Does Gumby like hamburgers?
Last night, memories of Gumby, the bendable green-clay character, sprung into my head. I know what triggered the interest — somebody’s avatar on a forum I visit is a picture of Gumby — but I’m not sure why I paid heed to it.
I did some research, which meant meandering the stream of the World Wide Web with my guide Google at my side. I found a site with plot summaries from apparently all of the episodes. Reading them brought back recollections from childhood. They also reminded me just how crazy the Gumby Adventures show was.
Gumby premiered on the Howdy Doody Show in the 1950s and, despite some lulls in popularity, never completely faded from the public eye. Gumby enjoyed resurgences in the 1960s and 1980s, and he even had his own movie in 1995. Here at the office, we have a bendable Gumby figure that we play around with. He’s currently hanging from the ceiling doing… well, I’m not sure.
I watched Gumby on television in the early 1990s. I remember the show being broadcast at some insanely early hour, so my dad would videotape it for my later viewing. Of course, videotape is passé these days. Even if I knew where the tapes were, I don’t own a TV or a VCR, so I would be unable to play them. Fortunately, the movie companies, in their rabid thrust to release as much material as possible on DVD, have released nearly all television series on that new medium, including Gumby. I thought that I would go out and buy it.
I had to go grocery shopping anyway, so I decided to kill two birds with one stone and patronize the local SuperTarget. The grocery part of that experience was fine. Unfortunately, I soon discovered that the Target electronics department is very similar to the Target automotive department: they carry everything except what you’re looking for. I wasn’t too surprised, so I did what any good consumerism-driven young American would do: I bought something else.
That impulse conciliatory purchase ended up being the Super Size Me DVD.
For those of you unfamiliar with the movie, it is an independent film about a guy who eats nothing but McDonalds food for one month. He considers it an experiment. The film follows him through the month, with numerous interview interludes. It’s a documentary yet quite entertaining.
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He starts the month very healthy, something that three doctors, a dietician, and a personal trainer corroborate. He feels good and upbeat. The rule is that he can eat only things that come from McDonalds — if it wasn’t purchased there, he can’t eat it. That means no vitamins, no fresh fruit, and a whole lot of fat and sugar. Breakfast, lunch, and dinner. Every day. For a month.
He reasons that, since lots of people seem to live on fast food, why can’t he? Furthermore, if he survives the month with no ill effects, that will show that the fast food is reasonably healthy, or at least not as dangerous as the trial lawyers assert.
Needless to say, his health takes a nosedive. He’s consuming nearly 5000 calories a day of greasy, sugary, nutrient-barren MickeyD’s. His doctors are horrified and implore him to stop what he’s doing. His liver becomes clogged with fat a la fois gras. He’s depressed and ill, with inexplicable sensations and aches.
At the end of the month, he finds out that he gained over 25 pounds. His blood tests indicate that his liver and kidneys are under extreme duress. His vegan-chef girlfriend puts him on an immediate detoxification diet — lots of vegetables, fruits, and water.
In the end, he survives, but it takes him almost a year to bring his body back to the way it was before the experiment.
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With all of that in mind, I took a look at my eating habits. Although I eschewed fast food while in college, the working world has pushed me back to the den of convenience. I avoid McDonalds — I literally feel sick after I eat there — much as I ignore its kin: Wendy’s, Burger King, and Hardees. Unfortunately, I’ve become fond of Qdoba, Chipotle, Quizno’s and Panera. In other words, I like the fast food places that don’t feel like fast food places. The upscale fast food, if you will. This is a problem for more than one reason.
Foremost, it’s expensive. Five dollars for a burrito or a sandwich? Yup, and sometimes more.
The real kicker, though, is how unhealthy those places are. Take Chipotle for example. My favorite burrito there is the vegetarian with black beans, mostly because it includes guacamole. Last night, I looked up the nutrition facts on that single burrito. I was blown away. That one burrito packs nearly 1300 calories, almost 60g of fat, and roughly 3900mg of sodium. To put that in perspective, one could eat three quarter-pounders and still be below those numbers. Incredible.
Needless to say, I’m looking for healthier (and cheaper) alternatives, while still maintaining high quality. The obvious solution, to bring a bag lunch, is a non-option, because I want to get away from my office building for that midday hour. Another solution would be to get something reasonable at Subway, and attractive option not only on price but also on convenience: there’s a Subway within walking distance. The third option, proffered by Jeff Fox in his book, “How to Become CEO,” is to skip lunch entirely; instead, use the time to exercise or do business.
Or maybe I should use my lunch hour to write incoherent entries for my blog about old television shows and fast food…
i eat a lot of chipotle too but i don’t think it’s unhealthy. the burritos have lots of cals and fat, but that’s not what hurt that guy in super-size me. what made that guy go into liver failure was all the grease and soda i bet. while i wouldn’t say chipolte is health food i don’t think a burrito w/o soda is an unhealthy meal especially given the way the grill their meats and don’t really fry anything.
also, you should make the comment box bigger.
The key is to avoid animal fats. Plant fats aren’t as bad for you. Beans naturally have fat, but are not bad for you. Plant and olive oil based fats are not nearly as bad for you, and a lesser amount of fat injested in a big mac from McDonald’s has probably more bad fat that won’t just go through your system then any sandwich at Panera. Also, the more natural the food and less processed, the better. McDonald’s chicken nuggets are only like 10% real chicken and the rest is processed fats and veggies because it’s cheaper. This is infinately worse for you than grilled chicken put on a sandwich. The only real bad thing I woudl watch out for at the upscale fast foods is the sauces and dressings. The rest is pretty good for you and I woudln’t bother worrying about it.
The key is to aviod white rice. Coos naturally tastes like sand Nothing here has fat, and that’s bad for you. Plant and olive oil based fats are not nearly as bad for you, and a lesser amount of fat ingested from big mac from McDonald’s has more bad fat than all the fat in this country combined – unless you count obeese eurotrash on holiday. Also, the more natural the food and the less processed, the better. Food selection here is 10% of what you can get in the states and the rest is unattainable because it’s crazy expensive to get it sent here. This is infinitely worse than worrying about guacamole calories. The only really bad thing I would watch out for at the upscale bean sandwich stand is the nasty tasting mystery sauce. The rest tastes pretty good and isn’t worth worring about.
“Supersize Me” is a fraud – guy went in to “experiment” with forgone conclusion and intention of pandering to the target audience – you can eat 2500 cal a day at McDs for a year without doing the damage he accomplished in a month. If he ate 5000 cals of his gals faddish veggie crappolla he would have exploded from flatulence and dehydrated himself from diarrhea (It would be coming out faster than he could pour the water in!)
Not that I advocate McDs, God forbid, I am just sick of “Documentaries” that your generation seems to take in without (seemingly) employing critical thinking. This one had a good effect – it got you thinking about nutrition, I wish I did when growing up … please do not even think about skipping lunch … bad idea! Your calorie allotment should be evenly distributed during the day ( if anything, more heavily loaded during the first 2/3 – easier said than done).
If brown-bagging, why on earth would that prevent you from getting out? Grab your bag and go out! Invest in a small solid state heater/cooler and keep it hot/cold in the trunk! Going out with the brown bag may be a social occasion too – ideally – five people can share a picnic basket, that way you “cook” once a week – now I am really getting fancy!
but they’re SO GOOD
Where is Tyler on this matter? 😉
i’ve got to agree with mister mutak. kudos to mr. “supersize me” on cashing in on the booming market of “politacally minded” youngsters watching “documentaries”. i admit that the allure of “supersize me” catch me in its grasp. i found the movie more suspensful than anything else as i was waiting for the guy to have a heart attack. i have no doubt his girlfriend was in on it, making it a better sell by being the opposite of his character in the movie – a devout vegan. most fast food is a) fast and b) great tasting. if you need sustenance in a hurry, hit it up once in a while, but i am under the impression that everyone can do themselves a favor by putting a bit of planning into what they eat. my position here in colorado allows me to work out of the home so i am basically forced to make my own food. to avoid getting bored of the same ‘ol pasta w/sauce i’ve adventured a bit by looking into….*gasp* cookbooks. not only have i lost over 10 lbs., i also feel better and have been able to save a ton of $$. good times.
Cheese and bread Jeff. What else do you need man, cheese and bread…
My food budget allots for one Bean Burrito Especial from Taco Bell every day for lunch. I’ve lost fifteen pounds, and I fart a lot.
I admit, I love the burritos from Chipotle and Qdoba, but liking them will not magically make them healthy. It seems that the only redeeming nutritional value in either of them is from the dozen grams of fiber. The large amount of white rice and the presence of that huge tortilla certainly aren’t helping things. It shouldn’t be too much of a surprise that Chipotle is owned by McDonald’s and Odoba is owned by Jack in the Box.
Yes, “Super Size Me” is biased. However, something that is biased is not necessarily untrue. Books and articles from independent sources vet and concur with many of the ideas in the movie. The MOVIE. Yes, it’s a movie, and movies, even documentaries, are apt to entertain. It would have been a really boring movie (and not nearly as successful) if nothing happened to the filmmaker after he ate junk for a month.
Still, the movie represents only 1% of the 250 hours of raw footage that was shot for the film. I’d be interested to see what was not shown. I suspect that some of the cut tape showed thin people at McDonalds, people on the street who could define a Calorie, and students at the school buying something other than junk food. Of course, showing any of those things would have weakened the film’s message.
I believe that the point of the film was to drive home a point and inspire some sort of action. It’s undeniable that America is getting fatter. Something needs to be done, because the status quo ain’t working.
Americans tend to pass off blame instead of taking responsibility for their actions. Do I think that McDonald’s, Pepsi, and Krispy Kreme deserve to be sued for “making people fat?” No. Those companies aren’t helping to solve the problem, and might be making it worse, but they are not being intentionally malicious. It’s not their “fault” that people buy their goods when they shouldn’t be. Suing Pepsi for giving your diabetes is like suing Miller for making you drunk: you know what you’re getting when you buy it. Duh.
I think that I’ll close by doing my part in passing the blame: I blame capitalism for making us fat. It’s very profitable to make people fat. Fat people have to eat a lot to stay fat, so food companies win. Fat people try all sorts of diets than inevitably fail, so (diet) food companies win. Fat people cause more business for companies that make things to allow fat people to live, so those companies win. Perhaps the only companies that benefit from an America full of fit, healthy, active people are the sporting goods companies. Somebody needs to come up with a way to make money by getting America genuinely healthy (as opposed to treating illness or offering quick fixes/diets/gastro-surgeries/whatever). If there’s a strong profit potential, somebody should do it, and our nation would benefit. In other words, capitalism made us fat; capitalism should make us thin again.
Wow … not so fast! I agree with most things you are trying to do and especially with the noble idea of trying to make money keeping people fit and healthy – go for it! Just be careful dissing capitalism – what makes people fat is taking in more calories than they can burn – I am heavy and considered obese, yet we never eat fast food, most of the time cook from scratch using best, freshest available ingredients. Problem is, I eat about four to five times as much as I should (That includes beverages, mostly “healthy” red wine). Exercise would require me to run, bicycle, swim etc. more hours than I spend sleeping, eating and drinking the “right” amount of food makes me profoundly unhappy – so where is the “quality of life”? What makes us fat is the instant gratification and human foibles, not capitalism. It is true that capitalism in its purest form will cater to the lowest common denominator … on the other hand, overall, look at the life expectancy of capitalist vs. socialist/communist countries …
Re: It’s a movie … it has to be biased …. It makes us think. This is a true story from Newburyport, MA some ten years ago. There was a lengthy article in the local rag about dangers of NITROGEN to the environment. Obviously, air we breathe is close to 80% nitrogen, so that blathering got me quite upset. Editor would not budge because the chemistry professor from the University of New Hampshire was the source of the data and he (allegedly) proofread the article. After I located the guy, we agreed that he was talking about NO & NO2 usually referred to as NOx … but his closing sentence blew me away:”It does not need to be corrected, it is important to get people thinking ….”
Well, my quip about critical thinking in the first post was directed toward M. Moore’s “documentaries” and seeming inability of your generation to sort out blatant propaganda and demagoguery from well meaning provocation. People that set out to manufacture facts in the most partisan and biased manner should not be rewarded by financial gains that enable them to do more of the same. In other words, again, please, employ critical thinking and cold logic!
Well, however one feels about the documentary, one would probably agree that it’s not a good idea to “try it at home.” In other words, don’t be this guy:
http://www.channelnewsasia.com/stories/health/view/116606/1/.html