Somebody Super Gag Me With A McDiet

Merab Morgan Went On A 90-Day, Low-Calorie McDonald's Diet

I guess you had to see this one coming a mile away.

After the overwhelming success that Morgan Spurlock received for his classic 2004 documentary and hit film Super Size Me, there were going to be those who wanted to step forward and set out to prove him wrong.

This Washington Post story claims that a 35-year-old female construction worker with two kids from Raleigh, North Carolina named Merab Morgan did just that when she lost a total of 37 pounds in 90 days eating only at McDonald's.

Morgan was mad at Spurlock for overeating on too much unhealthy fast food options and then blaming McDonald's for causing people to become obese. She believes individuals are the ones who are ultimately responsible for what they eat and not the restaurants who serve them the food. As a result, Morgan set out to show that eating a fast food diet can and will result in weight loss if you are selective about what you eat.

"I thought it's two birds with one stone -- to lose weight and to prove a point for the little fat people," Morgan said. "Just because they accidentally put an apple pie in my bag instead of my apple dippers doesn't mean I'm going to say, 'Oh, I can eat the apple pie.'"

Well, duh?! Nobody is saying that eating with a purpose at a fast food restaurant is going to cause you to gain weight. In fact, that is the entire premise of Carla Gray's book called The Low-Carb Fast Food Diet which encourages people to visit fast food restaurants with confidence by arming themselves with the nutritional content of what they can order to stay on their low-carb lifestyle.

For Morgan, though, she simply watched her caloric intake and limited it to 1,400 calories per day. She skipped eating french fries for the most part and stayed away from all of the worst foods on the menu entirely. That meant she was scarfing down a lot of hamburgers and salads for most meals.

If you cut your calories, then of course you are going to lose weight regardless of where you get the food from. But that wasn't at all the point of Spurlock's film. His film underlined a real problem in this country with a company that seems to be devoted to offering very unhealthy food and pseudo-food products without any regard for what those products are doing to the health and waistlines of their consumers. That movie is a powerful reminder of why I started livin' la vida low-carb and have not even stepped foot in a McDonald's since beginning my low-carb lifestyle in January 2004.

Nobody is surpised that Morgan went from 227 down to 190 pounds on her three month McDiet. While she loathes Spurlock for creating a problem where one does not exist all for the sake of promoting himself, that's exactly what she has done by doing her own little publicity stunt using McDonald's as the backdrop.

"It feels great," she said. "Because, the truth of the matter is that beauty is power, and if you're fat, or you're overweight, then people don't really take you seriously."

And if you're psycho, then people don't take you very seriously either. While I'm sure her intentions were meant to be prove a point, Morgan has done nothing to deter me from my opposition to fast food restaurants for the most part. Those companies are only out for themselves and increasing their profits while attempting to fool the public into thinking they have "healthy" food options for people to eat. How many years will they get away with feeding us that lie without any accountability?

Do you know what the #1 bestselling food item at McDonald's is? FRENCH FRIES! They always have been and always will be as long as people keep shelling out the dough for these disgusting little obesity-makers-in-a-box. Why else do you think McDonald's feature their fries so prominently on billboard ads and television commercials? They want to tempt you to give in to your carbohydrate addiction and keep making them the big bucks in the process.

Overcoming our addiction to carb-loaded fast food is not going to happen overnight. While Morgan may think she has made a point with her three-month excursion to McDonald's, she has done nothing except prove that cutting your calories and starving yourself is one way to lose weight. I wonder how hungry she got on some of thos days wishing she could have a hot fudge sundae with nuts on top? You know she had to be hungry only eating 1,400 calories in a day! What kind of life is that to live?! Who could eat that way as a permanent lifestyle change?

Morgan is contemplating continuing her McDiet until she reaches her ultimate weight loss goal of 150 pounds. But then what? How will she eat once the "diet" is over? If she is content with limiting her food choices to the nasty ones sold at McDonald's for the rest of her life, then be my guest. But somebody super gag me please!