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.
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.