An article describes two people who eat McDonald’s for 30 days and do not have their health fall apart. The first person supposedly lost 8 pounds, and improved his triglycerides by 42% by eating between 3,000 and 5,000 calories per day. Granted he, worked out every day and he was in awesome physical shape to start with, but this still sounds a little fishy. I mean to have your triglycerides drop 42% doesn’t make a lot of sense. It’s almost like he did not fast correctly for his original blood tests (triglycerides can be thrown way off, if you do not fast). Also, his blood pressure went from 111/71 to 121/81. He claims this was originally low, and now it’s normal, which is incorrect. 120-130 is pre-hypertension. You really want to be below 120. And having your blood pressure raise 10 points in thirty days is really nothing to brag about… that’s scary! The second person stayed below 2,000 calories per day, and also did exercise.

I think both these people missed the point of Super Size Me a bit. The first guy shows that being physically fit is really important. That is something that Morgan Spurlock brings up in the movie. In fact, he purposefully takes cabs to reduce his fitness to be as physically active as the “average” American. The first guy is not your average American. He’s totally ripped and probably in the extreme upper percentile of Americans. You’re average American does not work out for an hour and a half per day. That guy probably needs 4,000+ calories per day to fuel his body. And the second person who kept her daily calories below 2,000 missed the point that it’s damn hard to do that. You’re average combo consists of at least 1,000 calories! Get three of those, and you’re easily over 3,000 calories.

Super Size Me really points the blame at America’s overeating and laziness for the obesity issue. I think he did pick on McDonald’s and fast food for the shock value. But it’s hard to eat well at most every restaurant out there, fast food or not. In fact many times other restaurants are worse, much worse. He probably could have done the movie eating out at a different restaurant for all 900 meals, but that doesn’t have the same marketing hype. His point was to raise awareness on the obesity issue. He was able to grab a lot of attention by picking on fast food. I think many people will now see the movie and hopefully learn to change their lifestyles that otherwise would not have. If this happens at McDonald’s expense, then so be it. It’s not like they’re a saint of a company or anything.