Junk diet puts teen on go-slow

A novel experiment where a New York film director ate only McDonald's fast food for a month, with dire consequences, has been matched by a Christchurch teenager.

Director Morgan Spurlock ate three meals of McDonald's every day and took along a film crew to record his ballooning weight - up nearly 12kg - leaping cholesterol level and malfunctioning liver.

His film, Super Size Me: A Film of Epic Portions, a comic but serious look at America's fast food addiction, took this year's Sundance Film Festival by storm.

Thirteen-year-old Justin Fletcher, from the Christchurch suburb of Fendalton, has trod the same ground as Spurlock, chomping his way through lollies, cake and meat pies for two days to test the effect on his brain.

The results shocked Justin and his mother, Philippa, a community health promoter, who admits it felt odd serving up Coco Pops, Coke and lollies for breakfast.

"I was blown away. It was such a short period of time, I didn't think it would have much impact," she said.

Justin - who prefers savoury carbohydrates - tried the sugar-laden diet as a science project while at Christchurch's innovative Discovery 1 primary school.

He ate junk food for breakfast, lunch and dinner for two days, then put himself through a series of reading, typing and mathematics tests.

Justin repeated the exercises after two days of eating chicken, rice, bread and lettuce.

The results? His addled brain went on a go-slow when fed the sugar diet.

He read 43 per cent slower, typed at nearly half his usual speed and solved maths problems up to 35 per cent slower.

"It was only once I had finished the tests and converted the results to percentages that I realised how big the difference was," said Justin, who now attends Burnside High School.

And he began craving his usual regime of rice, noodles, chicken and potato wedges.

"I got sick of junk food after the first breakfast," he said.

Justin's family also noticed behavioural changes, like mood-swings, after he binged on junk food.

"He was more miserable and easily irritated," said Philippa Fletcher, who works for Community and Public Health, promoting mental health.

"He was sluggish and had lost some of his vitality. I would say that Justin wasn't very happy at all."

Spurlock, a 33-year-old New Yorker with a strong constitution, noticed profound changes after persevering with his McDonald's diet.

Within days he was vomiting up his burgers and battling with headaches and depression. His sex drive disappeared.

But most shocking of all was his liver, overwhelmed by saturated fats.

"It became very, very abnormal," Spurlock told British newspaper the Independent.

McDonald's responded: "Consumers can achieve balance in their daily dining decisions by choosing from our array of quality offerings and range of portion sizes to meet their taste and nutrition goals."

Meanwhile, Justin still enjoys chips and fizzy drinks - but only as treats.

Justin's scores

Reading: 43 per cent slower.

Typing: 50 per cent slower.

Maths: Up to 35 per cent slower.

- NZPA