Ok, I admit it, I only rented this movie to have a good laugh at the expense of the “blame-everybody-else-for-your-problems-types”. I hadn’t expected it to forever change my life.

I mean, give me a break. Morgan Spurlock is hardly my idea of a hero. As the producer of MTV’s “I Bet You Will” he made the gross-outs on “Fear Factor” look like boy scout camp. What people won’t do for a few bucks and 15 minutes of fame…

So this film was his rocket to stardom, and he sure did play it up. His basic framework is a diatribe on the Fast Food Industry and How Terrible They Are…complete with appropriate artwork by an “Artistic Genius” (I’m not kidding, folks, that’s the title they listed under his name during the movie) and staged barfing scenes. But he inadvertently discovers something along the way, something he then manages to bury since it doesn’t technically fit into his framework as listed above.

THE CON

Such an appropriate name for the production company on this project, eh? Their “con” here is to have Morgan Spurlock, under the close supervision of 3 doctors and a nutritionist, eat nothing but McDonald’s food for 30 days while getting very little exercise. He passes his physicals with flying colors, his fitness test is outstanding. Heck, this guy should be auditioning for the part of Superman!

As if there could be any mystery here, his health takes a very sharp turn toward the sewer even before day three, steadily getting worse while he takes us on a tour through Nutrition and Food Service 101. By 3 weeks, his doctors are advising him to call 911 if things get any worse. He finishes anyway, the proud owner of a nice new gut and a huge spike in all the bad things: Cholesterol, Triglycerides, etc. Bottom line: How do you ruin your liver in 30 days without touching alcohol?

IT’S THE SUGAR, STUPID!!!

McDonald’s evil. Morgan Spurlock healthy. Doctors clueless. Advertisers bad. Morgan Spurlock sick. Doctors Panic. Diet ends. Everybody lives happily ever after.

Well la-ti-da. Anyone can manage that simple plot.

But there’s a common thread running through a huge part of the movie. Perceptive people will pick up on it, though the editors of the film do their best to subjugate it to the main thesis of everything being the Fast Food Franchise’s Fault. What is this common thread?

All of the foods that are causing problems are high in either sugars or “the whites”: white flour, white rice, white bread, white pasta, etc.

Even worse, these sugars are often lurking in unexpected places: salad dressing, yogurt, ketchup.

And there could not be a worse offender in this category than soda pop. Which, incidentally, Spurlock drinks enough of in this movie to float, say, an oil tanker.

(In fact, after this movie came out, there were many people who went out of their way to replicate his diet without the poor effects. How’d they do it? They drank the diet soda instead.)

But we were still very surprised that his diet so greatly affected his liver. So were the doctors. They kept saying that his Triglycerides were through the roof. I’d heard of Triglycerides, they play a large role in heart disease. According to the American Heart Association,

”Triglycerides are the chemical form in which most fat exists in food as well as in the body. They're also present in blood plasma and, in association with cholesterol, form the plasma lipids.
Triglycerides in plasma are derived from fats eaten in foods or made in the body from other energy sources like carbohydrates. Calories ingested in a meal and not used immediately by tissues are converted to triglycerides and transported to fat cells to be stored. Hormones regulate the release of triglycerides from fat tissue so they meet the body's needs for energy between meals.”


All of that kinda sounds like gobbledygook. Blah blah fat blah blah blood blah blah calories. And they try to blame it on fats eaten in foods, but pay attention to the second part of that sentence: “or made in the body from other energy sources like carbohydrates.” Spurlock’s dietitian kept telling him he had to reduce his calorie intake, specifically by not “drinking his calories”, meaning the soda. All those extra empty calories from the simple sugars and simple carbs had no place to go, partially because he wasn’t burning them off fast enough, and partially because he just had too darn many of them. So his liver was turning them into Triglycerides and storing them away. Where? Well, for starters, right there in his liver. Then when his liver couldn’t store any more, it started building the proverbial shed over his toolbox with them.

Where were all those extra calories coming from? Well, according to McDonald’s website, their Double Quarter Pounder with Cheese has 730 calories. A large Coke has 310. But the Coke’s calories come from one thing alone: 86 grams of sugar. (That’s 22 teaspoons, or a half cup.) At least the sandwich has 47 grams of protein and 40 grams of fat in addition to its 46 grams of carbohydrates, 9 of which (about 2 tsp) come from sugar. Why does it make a difference where the calories come from?

To make it as simple as possible, it’s because your body requires vitamins and minerals to digest and properly metabolize your food. When you eat good, whole foods, those vitamins and minerals are ironically present in the correct proportions in the food itself. When those foods have been processed (as in the case of sugar and white flour), many of them are removed, which means that your body has to supply them. Plus, protein takes a little while to digest, whereas the highly refined stuff is absorbed right into your bloodstream, wreaking havoc on your blood sugar level and forcing your adrenals and your pancreas to go crazy trying to even it out again.

But there’s another reason why the calories in soda are so dangerous. How many of you have ever been to one of those steakhouses where you can take the challenge to eat the 64 ounce steak? That’s somewhere in the neighborhood of 3000 calories. How many of you could actually finish it? Your stomach quite simply can only hold so much food, and then you’ve gotta stop, or you’ll hurt yourself. Whereas you can drink a Super Size soda and not feel overloaded the same way, partially because it doesn’t fill your stomach the same way, and partially because of what it’s made of.

The type of sugar used in most sodas is High Fructose Corn Syrup, because it is tons cheaper than sugar--but it’s even worse for your health. Why?

Because your body runs on glucose. Sugar as we know it is sucrose, a molecule which is half glucose and half fructose. Therefore, when your body breaks it down, it can at least use the glucose or store it as glycogen for later use. However, fructose is metabolized differently: it is usually converted to fat. (Remember the Triglycerides?) Not only that, but it doesn’t stimulate the production of insulin. Some may look at that as a good thing, but in addition to regulating the level of glucose in your blood, insulin is partially responsible for controlling your appetite. No insulin, no signal to your brain to say STOP!!! So you drink a ton of calories without feeling it.

(Does anyone find it an odd coincidence that the spike in obesity rates in our country just so happens to coincide with the increased usage of High Fructose Corn Syrup since it was introduced in the 70s?)

And that, my friends, is how Morgan Spurlock gained 24 pounds in 30 days. Of course, it took him something like 6 months to take it back off. So the moral of the story? If you absolutely have to drink soda, drink the diet. Yeah, I hate the taste of aspartame too. But anything’s better than High Fructose Corn Syrup.



For more details on the saga of our journey into the land of no sugar (or just to laugh at us), see Finding Sweetness in a Sugar Free Life…I will be continuing to update it as time permits. Thanks for reading and here’s to your health!


Recommended:
Yes

Viewing Format: VHS
Video Occasion: Better than Watching TV
Suitability For Children: Suitable for Children Age 13 and Older