Fatkins Diet

A new documentary by Morgan Spurlock looks at America’s addiction to fast food in an up-close and personal way. In “Super Size Me,” the filmmaker himself is the guinea pig. For one month, the 33-year-old Spurlock ate nothing but McDonald’s food—three squares a day.

Not but a few days into the experiment, Spurlock started vomiting up meals, struggled with depression and wild mood swings and had no sex drive. By the end of the month, he had packed on 25 pounds, his cholesterol ballooned from 165 to 230 and doctors were alarmed by his liver toxicity. “The liver test was the most shocking thing,” said Dr. Daryl Isaacs, one of three doctors who agreed to monitor Spurlock’s health. “It became very, very abnormal.”

Spurlock got the idea for his movie in 2002 when he heard about two people who filed suit against McDonald’s for making them obese. The world’s largest restaurant company responded by saying that McDonald’s food was good and nutritious. Spurlock—surprise, surprise!—was skeptical.

It says a lot about our society when obese people sue restaurants for “making them” fat, wealthy executives and lawyers defend a Big Mac’s nutritive value, and a “reality show” lets average Americans watch someone get fat and depressed.