Watching this could save your life (not kidding)

[LL]

I've known of this documentary for several years, but never watched it because I assumed I already knew what it contained. It also didn't sound terribly interesting. Wrong on both counts. It's very well done, quite compelling, and contains quality information that isn't even biased, never mind propaganda. There are full-on controls and double checks throughout. The docs just call it the way the tests show it, down to the decimal point.

BoB'ers with children especially should watch it. This is serious stuff.

http://www.hulu.com/watch/63283/super-size-me

 

[RB-5]

McDonald’s Happy Meal resists decomposition for six months:

Vladimir Lenin, King Tut and the McDonald's Happy Meal: What do they all have in common? A shocking resistance to Mother Nature's cycle of decomposition and biodegradability, apparently.

That's the disturbing point brought home by the latest project of New York City-based artist and photographer Sally Davies, who bought a McDonald's Happy Meal back in April and left it out in her kitchen to see how well it would hold up over time.

The results? "The only change that I can see is that it has become hard as a rock," Davies told the U.K. Daily Mail.

She proceeded to photograph the Happy Meal each week and posted the pictures to Flickr to record the results of her experiment. Now, just over six months later, the Happy Meal has yet to even grow mold. She told the Daily Mail that "the food is plastic to the touch and has an acrylic sheen to it."

http://news.yahoo.com/s/yblog_upshot/20101012/bs_yblog_upshot/mcdonalds-happy-meal-resists-decomposition-for-six-months

 

[RB-5]

Also, Morgan Spurlock was on the Adam Carolla podcast and said he is thinking about doing a super size me 2 where he would get up to 300lbs to get a closer look at "obesity"

 

[Doc Manhattan]

McDonald’s Happy Meal resists decomposition for six months

I cannot call this photograher's project an 'experiment', at least not in the scientific sense. Super-Size Me took real, experimental rigors that she didn't. There's no control, no standardization, no report of influential conditions (temp, relative humidity), no non-anecdotal documentation of handling conditions.

All food, fast or not, has to do to be well-preserved is to dessicate completely before it rots. If it dries slowly enough, it won't change form substantially--country ham, for instance, loses some volume but not its shape, and the exterior changes color from oxidization. A McDonald's burger, like most burgers, has a head start, as it is laden with salt, much of its moisture is cooked out, and its exterior is already oxidised. So sure, it's essentially a mummy, which is not all that appetizing, but not cause for alarm.

Super-Size Me is great, though--it's more a story of economics and advertising than food.

(Anyone seen Doug Benson's Super-High Me? I was surprised--it's not hard documentary, of course, but it was entertaining and fairly objective.)

 

[RB-5]

Super High me was hilarious. I will defer to to you as far as the scientific experimental type stuff