Not So Fast

Morgan Spurlock is on a comic crusade to tell America that fast food is unhealthy and addictive. In his documentary Super Size Me (2004), Spurlock ate three meals from McDonald's every day for one month and recorded the side effects. He recalled the harrowing experience on Monday (April 25) at McAlister Auditorium.

Documentary filmmaker and TV producer Morgan Spurlock uses comedy to get across his message to a Tulane audience about Americans' poor eating habits. (Photo by Paula Burch-Celentano)

"In the original version of the film I died," Spurlock said of the documentary. "But it didn't go over well with test audiences so we reedited it so I lived."

Still, he might have come close. In those 30 days, he gained more than 24 pounds and experienced massive headaches between meals, high blood pressure and a damaged liver, ignoring doctors and friends who told him to end the experiment. Afterward, Spurlock said he underwent detoxification, curling up in a fetal position on the McAlister stage and shaking for demonstration.

"I'm a big believer in personal responsibility," Spurlock said, but he added that McDonald's also has a responsibility to the millions of people it feeds.

"McDonald's has over 30,000 restaurants in over 100 countries on six continents," Spurlock said. It serves 45 million people per day, according to Spurlock, who added that Antarctica is the only continent without a McDonald's franchise on it.

"Coming soon. …" he quipped.

Spurlock knows that the implications are serious, however. One in every three Americans is obese and obesity kills more Americans every year than AIDS, all cancers and all accidents combined, according to the American Medical Association.

Spurlock's voice is part of a growing movement in the United States to combat obesity. The recent federal healthcare reform bill mandates that franchises with more than 20 restaurants include nutritional facts on their menus. First lady Michele Obama's "Let's Move" campaign aims to abate childhood obesity.

Spurlock also is the creator of the television series, "30 Days." His appearance was part of Tulane University Campus Programming's Direction Speaker Series.

Brandon Meginley is a senior majoring in journalism at Tulane University.