I think we all knew that eating a high fat, high simple carb diet (let's not forget all that sodium too) is bad for us, but I don't think anyone expected it to effect the body so quickly (including the doctors that were involved) or how hard. Within 30 days, Morgan's health was at serious risk...
Now, obviously, the average person doesn't eat at McDonald's (or any fast food resturant) every meal every day, but I think the movie showed how bad the average American diet is. (1 in 4 Americans eat at a fast food resturant every day). It also showed how the resturants are making these foods worse for us than they have to be (Chicken McNuggets have extra chicken fat injected into them... for moistness and extra flavor). There also was a lot of emphasis on the marketing (especially towards children). It was actually fairly scary.
I have to say one of the main changes that Matt and I made when we started a more healthy lifestyle was the removal of eating out on a regular basis. For me it's a control issue. First, I don't have the control over how the food is made or with what (if I were to make chicken nuggets at home, I would not inject them with extra chicken fat), plus I also give myself "free reign" with ordering.
Altho' the focus of the documentary was on McDonald's, this is true of every resturant. Most resturants give nutrional data, but they can be hard to find while in the resturants (most are available online... and thanks to this: I'll never order a large mochaccino from Starbucks). Saying that, I went to Houlihan's for lunch with a friend and while trying to update my food log, I looked up their resturant and this is what they say about the nutritional content of their menu:
This is the biggest crap I've ever heard. No matter what the spin is on this, this is a copout. Quite frankly, if you are afraid to tell, then I'm afraid to eat it. I take full responsibility for my food decisions, but I need to have the proper information available for me to make my choices.Nutritional and Recipe Information-
Our restaurant’s chefs prepare menu items each day from scratch. Each restaurant receives produce from local growers, insuring the freshest ingredients. Whether you order our famous Baked Potato Soup or the newest entrée, Mustard Crusted Salmon, you can be assured that it has been made with the freshest ingredients available. We are not able to list nutritional information, as there may be slight variances in the recipes because of item availability.
Houlihan’s Restaurants employs top chefs to produce the recipes used at our restaurants. The Chefs are constantly updating and revising these recipes. We view these recipes as confidential and do not share them.
Thank you for understanding.
I also found the "addiction" aspect of eating these high fat, high calorie foods to hit home for me. It's so true. As someone that had to ween herself off of soda and candybars, there's definitely the same issue with food as with any type of addiction. The fact that Morgan's liver showed the same type of damage as an alcoholic really makes it even more obvious that food has the same impact on us as any kind of addiction.
I think the thing that I've noticed more than anything since I've adjusted my eating habits it the way we Americans feel the "right" to eat whatever whenever we want. There's such a sense of glutony and "I deserve this". We defend our eating habits as if it's our American right to overindulge. We are defensive about it, even tho' we know that we shouldn't eat this way.
An interesting movie, to be sure. As someone who already had changed a lot of my attitudes about food, I'm not sure it opened my eyes, but it definitely validated some of my decisions about my lifestyle.
