When Fat Head was released, I knew it was controversial and expected a love-it-or-hate-it response. As it turned out, most people heard about the film through low-carb or paleo-diet blogs, so they were predisposed to like it. Ahhh, the good old days. Now that Fat Head is on Hulu and being viewed by people who thought Super Size Me was both truthful and brilliant, I’m seeing more of the angry reviews I always expected.
A few of Spurlock’s fans have shown up previously to comment on my YouTube clips. I referred to them as boozlers in a previous post because they refuse to believe they were bamboozled by Spurlock, even though logic and simple math prove he couldn’t have followed his own rules. I replied to their comments on YouTube since it’s my channel and they took it upon themselves to show up there, but I’m not going to bother posting replies on Hulu. I’m not sure it’s even possible, and I don’t think it would be good idea anyway.
But just for a fun, I’ll post some quotes here with my replies.
Are you kidding me? Why in the world would you want to stand up in defense for the likes of McDonalds?
I have this crazy tendency to be annoyed when people are accused of crimes they didn’t commit. If someone produced a film blaming Anheuser-Busch for all the alcoholics in the country, I’d stand up and defend Anheuser-Busch as well.
Spurlock attended film school and was experienced and well-versed on how to create a documentary that spoke to a varied demographic. It is difficult to connect with Naughton’s attempt, which amounts to a lengthy, redundant, monotone rant.
I have no problem admitting that Morgan Spurlock is far more skilled at producing polished propaganda than I am. He sucks as a researcher, he’s clueless about science and nutrition, and simple math says he was dishonest about what he actually ate, but he’s an entertaining filmmaker. I didn’t attend film school, but I’m guessing they don’t offer a course titled It’s Not Ethical to Lie to Your Audience in a Documentary.
Super-size Me started an epidemic in the fast food industry, MacDonald & others was shaking in their boots when that film came out.
Yes, Old MacDonald was deeply shaken by Super Size Me. So was McDonald’s, especially when their sales continued going up every year after it was released. Newsflash: the people who swallowed the nonsense in Super Size Me weren’t eating at McDonald’s in the first place. The film had roughly the same economic impact as if the faculty at Yale boycotted NASCAR events.
Morgan is a great guy & don’t judge him base on Super Size me.
Good point. I shouldn’t judge him base on the film that made his career. From now on, I’ll judge him by how nicely he treats waitresses and taxi drivers.
clearly, morgan spurlock was attempting to point out that if you eat three square meals per day at a fast food restaurant your caloric intake will be staggering.
I guess the simple math I put on the screen wasn’t simple enough. To average more than 5,000 calories per day, he had to eat far more than even three large combos would provide — and since he promised to eat everything on the menu at least once, what the heck happened on the days he ordered a 400-calorie chicken salad? Of course, he could clear up this mystery by honoring the dozens of requests from journalists to publish his food log, but since he won’t, I’m going with the simple math for now.
Guess what, Supersize Me actually made a lot of change in the world.
Can’t argue with that. I’ve been amazed at the drop in obesity and diabetes since Super Size Me was released. I was delighted when Michelle Obama held a press conference recently and said, “I am terminating the government’s anti-obesity program. It turns out Super Size Me solved the crisis.”
He should REALLY be using a DEXA scan or something much more accurate to measure body fat. Bioelectrical impedance analysis is terribly inaccurate.
I didn’t know the doctor was going to measure my body fat until he handed me the device. But next time, I’ll call ahead and make sure he uses the brand you recommend.
Ok McJacka$…keep eating your burgers if that makes you happy, you are a big boy, and nobody can tell you what to put in you pie hole.
I’m delighted to know you share my libertarian views on freedom and personal responsibility. Give me a fist-bump, my brother.
This guy is a joke. I can’t even list the number of arguments he made that were later contradicted by other arguments.
Pretty please, list them. I’d like to know.
Humans got shorter? No, humans evolved into taller humans.
If you believe human history began 12,000 years ago, you are correct. But it’s comforting to know that after switching to agriculture made us six inches shorter, it only took 10,000 years to regain our Paleolithic height.
And based on anthropological data, most of what we ate was plant based, with meat coming in when the tribe made a kill, which could be days or weeks apart. I’m calling a tool alert on this annoyingly voice-varying airhead.
Yes, my ancestors in Ireland no doubt lived exclusively on plants during the long, cold winters when nothing grows. Same for Inuits; they grow a lot of corn and beans up there in the Arctic. And of course, after the buffalo-hide hunters wiped out the buffalo population, the Plains Indians said to themselves, “No big deal. We only managed to kill one every few weeks anyway.”
jacka** is giving fat people hope that they can cling too their food (poison) and their terrible way of life.
That’s the main message of my documentary: Don’t change anything, cling too your food, keep eating all the sugar and starch you’re eating now, and you’ll magically begin to lose weight and regain your health.
There’s no way in hell eating high saturated fat, process carbs can be good for you.
I thought about toning down the pro-process-carb message, but in the end I decided it was important for people to understand how essential process carbs are for remaining healthy and lean.
What the creator fail to realize is the chemical composition of said fast food is addicting, which is the main reason why people continue to eat it.
That explains why both Spurlock and I couldn’t wait for our fast-food-diets to end. We both fail to give in to the addiction.
Plus, Naughton ate fast foods at least 3 years after Spurlock’s movie, which meant that he was eating fast foods with lowered calories.
If the calories in a Double-Quarter Pounder were reduced after 2004, it’s news to me. McDonald’s stopped selling super-sized sodas and fries, but I didn’t drink sodas and only rarely ate fries. Meanwhile, if Spurlock actually followed his rules, he only consumed two super-sized meals per week.
As for the doctors in the movie, I wonder about their credibility. Doctors who are not educated in scientific studies and not know that there are such things as correlation in conjectures should really be fired.
I’d ask science wonks like Mike Eades, Gary Taubes, Malcolm Kendrick, Uffe Ravnskov and Mary Enig if they know or not know about correlation in conjectures, but I’m afraid they’d conclude I’ve turned stupid and stop talking to me.
This guy is a f__king idiot.
I’m defenseless in the face of such rhetorical skill.
Of course he chose quack doctors to support his claims but talk to any nutritionist and you’ll get the real information.
Can’t type … shaking with laughter.
Well, you get the idea. As I discovered when I first began writing for my college newspaper, you can’t put anything before the public without someone getting ticked off. As I once told my roommate, “I swear, if I write a column saying it was a beautiful day yesterday, I’ll get at least two letters informing me that it wasn’t a nice day for the people starving in Bangladesh, and if I wasn’t such a heartless son of a bitch who only thinks about himself, I’d realize that and stop talking about the weather, so I should do everyone a favor and kill myself.” I even received hate mail for a column I wrote making fun of stupid commercials — kid you not.
It goes with the territory …
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I noticed that you said in this post “I didn’t drink sodas”. You also said in your documentary, when talking about sodas, that you drank “zero” of it. Yet, there are clips that show you ordering Diet Coke in McDonalds. At the end visit with your doctor, when he asks what you drank, you said “Diet Coke, water, iced tea.” ??? So I’m really confused by the claims that you drank “zero” soda. Diet Coke is soda in my book. Or did you not count it because it contains sugar substitute and not real sugar?
BTW I really enjoyed the film, but this one point stuck out at me.
In the film, I stated that I drink zero sugary sodas. I still drank Diet Coke at the time. I’ve since given up sodas entirely.