is, this was made in 2004 and the number of fat americans has skyrocketed since then.
Exactly. The documentary fathead calls put the holes in this whole premise
Yeah, we're talking about a systemic issue where the healthier alternative (which is likely more satisfying at lower calories and good for you on top) is displaced by calorie dense foods everywhere. McD isn't even that freaking bad (well, bad enough) in comparison. Try pastries, fat-sugar dough rolls you can just inhale are completely insane, all things considered. But well, watermelons cost way too much if you're a poor family with kids who want sweets. It's a huge thing.
So much nonsense, starting with the "preservatives bad"-argument where they demonstrate how "bad" McD is by showing us the oldest trick in the book... old, not very moist fries that don't rot. Great, my oven fries I yeeted behind the counter don't really do that either. What's the point? The core message is "don't freaking eat over your calorie budget and don't order the unhealthiest items all dang day long." Just the most basic nutritional advice. Turn that into a documentary, leaving people with more knowledge about how all this works without being constantly alarmist about things that are pretty well manageable, and people wouldn't call him such a hack.
Not a great documentary.
He was sitting more and walking less to make his lifestyle more comparable to the average American man. He said so in the beginning of the documentary. I don't remember how much he decreased his daily steps but it was a significant percantage.
There's a really neat documentary that acted as a rebuttal that we were shown in my college health class called Fat Head. I remember we were learning there were some issues with this movie with how they went about it, transparency, the science, things they left out, etc (essentially iirc a lot of the stuff Dr.Mike is saying here). I would really love if Dr. Mike watched that one too to see what he says!
Yeah Fat Head was a great response doc would be great to see Dr.Mike compare both.
Yes! Thank you. He should react to this one next.
I enjoyed Fat Head much more, it seemed more honest while Morgan just seemed to try to prove his point rather than conduct an actual experiment.
I definitely think he should react to Fat Head next. I’m surprised he didn’t notice how many calories Spurlock ate every day supposedly only super sizing when they offered.
What this documentary didn't tell you is that he gorged himself on 5000 calories of mediocre food and was a severe alcoholic for years. Others have tried to replicate his experiment and their health improved. If they had just been honest, this would have been a great doc about the dangers of excessive drinking.
I feel like the correlation between weight loss and sitting down for meals is establishing a routine. Once that routine is followed, assuming you're not overeating during the sit-down meal, weight loss becomes less strenuous.
It may be a part of it, but there are too many variables to account for it would basically be impossible to come to any conclusions with a study.
Spurlock stopped exercising, which is fair since he was trying to emulate the average ameriacan, but he also refused to release his food log. When others tried to recreate his meals they found the most calories dense options added up to about 3500, 1500 short of his claimed 5000 average. Spurlock also later confessed to being a major alcholic, unable to go a week sober.
Thank you! I just commented this somewhere else. But there are genuine criticisms to this documentary that just make Spurlock look...more than a bit sketchy.
Well, that is also true for a lot of Americans.
He couldn’t be sober? Then he’s a high-functioning alcoholic because I don’t think I have ever seen someone speak so clearly and have such completely normal motor skills while drunk.
And if he was already a drunk prior to the documentary, it’s great that all his blood levels were in such great shape! He must have amazing genes to be constantly drunk but not a single one of his doctors noticed!
@@lenagraham2093 I can tell you're being sarcastic. At least I hope you are. Spurlock's alcoholism was intentionally left out of the docu and hidden by all the doctors/professionals. It's a misleading documentary.
I remember watching this back in like 2010 and my biology teacher basically did a live commentary on why this isn't good science. Basically a continuous multi-hour version of this video. 12 years on I hope that teacher is going as strong as Dr Mike is.
He died this week of pancreatic cancer.
Who
@@AliAdeel777they guy who made the documentary
@@chickennugg9712 oh thank you very much for clarifying.
Good riddance
Yeah we watched this in home economics. Which is a class that teaches you how to cook from scratch and they try and make the meals really healthy like soup, spaghetti, cottage pie, quiche. Even healthier treats. It also taught us what a balanced diet is and nutrients/vitamins in food. Probably the few classes I took the most from.
That's cool, and I bet it tastes 100x better too
In what world is spaghetti healthy? It's just McDonald's with less sat fats, and you don't have lettuce or tomato etc.
I was force to watch this documentary in my health class
@@xquahd making spaghetti bolognaise is much healthier than eating macdonalds. I buy mince, tomatoes onions garlic carrots and it all gets cooked in a small amount of oil. I also buy 20% less fat mince. Also do I not understand how much extra stuff is in that burger. When they say a 100% beef they mean the meat is a 100% beef. There is sugar in the patty on top of all the additives that aren’t naturally found in meat. Also portion size is really important but do you know what the most important thing about learning how to make spaghetti bolognaise is that your actually learning a skill that once you know a few basic meals ur already eating healthier than buying ready made meals or fast food. So in what world U ask is spaghetti bolognaise healthy? In everyone’s else’s world except yours because your clearly uneducated on what goes into food.
Loved that movie when it came out. While everyone was expecting him to get some kind of damage to his health, the amount of bad things that actually happened surprised me (and even his doctor, if I recall correctly).
Besides, the scariest part was that he really liked eating at McDonalds, after 30 days he was basically addicted that that food.
Hi Katherine!
To the best or my recollection, there are actual addictive additives within food at McDonald's, as well as, I'm sure, other fast food chains.
@@itsinugami Yeap, they are called Salt, Carbohydrates, and Fat.
Part of it is he lied. Nobody could actually replicate what happened to him in these experiments with what he ate. He was not being truthful about his diet, and he was doing something not on camera. Not to say this kind of diet ISN'T bad... but he definitely falsified some things in order to make it a bigger headline, which is really too bad.
@@candykit5382 Was going to say this. It wasn't just some of it. He lied about basically everything. None of what he did was real, at all. As you said, this kind of diet is absolutely bad and will cause damage to you. Just not in this timeframe. The entire movie was fake. Not sure if anyone remembers when Animal planet aired "Mermaid the body found" or the megaldon shows, but those are as truthful as this was.
I randomly started watching Dr.Mike one day and I couldn’t stop watching him since❤️
Same
Same
Same
@@𱁬 BOT
He’s the best
3:47 "Liver inflamation" could stem from a prior (if not recent) history of alcoholism.
It did - he admitted that he was along-term alcoholic.
Being a personal trainer, there is a lot of misconceptions about Body Mass index. My own Dr. Once told me I was considered obese (BMI scale) even though my body fat percentage was 12% and I had muscle. You always explain things very well and seem like and amazing Dr. Thank for all the awesome content. 💪💪
I agree about BMI. I disagree about Mike's response. It's as useless as saying 98.6 is "normal" body temperature. BMI's problem isn't that it's one size fits all. It' problem is that it is one size fits no one.
I'm 6-3. According to BMI I should weigh ~185lbs. Which is what I weighed when I was 17-years old. By the time I was 18 I weighed 200lbs, and you could still count my ribs. I couldn't get down to 185 if I lopped off a leg.
BMI is a dangerous farce.
I'm a 140 lb female and I can comfortably fit into a size 6 in jeans. Weight really shouldn't be used as a health indicator.
🤷♀️
@@joebob1538 It works for some people though, like myself
@@joebob1538 I'm a climber who can hang off a 10 milimeter edge and according to BMI I'm overweight, I can absolutely relate to your experience of how ridiculous BMI can be.
BMI is a statistical tool amd not entirely linear. The human body works differently at different heights. If you're over 6 foot 5 you need a smaller BMI to maintain heart health than a 5 foot person. This is why tall people are naturally skinny with longer limbs. The human body ia only designed to work within a certain size range and anything beyond requires a different design or else you run into problems.
Statistically the risk to the heart at 300 pounds at 5 foot 5 is pretty much the same. Most doctors prefer individual analysis though as this is more valuable. The ideal BMI is a huge range but if your muscles are taking you beyond that range then you are risking health for performance. It's a common trade off athletes make, this should show people that the risk of being heavy is actually small and the real danger is malnutrition and sugar.
Keep in mind this was 18 years ago. Back then we had king size and super size. Also they did not sell salad back then. The fries were so greasy they were limp. No crunch in fries. Life was different and fast food actually tasted amazing that's why it caused such an increase in weight and health issues.
the fuk u talkikg about? its just as unhealthy then as it is now 😂
It did not taste amazing. It tasted like fast food.
Also _taste_ does not cause health issues. It was all the fat, salt and sugar that did, and still does, cause those.
@@grabble7605 good taste, causes people to go back and probably frequently.
All they did was make the meals smaller though they still cause obesity so there isn't much difference from then and now
There were salads on the menu in the doc
this was interesting to watch. I love how doctor mike clearly points out that being obese is negative, but not that people should judge you for it but that it decreases quality of life ❤️ ✨
I like seeing fat people fall. It gives me great pleasure
quality of life is everything.
4:40 I don't think the host is listening to what he's saying, he just said he needs to eat every item at least once over the 30 days
Fun fact: I have seen this film back in school, in Italy. The funny part is that our bigger McDonalds servings are basically a little less than an medium in the US; also, a McMenu will probably cost as much as a dish of pasta or a business menu in a restaurant (or a poke, if we want to stay on fast food).
Just a quick comparison between a system that wants you to get sick throu food and a decent food culture.
P.S. Sorry if the comment sounds a bit harsh but what I read about fast food vs healthy food in the US really seems a huge fattening scheme
Yup here in India, McDonalds and other fast food are much more expensive than home cooked food, Also local restaurants are much cheaper than McDonalds etc
Very sad indeed. : (
It's less a scheme to fatten us up and more a scheme to take our money.
Poke is fast food for you?? I am so jealous 😞😞
@@pineconetrees well, the poke stores concept is very similar to the fast food ones so I have always though of it as fast food (but healthy)
Doctor Mike is the only person I can watch who pauses every 10 seconds without being annoyed.
As a tall person (6'4", 194 cm), I am considered overweight at 95 kilograms (25.24 BMI), but I've tried lowering my weight to 90 kilograms (23.91 BMI), and I look downright unhealthy. As you say, the BMI system can be pretty inaccurate.
The problem is that it's often used in the medical profession to gauge individuals.
This sounded off to me so I looked up what healthy weight for your height is and I got 82.5-100.7kg. And then when I checked BMI for someone at your height at 95 kg it did give overweight like you said. So I digged a little deeper and apparently BMI isn't a very good metric for extremes. So it's not very accurate for very short people and very tall people and it says BMI shouldn't be used for people 150cm and shorter or those 190cm and taller. Sounds like you're better off sticking to 95kg. :)
@@ramblingmillennial1560it's not just that, muscle mass matters as well. Muscle is more dense than fat, you can have a very low percentage of fat, very very high percentage of muscle be absolutely jacked but be considered obese in bmi even with 10% fat , which isn't obese, neither overweight, just jacked and strong.
I'm 6'5 and at my lowest I was 195 lbs. I couldn't see how I could get lower without looking like I was starving. My BMI at that weight is 23.1 seemingly just barely below the overweight point. (25)
It goes all the way down to 18.5 before considered underweight. I know I have muscular thighs, but I doubt they are that muscular to "Throw off" my BMI.
ABSI is better
Thank you for not making us suffer through the 🤢🤮 scene. 🙏
That scene is because Morgan was a drunk; same with the liver.
When this came out I was 100 pounds overweight and ate a lot of fast food. It was more just exhaustion working, raising a child, and running a non profit group on the weekends. This show opened my eyes and I started a major change in my life.
Almost 20 years later we rarely have fast food and do mostly homemade meals. These home delivery meals really help.
those homemade delivery meals are also expensive af. maybe if i could actually use food stamps to buy them, but as it is my options are limited to groceries i'm too tired to cook, or fast food.
@@dietotaku There are plenty of home made meals that take like 20 minutes to cook and are healthy.
@@dietotaku you can bake almost anything in an oven, even vegetables. I still haven't figured out baking rice and pasta but I'll figure it out.
@@dietotaku Not sure what it's like where you live, but a good (and reasonably healthy) microwave meal in the Netherlands is generally cheaper than a meal at McDonalds. Tbh, McDonals is super expensive over here.
@@joshuarichards8065 microwave will work
There was a documentary that counter argues Spurlock's "Super size me", it's called, "Fat head". He did the same thing except ate below 2000 calories a day eating nothing but fast food and actually lost weight after 30 days.
Yeah, but that's because calories in calories out always causes weight loss. Doesn't mean he's healthy. Plus, one meal at McDonald's is about 15/1600 calories. So 2000 is still too low 😐
Doesn't matter what you eat if your in a calorie deficit you will lose weight.
you can lose weight but still have fatty deposits on your arteries. not all people who died w/ heart attack are obese. the documentary is shitty because it's not transparent but that doesn't debunked the fact that fast food aren't meant to be consumed everyday
@@justakidtrainingforstrengt1258 watch the doc before saying it’s wrong. Fat head actually showed data and explained everything properly. It wasn’t to show that fast food is good but to show how flawed supersize me was.
@@justakidtrainingforstrengt1258 when you remove the bread, sugar and salt you're left with perfectly normal plates of meat, vegetables and dairy products.
I remember watching this in school (health class). One of the immediate questions asked was does it make a difference if you eat this same stuff at home vs out? This was to challenge the idea the people are absolved of responsibility for what they ingest.
We all as a class agreed that eating this stuff all day every day is bad, but shifting blame from one's self is even worse. Great discussions we had.
best to avoid McDogfood.
@@Zebra_3 lol
So eat salad and walk alot? Cause I ear alot of frozen good from walmart
I love how Dr Mike deals with these topics in a fair way, open minded and looking at facts.
No one could duplicate Spurlock’s results, and when people tried to contact him to get specifics about his diet during the 30 days, Spurlock (who made a huge deal about people seeming suspicious for not calling him back) never got back to them. This was a goosed documentary, and while it is obviously not good for you, it was not as bad as Spurlock portrayed in the movie.
Later it was found out he was an alcoholic whilst doing this and this was why no one could replicate the experiment. If he truly did not consume anything that wasn’t available at McDonald’s then it was no wonder he was experiencing withdrawals.
@@lizziedavidson1987 how did 3 doctors not notice his alcoholism? Other than that, this documentary was a huge BS. Anyone eating 4k+ calories a day with that much carbs and fat, even from healthy foods would have the same results. This Just shows people are ignorant, easy to manipulate and stupid AF
@@Indipender your guess is as good as mine but he did come out recently and tell us he was suffering alcoholism at this point in his life. Perhaps the production persuaded the doctors to keep it quiet somehow…idk.
He was also abusing alcohol. He's admitted it.
@@lizziedavidson1987 Him abusing alcohol prior to the challenge is literally irrelevant. Does it somehow make the food healthier than before? Let’s not pretend a 1500 calorie meal is any less than what it is just because the guy had a drinking problem.
You joke about him "wanting to take McDonalds down", but when this came out, it was EVERYWHERE, and was actually instrumental in McD's making several changes to add healthier options to their menu, and remove the "supersize" option
I'm pretty sure this was also the reason they started printing nutritional values on the placemats and burger wrappers.
I miss the supersize option.
A Swedish study couldn't replicate his results even with a 5,000+ calorie a day of junk food requirement. Might look that up. Supersize Me! struck me as a very dramatized "documentary" and he may have exaggerated his results to align with his point, he isn't exactly conducting a rigorously controlled experiment. We know fast food is not good for you, but it's not 'nearly kill you in a month' bad.
He absolutely lied in this. Fat head was a good call out response to this
@@ryanjv It was, you can lose weight eating at McDonald's if you want to.
Since the original reason of the film was about McDonalds pushing customers to supersize their meals, hence people overeating fast food, and was only offered to supersize 9 times over that month, Spurlock couldn't prove that McDonalds was being willfully negligent. But he sure did infer that McDonalds adds some unidentified nefarious chemicals to the food and that's what make it addicting _(I'm like, you mean sugar, salt, and fat Spurlock?)_ but never dug further into it, because there was none. Instead he focused on his health when he completely changed his diet and lifestyle over that month. _(Which of course your health will be affected when you make such abrupt and drastic dietary and lifestyle changes like that.)_
@@HaydensDinoHaven He wasn’t vegan pre-Supersize but he was after to reduce his weight, that and actually exercising and not overindulge himself ever chance he got.
One caveat to the documentary: the "test subject" was an alcoholic.
He was alternating between heavy drinking and withdrawal during the "experiment".
I remember watching this as a kid. It caused such a scare with my family that they ended up with unrealistic health goals which were just as unhealthy as fastfood.
don't pretend McDogfood is OK.
@@Zebra_3 they never said that
@@Zebra_3 they never said that 💀
@@Zebra_3 AI
I'm pretty there is a superslimme style documentary out there
That was always my criticism with this documentary, he went into it with an agenda, pre decided what the message of the documentary would be under false pretense. He never intended to see if he could survive on eating McDonald's for a month, or if it could be done in a healthy way. He intentionally got value meals for every meal, and regularly chose some of the worst options on purpose. It paints the picture of a person that doesn't exist, nobody that can afford to eat three value meals a day actually would. Anyone that actually does eat only McDonald's everyday is on the lower income side and is probably getting things from the dollar menu, which he was not. He went the most gluttonous route possible which defeats any value from the experiment.
Also, I get the feeling that his whole "experiment" was purposely set up that way as a scare tactic. "Don't eat fast food kids, or your health will go to complete sh*t. Sure, eating fast food like McDonald's isn't that good for you, but as people point out, there will inevitably be some fast food component in most people's diets, so might as well teach them to work the menu to get the healthier options more and to minimize their reliance on fast food meals. To me, this whole thing had the same energy as the abstinence only approach to sex education taught in schools. Instead of giving people tips on dieting, meal planning and preparation, etc., just make a dramatic scene of putting your body through a gluttonous wringer and then be like "don't eat fast food. It'll basically kill ya."
Right on, man.
Actually that person does exist. A lot of ppl grow up on McDonald's and it's lowkey ur privilege that u think this type of lifestyle is unrealistic
@@allPodd LOL! Privilege is thinking that purchasing three super sized meals a day from McDonald's is sustainable for people with low income. It's not.
He was a self admitted raging alcoholic. So when he got tested later all that liver damage was due, in part, to his excessive drinking... Which he doesn't disclose in the documentary. That's additional calories, additional stress, additional factors that he didn't disclose! He 100% went into this to make a point. A stupid point. Of course he gained weight.
Dr Mike this documentary I'm afraid has been called into question in a few places due to others attempting to replicate the experiment. I think you did a fantastic job on your end sharing your medical input, but do you think you can discuss those points as well?
I was like 12 when this came out and felt it was shady. It also felt very much "look how much better I was, and then I became like you, and now I can't get a boner." As an adult, I still think the guy is a prick, and all the criticisms levied against the documentary are genuine. I was hoping Dr. Mike would be more critical tbh.
But the doc changed fast food as a whole, so I can't judge too much.
There's a documentary called Fat Head which debunked this film which is really good. Morgan is a douchebag...
Medical input without actually investigating the facts - one of the points he stresses doctors have to do to provide adequate care to their patients - is worse than worthless. And what Mike did. I like Dr Mike's videos. Usually. But this one is a HUGE FAIL.
@@joebob1538 I mean not really. Nothing Dr Mike really said was wrong and even pointed out the flaws to the documentary's challenge. He also pointed out the false dichotomy between market and personal responsibility. And even if we're concluding super size me wasn't accurate I don't think any sane person can say eating EVERY item of McDonald's menu at the time wouldn't screw up your body on some level.
Fun fact: You cannot be over 150 miles from a McDonalds in the US.
I suggest you watch the “response” documentary called Fat Head and let us know your thoughts. He does the same fast food diet with the ability to choose what he eats at McDonalds and debunks a lot of the claims Supersize Me has. He also showed it was impossible to consume as many daily calories as Spurlock claimed.
I agree. I seen this on too, and his doctor noted that he actually lost weight.
I agree!
I came to say the same thing. Super Size Me has largely been debunked and I'm a little sad he didn't do a little more research before posting this reaction video. I hope he does watch Fat Head also.
Came here to say this. This documentary has been debunked and to be honest I'm a little disappointed in Dr. Mike for not doing proper research into it. Not that it's healthy to eat fast food, but that guy lied a lot.
@@robot7935 You can do some research about the topic and still do a live reaction. Lots of react channels do it. You can even do the research after recording the reaction and post a follow up at the end. Channels do that too.
A study was done and there were preexisting conditions and cheating this man did while eating McDonald's that skewed his results. Groups have tried to replicate the results, but none have done so.
Yeah, I think I remember hearing that he vastly overate to skew the results.
Im glad someone else pointed this out!
I was also going to say this, but glad you beat me to it.
They do show you that in the documentary, he throws up from overeating the first few days
yeah, it's also very likely that he consumed an incredibly unhealthy amount of alcohol during this time, which skewed the results even further.
Something Morgan Spurlock did not mention in the documentary but he later admitted to is his consumption of alcohol during that time. Per his own confession, he has been consistently drinking since the age of 13 and hasn't been sober when he made the revelation more than a decade later.
thanks you for mentioning this. i really dislike how people took this movie as gospel when he was hiding so much stuff that he did BEFORE filming this. it's a terrible movie, and an awful take.
They also don't mention that he cut way back on his excercise when he started this. Other people have tried this while maintaining their normal excercise routine and eating the recommended 2000 calories a day and had way different results.
Well to be fair, if he's been drinking since he was 13, the tests he took before starting the experiment would still be based on his health while being an alcoholic, surely? Which means his health still deteriorated severely in just 30 days, which likely wouldn't be caused by a drinking habit he must've had for a good long while before the making of this video?
Wouldn’t that be ideal that he was drinking during those 30 days if that was his normal behavior?? If he suddenly quit alcohol during the testing period, then it would throw off the results. Wouldn’t we want someone to continue their normal daily patterns to get the most accurate results? 🤔 He May not have been in the best health due to the drinking, but the results clearly showed a difference from the time he started to the time it was over... Or are u saying he quit drinking during the experiment?
Not trying to be argumentative, I’m just genuinely curious.
@@Zeydarchist Yes, pretend like the food industry has no part in the obesity epidemic. /smh
I used to work at McDonald’s, I don’t think I ever saw a piece of lettuce go on anything but a burger
I watched this full documentary during health class in May, and being someone who probably eats at McDonald’s / Fast Food Restaurants once a year, I felt all the “oily-ness” that he was consuming through the screen.
I haven't eaten there in 6 years. You know what your getting there. Mediocre food that doesn't taste great. And it's bad for you.
@@Creatorsan I do admit that I sometimes crave their food, but it’s not something I can’t live without and like you said, it’s not high quality food both in nutritional value and in satisfying terms.
To bad you had a such low quality class that they fell for this bs
I haven't eaten fast food in over a decade. One day I went into a Burger King or something, because my mom wanted to order something during our road trip. I couldn't believe how much the prices went up. Everything was over $7. Also, it looks like the sizes got even bigger. Because apparently more soda is just what Americans needed.
This came out when I was in high-school. They made us watch it and I'm glad they did. I feel this documentary/ social experiment did change fast food. I don't recall many healthy options prior.
Yep. This might've also been around the time that fast food places started having to list the calorie counts on their menu items.
Fast food places soon got rid of their super size options shortly after as well.
I remember seeing this film about 10 to 15 years ago. I found it to be stupid because it is obvious that if you eat nothing but fries, fried burgers on a bun, and soda for 30 days, you are going to have health problems. But I also saw that the film did not give the full problem with the huge health problem we have in America. They were not wanting to show people the problem, they were just out to attack McDonald's.
1. McDonald's is not the only junk food restaurant.
2. Junk food restaurants won't make you unhealthy. It is what you eat and how often. You can go to many junk food restaurants and order healthy. In fact, I did a video on it. In fact, the restaurant this film picks on does have some healthy food options. Isn't it interesting that McDonald's is worldwide but Americans are the only ones offected? #3 will explain the real problem.
3. You do not have to eat out to become overweight and unhealthy. It isn't the restaurant, it is what you eat and how often. You can cook unhealthy foods at home. Are you shocked? I have been to European countries. They have junk food restaurants just like we do in America. The problem we have is not the restaurants, it is what Americans like to overindulge in even at home. Lots of carbs and fried foods.
So, I did find this film to be more of attack on McDonald's and not very informative
very good reasoning , i agree with your points.
Kind of a false equivalency on point 3 since it was pointed out in the original documentary and remains true to this day European equivalents of fast food restaurants often host different menus prepared with different standards amd often in smaller proportions. McDonald's was probably chosen because of it's ubiquity around the world at the time and I'd wager it's still the most popular restaurant world over. This was a doc made in the early 2000s by some dude it's not some kind of smear campaign and if it was it 1) didn't work cos McDonald's is still thriving 20 yrs after and 2) maybe only resulted in fast food companies adding healthier options to the menu and telling consumers the calories within their meals which is what he was going for anyway
Mcdonald's doesn't have any healthy options except for the Egg McMuffin with no meat.
Take out the soda and it wouldn't be that bad
but..people...are....doing...this.... some even live terrible lives bouncing from fast food to fast food places for every meal....
2:22 the video in reference says it is both. It is asking how much is each party responsible. While some may argue it is solely on the consumer for choosing bad places, I personally would only accept that if the restaurant in question is 100% transparent about the their food... and not limiting their "transparency" to offering nutritional information.
Dr Mike I’m very surprised that you took on this documentary when it was directly discussed in “Fat Head”. Morgen Spurlock NEVER shared his food diary, never showed his activities for the day. I suggest you do a watch of the second documentary by Tom Naughton.
It's interesting that when I was growing up, my mom or grandma would always cook for dinner and we never ate out but it's not a causal relationship, as you've said, and I was still quite overweight as a child
Me too. We ate at home every dinner and I was a fat child.
They probably used unhealthy ingredients /too much of unhealthy ingredients
Lots of people cook at home but cook unhealthy food lol. I really do think that portions are wehre a lot of people go wrong, but also using too much oil/butter. Growing up all of my siblings and I except one was a healthy weight and now pretty much all of us are overweight due to dining out or ordering too much takeout.
I would love to see you also review the rebuttal documentary called Fat Head. I think that both of them put together help people understand nutrition and why exercise should maybe be part of what we view as a diet.
Fat Head is a great rebuttal to Supersize Me, but it also has some really bad nutritional science itself. It quickly goes from "actually most of the Spurlock claims are bullshit and you can just order small meals at McD and stay healthy and even lose weight" to keto-bro nonsense and other full-on pseudoscience like "greedy fat cells".
I just suggest that too then I saw your comment
One thing Fat Head does in particular is prove that Supersize Me was outright lying about nearly everything.
Fathead was excellent. Far more valuable, informative and CREDIBLE than this morgan spurlock trash.
I second this.
For a middle school science class I made a keto diet using only McDonald’s and gas station food and nobody believed me
i remember watching this when I was younger. I avoid eating fast food so I guess watching it did have an influence on me, though also as I grew older I started to dislike the taste of most fast food anyway... or just heavy food in general-- I cannot stomach it anymore. I'm grateful that I am privileged enough to just cook instead, it's something I enjoy anyway. Back when I watched this for the first time, I didn't understand much about nutrition, but rewatching this now, I'm making so many more connections.
Ah, my dogs name is Mocha. I see that you have good taste 😂
I’m a vegetarian so there’s not much I can eat at McDonald’s anyways but even before I went veggie I didn’t like McDonald’s mich. The fries were addictive although they didn’t taste that good it was honestly just addictive. The nuggets tasted like chemicals. I didn’t eat their burgers cuz I’ve never eaten a burger. They didn’t look appetizing anyways. It all tastes so much like chemicals even the water.
@@riverdaisy4215 Water is made up of chemicals of two hydrogens and 1 oxygen simplified. in fact, everything around you is made up of chemicals.
Whenever the health teachers didn’t know what to do they put this on, I swear I watched it at least a dozen times
Sometimes for me it was when we had substitute teachers. We could only stand watching the same Disney movies for so long with substitutes. So playing this movie kept us from goofing off when the lights were out.
Hence it is called indoctrination, not education.
this and food inc lol
"Trying to be perfect, actually usually yields to worse outcomes."
Good advice, sir, good advice.
my dad told me about this and said the guy passed away already 😢 i hope he's wrong about that or that i misheard him, but if he has indeed passed on then i have respect for him doing this to educate people
I remember watching this video in my personal health class in high school. Crazy how it's been almost 20 years since that documentary came out. Well done.
I would love to see an updated version of this experiment considering portion sizes (at least here in Canada) have decreased, healthier options have been added, and prices have skyrocketed.
Fathead is in interesting documentary in response to this one!
I wish the sizes would decrease here in the US, I think they did for a while and have starting sneakily getting larger again, I swear the cup always seems larger than I remember.
@@jus10tje06 Yep! It directly proves that the whole Supersize Me documentary is bullshit. Nobody has been able to even reproduce what Spurlock did because he won't release the information about what he ate to the public.
I remember hearing about this in school in europe in the 2010's, I still remember that his liver took two years to return to normal. wild how big of an impact this doc had.
Well, his alcoholism didn't help his liver either.
They did get rid of the super size option, but his video was never enough to convince me not to buy chicken nuggets. I stand by my opinion
Wow I love that you considered economic status!! Sometimes I feel like doctors are a bit ignorant or not sensitive when I tell them I can't afford their treatment plans...
This documentary was one of the many things that helped me plant the seeds to try and start getting in shape. I was still over weight through most of school but this documentary did make me realize I should try and start cutting down on fast food where ever I can. Now I only ever eat out if I'm with friends or if I wasn't able to pack a lunch on time before work
As interesting as this is, it needs to be taken with a grain of salt or two. Obviously not too many people have tried, but of those that have there are certain aspects of Spurlock's that no one has been able to replicate. I am not saying go and eat fast food every day, you'll be fine. But its worth noting that it would not have the same effects on everyone, so many more factors come in to play than just what you eat. Genetics are going to play a very big role in the problems that would arise in a diet like this.
Exactly! And this movie has to be compared to individual fast food consumption as well. Certainly there are people who eat nothing but fast food but I imagine they are not the majority...?
Yes was looking to see if anyone commented this. I remember there being a little bit of controversy around certain parts of this film.
I've also seen allegations that even on the worst hypothetical day (eg: super-sizing both lunch and dinner on the largest meal available) it would've been mathematically questionable reaching the calories they claimed he was eating on average, and to the best of my knowledge he still has never revealed his actual logs of what he ate.
@@icefox500 wow i wasn't aware of that. Im quite surprised actually since I know now have quite a few items that are like around 800 calories by themselves. Big Mac for example. I know a super size(when they had it) big Mac meal for example is quite a bit over 1500 calories for one meal wich is pretty insane amount for one meal. You could definitely go over 3000 for just lunch and dinner alone which is quite a bit more than the average person should have in a day
Rest in peace 🪦 Morgan Spurlock
6:44
Should've gotten the Happy Meal
😭😂
Oh jeez😂
Real
We had to watch this in health class in sixth grade, and it was both interesting, and revolting. I’ve never been to McDonald’s, and I don’t plan on it. I am glad you’re talking about this because it needs to be heard!!
McDonald's is totally fine in moderation. I probably eat fast food once or twice a month and my doctor is fine with that. She does the same.
@@3DJapan absolutely! But for people who pretty much live off of fast food, they usually don’t know just how dangerous it can be
It was also debunked. Watch fathead, the response documentary.
I remember we had to watch this in High school health. The teacher was one of those very strict, judgy vegans (Like she could have been related to That Vegan Teacher). One of the few times I became kinda popular to my class I legitimately just asked her what this was supposed to teach us. Like...Everything in moderation is what I learned from doctors growing up. Like it's okay to eat junk but make sure you eat healthy things too. She was pushing "Fast food and meat bad! Look what happened to this guy!"
She didn't like me very much.
my health teacher in middle school was the exact same! he showed us vegan “documentaries” about how eating meat will cause you to die a horrible painful death and how animals are tortured to death (with uncensored footage). he then made us write an essay about why veganism is the right choice. i rebelled in a similar way and wrote about why a balanced diet is best.
Only 30 days? Rookie numbers in this bracket
I remember watching this in Foods class back in High School. I was certainly shocked. I imagine eating at the same place for 30 days would get tiring after a while. Understanding that some families income are different from others and could result in eating fast food more regularly. Having a family of my own, I understand it. Eating on a healthier budget is challenging as well since it's more expensive since we have a budget every week.
I'd love to see Mike's reaction to the follow up documentary "Fat head". It's not perfect but I do think it shows how one sided Super Size Me and just diet advice is in generally. What I learned from watching them is that nutrition is complicated and not even remotely black and white as we wish it was.
Weather you agree with this documentary or not, Fathead didn't "disprove" it. They didn't have any credible sources.
look up kiana docherty’s video on that documentary. it isn’t as great as it was really meant to be,and had no credible sources. and there’s good reason to believe the guy was working with mcdonald’s to make it look good on purpose after the effects of super size me
I loved this movie as a kid! It was definitely an eye opener as I got older
Congrats Doctor Mike for approaching 10M subscribers!
@@𱁬 Jokes on you, I will die wheter I'm cursed or not.
@@flawnel lol
@@flawnel uno reverse card
@@flawnel lol right! 😆
As a kid? Jeeze... Thank you for making me feel old AF! 😄
Me: looks at Morgan Spurlock's symptoms at the end of his 30 days at McDonald's.
Also me: looks at the common symptoms of alcoholism, notice a lot of overlap, and Morgan later admitting to already being a 14 year alcoholic at the time of filming SSM.
Hmm...
I remember back in middle school nutrition class, the teacher showed this documentary not expecting the talk about sex drive. Big rip
You should react to "Jacked on Jack" where Alex Tima on UA-cam tried to build muscle by only eating Jack in the Box for a month. He does a good job of illustrating that you can be healthy with whatever's available as long as you are mindful about what specifically you are eating.
8:57 there's no way Morgan was at 11% bodyfat when he started. He looked closer to 20%.
RIP Morgan Spurlock😥