New Passed Law McDonalds Goin Down

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... which you are also making.

This "followup" hardly means anything (neither did the original SuperSize Me, but that's a separate issue). First of all, it's only one person, so statistically it's meaningless. Second, what were the "controls" on the test? Did the subject eat three meals a day? Did she eat the entire meal every time? How much did she weigh and what was her health like when she started? Do we know that her metabolism was "normal"? Did she get sick during the month, and that's why she lost weight?

The point is there are all manner of factors that have to be considered with something like this.

From a nutritional standpoint, the issues here are straightforward. Is there really an adult in the US who doesn't already know that if you eat fatty, high-calorie "food" that your health will suffer? It doesn't matter where it comes from ... you can cook your own artery-clogging gunk just as surely as McDonald's can fry up a greasy Big Mac.

Regarding the legalities, the lawmakers have decided that when you eat food that was prepared by a public entity, you have a right to know what's in it. That seems perfectly reasonable to me. No one is forcing you to go read the calorie chart on the wall. You're free to ignore it if you wish.

But don't just make a blanket statement that somebody "lost weight" while eating at McDonald's. That's the kind of impressive-sounding but meaningless information that we get from the news media all the time.

Sometimes, it's about being smarter than that.

It does, however, make a fair counter whenever that stupid movie is brought up in discussions of fast food, as if Morgan Spurlock had been carrying out some sort of valid scientific experiment, rather than doing whatever it took to "prove" his preconceived conclusions. In order for Spurlock's "experiment" to work, it was necessary for him to choose the very worst items from the menu each time, order more food than he really wanted to eat, and force himself to gorge.

I can't speak for you, of course, but that's not my typical fast-food experience - rather, I order the particular item that tickles my tastebuds that day, eat what I want, and stop. Sometimes the birds in the parking lot feast on my fries...

So no, the followup wasn't a double-blind controlled experiment either - but it's at least as good for anecdotal evidence as Spurlock's flick.

I have to disagree, for two reasons. First, two lies don't make a truth. You don't counter a falacious, misleading, and statistically meaningless argument by making another falacious, misleading, and statistically meaningless argument.

And second, I wasn't suggesting that Super Size Me was in any way a "valid" experiment (see my remark in my second paragraph, above). If you want to talk "anecdotal", then neither of these "experiments" is necessary anyway except to academicians. If there's anyone over the age of 12 who truly thinks eating at McDonald's is healthy and can help you lose weight, they are deluded beyond redemption. You know this as well as I do.

We also know that to expect a fair and unbiased story from Hollywood (or wherever the movie came from) is similarly deluded. Hollywood desires only to line its own pockets. If it takes gussying up a story to the point of sensational extremes, that's what they'll do.

I have no particular bone to pick with McDonald's, except insofar as it embarrasses me that they're probably as ingrained a symbol of the United States around the world as the Statue of Liberty.

But the cause of righting untruths, while certainly a worthy one, is not helped by spreading more of them.

This is a good thing. All resturaunts have food that looks good but have loads of calories and loads of sodium. A lot of people go to a resturant and order something that they think is healthy but now they can know its healthy. For example Applebee's has a asian orange chicken bowl that has 1880 calories, 4250 mg Sodium and 229g carbohydrate. Thats about the amount of calories you should have for the whole day, almost 2 days worth of sodium and almost a whole days worth of carbs. You would think that orange chicken on a bed of rice with veggies would be healthy but its not. I think its great to be informed exactly what your putting into you body.

For the record, McDonald's actually has the healthiest french fries so it would be their competitors who would be worse off for this law.

http://health.yahoo.com/experts/eatthis ... t-instead/

Even in Super size Me I remember noticing how skinny the 'Big Mac guy' was. He ate almost nothing but Big Macs since the 80's and he was really skinny.

I'm a large guy who exercises a lot so my caloric needs are very high. I aim to eat high calorie foods though there's so much health crap out there it's almost hard to find without going the fast food route.