Eating fast food

[danaeris]

A must read

A NY Post article about an artist who spent a month eating nothing but McDonald's, three meals a day, in order to see what would happen.

The results will surprise even the most cynical. I'm disgusted and flabbergasted.

It's one of those things that you always assumed was the case, but having it confirmed is nonetheless kind of shocking.

Comments

[neverjaunty.livejournal.com]

Well, it *is* the NY Post....

On the other hand, you could eat nothing but brown rice, or homemade cheesecake, or miso soup for a month and you'd be in less than ideal condition.

[emmett-the-sane.livejournal.com]

It's true that moderation is a key in anything. But those you mention would be a simple food. This guy was getting at least some nutrition from most of the food categories: grains, starch, meat, milk, a little bit of vegetable...

[emmett-the-sane.livejournal.com]

Yeah... I'll admit I've been rethinking my eating habits a little bit since seeing that article a few days ago. Not that I eat at McDonald's except to get the occasional tub of Dippin' Dots, mind you... but I do like lots of greasy, salty food.

Now we've seen the extremes of the Subway Diet and the McDonald's Diet... I want to see the results of the In 'n Out Diet, or the Taco Bell diet. I think the Krispy Kreme diet is a foregone conclusion, however. :)

[ghudson.livejournal.com]

To be honest, that's not the result I would expect from eating fast food for 25 days, and I suspect the results have been greatly exaggerated. That just sounds like too much weight gain and too many malnutrition effects for three and a half weeks of bad eating, and some of the quotes in the article suggest that he went into the experiment with an agenda.

If you like fast food, don't read Fast Food Nation...

[tygreyes.livejournal.com]

A very scary trip through the fast food industry. I have drasticly(sp?) cut back on my fast food intake (not that I ate alot of it anyway) since reading that book.

I'm sure this isn't the last time that I have McDonalds, but from now on, it'll be like once a year or something, and I'll be getting something small, and not gourging myself on a Super Size Meal.

[nathanjw]

I suppose I should see the film to answer this, but I suspect it makes a big difference exactly what he ate when... it's very different if he went all over the menu (heck, McD's has things that resemble salads now) or if he stuck to a strict regimen of Big Macs, fries, and Coke. Actually, you could probably do even worse eating their "meals" if you stuck to the Chicken McNuggets - no vegetables at all, and more fat than the burgers.

There's also a factor of adjustment that seems worth speculating about; if his girlfriend is a vegan chef, he might have been on a relatively low-meat diet before, and just the sudden change could trigger some of the early upset that the article reports.

I'm not trying to be pro-fast-food, but I agree with Greg that the effects reported seem extreme even for something that unhealthy.

[tsgeisel.livejournal.com]

Yup. There's plenty of ways to have a "bad" McDonalds diet. But with their new menus, I'm sure there are ways to have a "less unhealthy" diet.

Salads, grilled chicken sandwiches, orange juice, and, most of all, moderation, well, nobody will claim a full diet of fast food is *healthy*, but I'm willing to suspect he took it to an extreme.

I wonder if he was doing vitamin supplements as well.

Re:

[auros]

Actually, McD's salads are pretty unhealthy if you use their dressing. (There was an article in Slate or Salon, a few years back, in which they did an analysis of the low-fat and salad-y offerings at various fast-food places.)

Personally, I've never eaten anything from any fast-food place, and have no intention of starting. :-P