Super Size Me, is an almost comedic documentary starring Morgan Spurlock, about his 3-week journey of eating only foods from McDonald’s; for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. The challenge also included always accepting a supersized meal whenever it was offered. It almost sounds like it would be fun, but in the end, Spurlock suffered multiple health issues, including liver dysfunction, rapid weight gain, depression, and his cholesterol was much higher than when he had first started. Most of this sounds valid, but is it possible this incredible health experiment was at least partially phony?
Towards the end of the documentary, his doctor mentioned his liver was “turning into patte”, because of this high-fat diet. The doctor noticed that it almost looked like his liver had been through an alcohol binge. At the beginning of the documentary, the same doctor asks Spurlock if he is drinking, and he responds with “Now?-None.” However, in December of 2017, he may have accidentally revealed the truth.
“Is it because I’ve been consistently drinking since the age of thirteen? I haven’t been sober for more than a week in the last thirty years,” He mentioned in his article, “I am part of the problem.” Could this be why his liver looked so horrendous by the end? His heavy alcohol abuse could have also contributed to other health issues, such as weight gain and depression.
Though initially, the doctor said Spurlock seemed like a fairly healthy young man. So maybe alcohol wasn’t the biggest part in his unhealthy transformation, but he still admitted to never stopping his drinking habits. If his claims are true, alcohol abuse must have at least somewhat affected the final result of the experiment.
Even if Supersize Me was valid, that doesn’t mean that Morgan Spurlock was an angel. He also mentioned in “I am Part of the Problem”, the name of a post he made in 2017, of him coming clean, that he had committed many sexual misconducts, explained in detail in his writing. Spurlock, the man behind the screen, with a sense of humor and a burst of fame, truly wasn’t as trustworthy as he seemed.
Supersize Me was a huge hit, so much so that it is still watched at our school district to this day! Morgan Spurlock made one of the most popular food documentaries, making a dent in the fast food industry. Of course, this article isn’t meant to imply that you should eat tons of fast food and that nothing in the documentary was true, but rather to bring to light some of the problems behind the scenes.