Superunsize Me

Mr. Tweedy wants to try an interesting experiment: eat nothing but McDonalds for a month, but keep up his exercise routine, and see if he loses weight.

This is, of course, in response to Supersize Me - a 2004 "documentary" in which a man spends some time eating nothing but McDonalds to "prove" that it causes weight gain.

I think most sensible people see through the hoax. Obviously eating all and only McDonalds is no one's idea of healthy. The very premise of the film is disingenuous: even McDonalds doesn't peddle its products as something the entire human population should live on! Mr. Tweedy's entry on it cuts right to the chase. People make their own choices, eating at McDonalds is a choice, and Morgan Spurlock, by setting himself a completely unnatural set of rules (i.e. eat three meals a day at McDonalds and only at McDonalds, stop exercising and always "supersize" when asked) is really just burning straw men.

I think Mr. Tweedy's right that exercise and not deliberately overeating are the key. Anyone in good shape who suddenly stops exercising altogether will gain weight, and overeating, no matter what the substance, will obviously not slim you down (duh!).

What's amazing to me about people like Spurlock is not so much that they have it in for Corporate America, but that they seem to actually believe that there are people out there who don't know that McDonalds is unhealthy! It reminds me of a cool group I noticed on Facebook a while back called "Smoking's bad for me??!? Thanks, man, you just saved my life!" (Or something close to that.) Because honestly - there can't be more than about 5 people alive today who DON'T know that smoking is harmful. Given that this knowledge is out there - isn't it time to sort of...um...leave well alone and let people enjoy the cigarettes they voluntarily consume? And, likewise, to lay off McDonalds already - because there are few (if any at all!) people who eat there who are under the impression that it's good for them.

I would just like to say that I really like McDonalds. I'm definitely on the McDonalds side of the "McDonalds or Burger King?" question - and so I guess it's even more gratifying for me than most when people do these "I can lose weight and still eat McDonalds" experiments.

The only negative thing I have to say about what Mr. Tweedy is proposing to do is this: it seems to be a waste of time. People have already done it, the point's arleady been made - if you don't really like McDonalds, why go to all the trouble just because you're annoyed at a movie most people have already forgotten about anyway?

That off my chest - best of luck!