Super Size Me

Morgan Spurlock: In the lawsuit against them, McDonald's stated that it is a matter of common knowledge that any processing its foods undertake serve to make them more unhealthier than unprocessed foods. Case in Point: McNuggets.

[animated cartoon segment, with a chicken on a walker approaching a farmer]

Morgan Spurlock: Originally created from chickens too old to lay eggs, McNuggets are now created from chickens with unusually large breasts.

[the farmer suddenly gets an idea. He grabs the chicken and puts it into a machine called the Nuggetron 5000]

Morgan Spurlock: They are stripped to the bone, and ground up into a sort of chicken mash, which is then combined with all sorts of additives and preservatives, pressed into familiar shapes, breaded and deep-fryed, freeze-dried, and then shipped to a McDonald's near you.

[as he's saying that, the chicken enters a series of devices that ground it up, and then hits another device that removes the bones. The boneless chicken goes up a belt and has its head sliced off by a blade, and then the mash goes up into another machine. It comes out and is compressed into McNugget shapes, put into a deep-fryer, and then the finished nuggets come out on the conveyer belt, where the farmer picks one up]

Morgan Spurlock: Judge Robert Sweet called them a McFrankenstein creation of various ingredients not utilized by the home cook.

[Cuts to a poster of a chicken, above which is the question "Can you find the nuggets on this chicken?" The camera pans down to reveal the answer: "Neither could we."]

Dr. David Satcher - Former Surgeon General: One of the most disturbing things to me is that in the last 20 to 25 years, we've actually seen a doubling of overweight and obese children and adolescents.

Morgan Spurlock: And this weight gain has been linked to countless health problems later in life.

[Images of the health problems flash onto the screen as Spurlock calls out each one]

Morgan Spurlock: Such as hypertension, coronary heart disease, stroke, gallbladder disease, osteoarthritis, sleep apnea, respiratory problems, endometrial, breast, prostate and colon cancers, dyslipidemia, steatohepatitis, insulin resistance, asthma, hypouricemia, reproductive hormone abnormalities, polycistic ovarian syndrome, impaired fertility, and adult onset diabetes. In fact, if current trends continue, one out of every three children born in the year 2000 will develop diabetes in their lifetime.