I hope Steven actually does a valid study, unlike Mr. Spurlock, who provided no data, neglects to tell you most of the weight gain was from the shakes, and has been disproved in scientific controlled tests.

[skeptoid.com]

Actually, I'm betting it's because less and less people have jobs and hobbies requiring activity and more and more people eat out regularly (where the food is especially bad for you). Sweetening everything is bad too, but it probably doesn't matter what the source of that sugar is.

@MormonChristmas_GitEmSteveDave: Spurlock's video was a documentary, not a study... It has good anecdotal evidence in it. I'd like to see your source on shakes being the main culprit in his weight gain and valid scientific studies proving eating at McDonalds is not unhealthy...

Government-subsidized junk food + convenience stores + low food prices + "snacking, grazing" culture + low self-discipline + certain cultural propensities + opaque food labeling + "don't tell me what to put in my body" American attitude + health insurance that fixes problems but won't prevent them + city plans that encourage short card rides + dwindling outdoor recreation areas + video game culture + increasing "screen" time + guzzling soft drinks + eating more meals at restaurants + desk jobs + less smoking (no, really) = higher rates of obesity

@cabjf: I couldn't believe how fast and how much weight I gained going from 30 hours a week working at a grocery store to 35 in the office. Even though I eat less it's hard to make up the extra activity that came from standing 8 hours a day

Sperlock's piece was 100% BS, and has been roundly disproven and dismissed as entertainment, if that. It shouldn't be taken seriously by anyone.

Also, the HFCS scare is nonsense, and creates no more harmful effects than other sugars.

This is probably an investigation best left to the folks who did Freakonomics. :) You know HFCS isn't all the blame. There are several factors: the increase in cars and other transport vehicles, the move to the suburbs where nothing is within reasonable walking distance, the availability of cheap, fast food that has zero nutritional value, the increase in divorce, single parenthood, and working Mom's which leads to less time to actually cook a good meal. Those are just a few things that have created our obese culture.

@MormonChristmas_GitEmSteveDave: Hit tab then return and posted before i could finish(we need an edit button!!).

I think it's funny that if McDonald's funds a study, it "can not be trusted!". But if some attention/fame seeking director makes a movie/documentary which is biased to start with, provides no hard facts, and sensationalizes things, it must be the gospel truth and people cite it as "proof". We trust the media with no facts more than science with studies which pass peer review and can be duplicated more and more. Jenni McCarthy has directly led to the deaths of multiple children, b/c her "Mommy Sense" tells her that a dis-credited study must be true despite all evidence to the contrary, so she tells other parents not vaccinate their children. Why would you take medical advice from someone who is only famous for picking her nose and being naked?

High fructose corn syrup FTL, as was stated. It should be banned already, but of course, it is a money saver, so as long as it is cheaper to pay off Congress than use real sugar, we'll keep seeing it. It messes with your metabolism and satiety signaling in so many ways. Top diabetes researchers know this to be the cause, why do we keep fooling ourselves?

What people fail to realize is that you have to die of something.

My worst fear is dying of old age or Alzheimers.

Is obesity really so bad? Or do some people just not like the *looks* of it?

@johnfrombrooklyn: I think that about sums it up right there, although I would add marketing towards children too.

Not sure if you bothered to watch Super Size Me but Mr. Spurlock never claimed that his experience was a valid scientific study. He gave plenty of time to a guy that ate nothing but Big Macs and never gained an ounce of weight. Also, if you claim most of the weight gain was from shakes, I think you're slightly insulting Mr. French Fry.@MormonChristmas_GitEmSteveDave:

Breaking news...food makes you fat!

@p_robinson: click the link at the end of that comment, and towards the bottom, there is a link to the references Mr. Dunning used.

[www.theonion.com]

@quagmire0: I blame our schools. When I was a kid(1980's), we got a good 30 minutes to run around outside on a huge playground and burn calories from lunch. Even in Jr. High, I had that, but in a smaller area. This was on top of gym, which featured the "barbaric" game of Dodgeball, but that was honestly my favorite game in gym, even as a fat kid(usually the last out, BTW. I was fat, but agile!)

I hate to be a prude, but "splooged" is an unnecessarily crude term for this blog.

@johnfrombrooklyn:
Sounds like higher obesity rates is a small price to pay for all of those great things we get in return? :)

HFCS isn't any worse than sugar. Yes, HFCS is more potent than regular sugar so thus must be used in smaller quantities to achieve the same level of sweetness as opposed to regular sugar. The key is moderation! There is no magic bullet that's going to cure obesity; its a combination of very simple factors.

@Tightlines: If you're going to add marketing towards children can we add irresponsible parents? Everyone seems to want to blame others for their and their children's obesity, take responsibility for what you feed yourself and your kids.

@Featherstonehaugh: Obesity is terrible, and so is alzheimers. Dying of old age probably means you're disease free and not in a lot of pain. For a lot of people, being in pain, dying of disease, those are the worst things.

So YES, obesity is that bad. It can cause a wealth of illness, and can contribute to a lot of other very terrible, painful things.

Just because everyone dies sometime, doesn't mean you can't live a decent life in which you've taken care of your body.

Fastfood in the 2000's is like smoking in the 1960's. In the mid 60's people finally started to admit that smoking was gradually killing them; decades later smoking is overtly vilified and prohibited everywhere except your private residence. Now that we're finally admitting that our modern diet is also gradually killing us, will it again take us decades to come to our senses or will we learn from the past?

@David Eckert: Stop buying products that contain it, thats a much more effective market changer than bs bans.

@MormonChristmas_GitEmSteveDave:

I agree with what the other said, Super Size Me wasn't a scientific study, nor was it a hard-facts documentary. It was a personal essay that did nothing more than document Spurlock's 30-day experiment. All he did was show what happened to his body and health and then allow the viewer to draw their own conclusion. I think anybody using the film as a heath study is really missing the point.

I also think you shouldn't pay to much heed to a study funded by McDonalds either. This is what independent third parties are for.

@quagmire0: Good point. As much as we would all like to lay the blame on one single evil item it is a combination of causes.

@Featherstonehaugh: Considering the increased health issues with obesity, and considering most people receive subsidized care in one form or another, obesity represents a strain on the healthcare system.

Whether one thinks that's fair to pressure those who are obese into changing their lifestyle for the greater good is a debate unto itself, but that's the dynamics of the situation.

@HIV 2 Elway Resurrected: Counterpoint: Food tastes good! :D

@p_robinson: I'd like to see your source on shakes being the main culprit

Also, if you claim most of the weight gain was from shakes, I think you're slightly insulting Mr. French Fry.

I could call you out on the general ridiculousness that comment but I see SteveDave has already done so. So I will address this point directly.

I take you have have never looked at nutritional data, at least for fast food. Shakes are the absolute worst things on the menu in general especially when comparing categories.

Here is McDonald's nutritional data sheet they post in all their stores.
[nutrition.mcdonalds.com]

Large fry:
500 Calories
220 Calories from fat
25 Grams of fat

Large Chocolate shake:
1160 Calories
240 Calories from Fat
27 Grams of Fat

So its over twice the calories and has more calories from fat and grams of fat. So care to offer some proof that it wasn't the shakes?

@zarex42: I'm not sure how you can claim it was 100% BS since all he did was record what happened to him over a 30-day period. I don't remember the documentary making any sweeping scientific claims about anything -- just posing possible hypotheses and letting the viewer reach their own conclusion.

I'd also argue that "entertainment" is mainly what it was going for in the first place. I really enjoyed it but I could see how somebody who eats at McDonalds a lot and is overweight might get defensive about it.

@MormonChristmas_GitEmSteveDave: I know there were studies where people ate at McDonald's and actually lost weight, but that's eating salads and generally just controlling calorie intake.

But I wouldn't say Spurlock was disproved. He showed in the movie itself the story of Don Gorske, who eats Big Macs every day and still maintains a healthy weight. His point is not that it's impossible, but that most people who eat fast food daily don't put any thought to the calorie content of what they're eating, and get fat and unhealthy because of it.

@Featherstonehaugh: Nice!

@Featherstonehaugh: I am not even classified as obese (according to BMI), just "overweight", and as it is I suffer from acid reflux and infertility issues related to the extra weight. They will both be solved when I can lose the pounds. Frankly, the acid reflux had me feeling like I was dying. I can't imagine the further complications & pain related to even more extra weight/obesity.

We have to be responsible for ourselves and consider what we're putting in our bodies. You know, you are what you eat, so if you can't pronounce it, you probably shouldn't eat it.

@rpm773:
Don't old people also represent a strain on the healthcare system?

Beware of unintended consequences!

@MonkeyMonk: Agreed.

I dont' know about the rest of you, but to me it seems like common sense that fast food is not good for you. I would not take to eating fast food for every meal of the day.

Sure I might not gain weight, but I probably wouldn't be feeling too good, I know I personally get addicted to sodas. (1-2 a day habit) and when I stop I get terrible headaches. Not to mention I already have problems with migraines.

I wouldn't' go as far as to say fast food should never be eaten, I think it's a matter of moderation. You do what's good for you.

@zarex42: So, we should take seriously McDonalds' claims that the food is actually healthy? That you could eat tons of it all the time (as long as you skip those shakes) and be healthy?

God, some people are NUTS.

@johnfrombrooklyn: hey! you nailed it. good job. i'd also like to add complete lack of personal responsibility.

@MormonChristmas_GitEmSteveDave: Supersize me was like watching a big "well duh" event. Yeah, if you eat McDonalds all day everyday you're going to gain weight and feel lousy. The same is going to happen if you eat too much of just about anything.

Stick to all things in moderation and you'll be fine.

@Megan Squier: The problem with HFCS is that it's in nearly everything. Seriously.

Go browse through jars of tomato sauce. Half the brands have HFCS and most of the half that don't have sugar. Go look at all of the loaves of bread, and bagels, and rolls. Tons of the bread inexplicably has HFCS. Even a lot of the "healthy" whole grain bread.

I've been on a crusade to eliminate it from unnecessary sources in my diet (if I want a Coke, I'll have a damn Coke but I don't want extra from my sandwich) and because I really don't have the time or resources to do a lot of cooking right now (it's just for me, and my freezer is tiny, and there are a lot of challenges in cooking for 1 without wasting tons of stuff, particularly when you don't have much frozen storage space) I'm still relying on a fair amount of pre-made, packaged, or processed food, and it's shocking how much of it has HFCS in it.

@cabjf: That and wage declines. Think about it, the cheapest entertainment, on a per-hour basis, is cable TV. Or maybe video games... either way, you don't have a move a muscle. Compare that cost to joining a sports league (+equip).

@zarex42: I always found it funny that anything that goes against a multi-billion dollar industry is 100% BS.

Who says eating McDonald's 100% of the time is healthy? And... were they PAID with funds from McDonald's.

@zarex42: Depends on what you consider "harmful".

HFCS does two things: your body doesn't release chemicals that cause you to feel satisfied when you use HFCS and it causes you to release chemicals that make you crave more sweets, kind of a double whammy that natural sugar doesn't hit you with. So, yes if you have great will power you'll be good, otherwise you'll be mildly addicted to HFCS.

But you probably already knew that or are working for "sweet surprise"

@MonkeyMonk: I'm not sure how you can claim it was 100% BS since all he did was record what happened to him over a 30-day period.

Its BS because 1) having every meal for 30 days at mcdonalds - who does that in Real life?

2) because he didn't even try to eat properly or even what he wanted. He was sick of what he was eating but he kept doing it, instead ordering something with nutritional value like his body was craving.

I could do the exact same documentary at any restaurant including a salad shop, or even at my home. So What conclusion is there to draw other than if you ingest nothing but crap, and crap you don't even want to eat, you will feel like crap and maybe look like crap. Not exactly ground breaking or brings says nothing people didn't already know.

One note...some people do have problems that cause them to gain weight. Thyroid and medications are a couple examples. My daughter is one. Because of her dietary restrictions, she only eats salads, fruits and veggies. No pasta, sugar or white flour. She takes 2 hours dance classes 4x a week. Yet she's "obese" by medical standards. I hate seeing her vilified as "lazy" or "gluttonous".

@MonkeyMonk: Yeah. I mean, I've eaten nothing but take out when a big project comes up a work, and see noticeable fluctuations. Its obviously not rocket science, but his point was that millions do that every day and don't realize what just cutting back McDs could do for their health.

@quagmire0: It's definitely not all the blame but it does share a role. With all things as complicated as a wide spread condition you can't pin it on a single thing.

@zarex42: HFCS's threat is primarily in its ubiquitous nature. If sweet wasn't the default flavor because of the adoption of HFCS, packaged food would have a lot fewer calories.

Oh yeah, and there's the mercury.

@HRHKingFridayXX: Well, Wii bowling used to give me a slight workout. But I prefer the treadmill.

@pecan 3.14159265: Agreed. I would hate to get to that point. I mean, A LOT of obese people have disabled placards, why? Because they nearly have a heart attack walking 15 feet from the store entrance, panting and sweating the entire way.

Imagine carrying all that extra weight, i'm sure it doesn't feel good. I want to be able to run around with my children and grandchildren, I want to live long and healthy.

Obese people are also at increased risk from minor injuries. Such as spraining an ankle or tripping and hurting yourself. That's why so many companies are also trying to get people to lose weight. Not only does everyone premiums go down, but they aren't spending as much money on those obese people.

Obesity isn't just about appearance, although it's not sexy at all, it's about taking care of yourself, avoiding injury, and being happy.

Sooo... many people are so unhappy because they are obese and can't figure out how to lose the weight. I think that's saying something.