Teacher Eats Nothing But McDonald's for 90 Days, Loses Weight
I'm sure we're all familiar with that 2004 documentary "Supersize Me," in which a man by the name of Morgan Spurlock ate nothing but McDonald's for 30 days, gaining a significant amount of weight and doing severe damage to his health.
Well, a science teacher from Ankeny, Iowa named John Cisna decided to repeat Morgan Spurlock's experiment, but with a few changes...
Unlike Spurlock, who simply decided to gorge himself on whatever menu item happened to catch his eye and refused to exercise for the duration of the experiment, Cisna followed strict nutritional guidelines, including a maximum of 2,000 calories per day, as well as walking for 45 minutes a day. On top of that, Cisna ate nothing but McDonalds for 90 days instead of 30.
The results?
Not only did Cisna lose 37 pounds, but his cholesterol took a significant dive, from 249 to 170.
Based on Cisna's experiment, we can conclude that Spurlock's experiment resulted in severe health deterioration not because Spurlock was eating McDonald's, but rather because he was taking in an excessive amount of calories (gorging himself), and refusing to exercise. That sort of behavior will result in weight gain regardless of what you eat.
The obvious lesson here is that we are each individually responsible for our own health, and trying to blame fast food restaurants for our own habits is immature and irrational.
Well, a science teacher from Ankeny, Iowa named John Cisna decided to repeat Morgan Spurlock's experiment, but with a few changes...
Unlike Spurlock, who simply decided to gorge himself on whatever menu item happened to catch his eye and refused to exercise for the duration of the experiment, Cisna followed strict nutritional guidelines, including a maximum of 2,000 calories per day, as well as walking for 45 minutes a day. On top of that, Cisna ate nothing but McDonalds for 90 days instead of 30.
The results?
Not only did Cisna lose 37 pounds, but his cholesterol took a significant dive, from 249 to 170.
Based on Cisna's experiment, we can conclude that Spurlock's experiment resulted in severe health deterioration not because Spurlock was eating McDonald's, but rather because he was taking in an excessive amount of calories (gorging himself), and refusing to exercise. That sort of behavior will result in weight gain regardless of what you eat.
The obvious lesson here is that we are each individually responsible for our own health, and trying to blame fast food restaurants for our own habits is immature and irrational.
In the 80s I heard we needed to suck the fat out of foods. Now it turns out, as I understand, most fat is good for you. Removing the fat made foods LESS healthful.
I always think of that in the context of climate change deniers. It seems unlikely that something the evidence points to but we wish were false actually is false. Any case like this is almost certainly wishful thinking. Yet fat is a case of something we wished weren't harmful, but the evidence pointed to its being harmful, and it appears it was not nearly as simple-- it looks like the truth is closer to our wishes. Maybe other wishes will come true: CO2 causes no harm, a benevolent god watches over my family and cares about us, McDonalds is actually really good for you, I will soon become a Roark of the electronics world. Fat being not bad for you, though, is probably my one wishful-thought-come-true of my life.
Now of course John Cisna was already overweight to begin with, and he wasn't exercising at all prior to his experiment, but started walking for 45 minutes a day once the experiment commenced. So it is reasonable to say that his weight loss was the result of taking up mild exercise, rather than eating at but McDonald's. If he wanted to continue losing weight, he would eventually reach a point where he would have to stop eating junk food.
But the ultimate point is that McDonald's cannot be held responsible for making anyone fat, because people can still avoid getting fat if they exercise regularly. Obviously they won't become thin (that requires healthy food), but they can avoid becoming obese.
Basically what I'm trying to say is that people should stop blaming McDonald's for their obesity, and recognize that the real culprit is their own failure to exercise.