NEW YORK (AP) — Documentary filmmaker Morgan Spurlock, an Oscar-nominee who devoted his career to examining food and American diets, famously eating only at McDonald’s for a month to showcase the health risks of a fast-food diet, has died at age 53.
Spurlock passed away Thursday in New York due to complications from cancer, as stated by his family on Friday.
File/Park City, UT – January 16: Documentary filmmaker Morgan Spurlock poses for portraits during the 2004 Sundance Film Festival January 16, 2004 in Park City, UT. (Photo by Carlo Allegri/Getty Images)
In 2004, Spurlock made headlines with his groundbreaking documentary “Super Size Me,” and returned in 2019 with “Super Size Me 2: Holy Chicken!” — a candid examination of an industry that processes 9 billion animals annually in America.
File/Morgan Spurlock, Director of ‘Super Size Me’, 26 May 2004 (Fairfax Media via Getty Images)
Since unveiling the fast-food and chicken industries, there has been a surge in restaurants emphasizing freshness, artisanal methods, farm-to-table concepts, and ethically sourced ingredients. However, the nutritional landscape hasn’t significantly improved.
“There has been this massive shift, and people ask me, ‘So has the food gotten healthier?’ And I respond, ‘Well, the marketing certainly has,’” he told the AP in 2019.
