Merab Morgan doesn't think there's anything wrong with what's on McDonald's menu. The problem, as she sees it, is that people don't know how to make the right choices on what to order when they pull up to a drive-through or walk into one of the chain's fast food restaurants.
"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,'" she said.
Ms. Morgan, a mother of two and a construction worker, decided to go on a McD's-only diet after seeing the documentary Super Size Me where a man put on 30 pounds after eating only foods from the restaurant. Instead of ordering meal after meal of Big Macs, however, Ms. Morgan decided to be more judicious in her selections.
According to a report by The Associated Press, Ms. Morgan Morgan "used nutritional information downloaded from McDonald's Web site to create meal plans of no more than 1,400 calories a day."
After 90 days on her McD's diet, Ms. Morgan had shed 37 pounds, going from 227 pounds to 190.
Another woman, Soso Whaley, also went on a McDonald's-only diet and developed her own documentary, Me and Mickey D, to record the process. Ms. Whaley restricted her menu choices to keep her within 2,000 calories a day. After ninety days on the diet, she also lost weight, going from 175 to 139 pounds.
"I had to think about what I was eating," she said. "I couldn't just walk in there and say 'I'll take a cinnamon bun and a Diet Coke.' ... I know a lot of people are really turned off by the whole thought of monitoring what they are eating, but that's part of the problem."
Moderator's Comment: Will Merab Morgan and Soso Whaley's experiences with McDonald's diet change the focus of responsibility in the media and medical circles from food manufacturers and providers to the individual? If you're McDonald's, do you use the good (Me and Mickey D) and the bad (Super Size Me) of the documentaries made on the company's menu options to make an objective case for balance in nutritional and other lifestyle choices? - George Anderson - Moderator