I am not a nutritionist and despite being an environmentalist I am not even a vegetarian (though I do try and keep my meat consumption low to minimize my footprint.) Despite those two admissions though I do know something about cooking and eating healthily, so when I read today that there is a distance runner in the US training for a marathon by only eating McDonalds it caught my attention. There are certainly some of you out there who have seen the movie “Supersize Me”, a documentary directed by and starring Morgan Spurlock. Morgan undergoes a month of only eating McDonalds to see what effects it has on his physiology and psychology. I had some stylistic issues with the documentary at the time – most documentaries are supposed to maintain a somewhat impartial standpoint and document a story, and he was clearly interested in making a statement, but the fact is I agree with the general message of the movie. Fast food is mostly not very healthy for us and it puts our bodies (specifically our livers, kidneys and circulatory system) under duress to deal with the added stuff in the food which shouldn’t be there. The marathon runner is maybe better suited to undertake such a venture, his body is probably used to dealing with more duress than a typical person’s despite that this diet is not healthy or advisable.

One of the most influential environmental books of all time is “Silent Spring” by Rachel Carson. In it she described how the higher up the food chain you go, the higher the concentration of pollution inside the animal is. If you have a tiny concentration of some pollutant in a small fish, and then a frog eats 5 of those small fish, then the frog will have about 5 times the concentration. Frogs gets eaten by birds or small mammals, those get eaten by wolves and the concentration increases up the chain (its of course more accurate to describe the food web but in those days it wasn’t.)  

 There is one superhero though which is often shown eating to great excess, and that’s the Flash (Wally West version.) This goes back to the mid-80s when the character was redesigned to have lost his ability to run at speeds near the speed of sound and he was reduced to running near the speed of sound. I think this was later explained as because he was unable to connect with the Speed Force (when it was happening the Speed Force had not yet been defined in comics.) Instead he had an extremely fast metabolism which required a lot of food. This food was usually drawn almost cartoonishly to be the equivalent of chowing down on plates upon plates of hamburgers and pizza. If he was able to eat so much though he would be consuming a large number of toxins and other dead calories from his poor diet. His superfast metabolism wouldn’t mean that his liver of kidney would be able to remove stuff that it can’t remove anyway. Actually he would have a huge collection of harmful substances in his body.

In the end I know it is just a fictional comic book character and that I trying to apply too much real world science to the story (as usual). Still the comics often depict some characters as having exceptionally good diets (Batman for instance.) Maybe it is time for one of the most profilic eaters to follow one as well?

I don't think it's just his metabolism but all of his bodily functions are faster (insert super-speed poop).
 
Also I don't know how much truth there is in that Toxin theory, because every creatures body is designed to filter toxins. Even if some got through it would be trace amounts, also whose to say how much toxins it takes to kill someone. I'm sure the amount varies from individual to individual. And he is a super-being so therefore it may take even more that the average.

Or! Or maybe he has enzymes in his body that allow him to break down any type of organic matter.

" @TheCrowbar:  
@Caligula:  Are you guys actually reading through all my blogs.  Next thing I know you are going to find the one I hid in the Mister Miracle forum...  Those would have to be super enzymes though, or else animals would have them already.  Plus a lot of pollutants aren't organic.  I agree though that you get trace amounts in everything you eat, but if you eat 100 hamburgers in a sitting, they are going to pile up a lot faster. "

" @TheCrowbar: Nitrites and nitrates for instance or artificial colouring in the ketchup or mustard "

He probably burns through all the food too fast for any toxins to set in

" @TheCrowbar: Nitrite NO2 (or a variant) Nitrate is NO3 or variant.  Artificial colours can be made out of anything.   "

Dc officialy anounced flash has an exelerated matabolism to support his superspeed.

It is the same way with teenagers. Teenagers can eat more fast food than normal people due to their high metabolism making up for it.

Flash basicly has a metabolism simular to a teenager only 1,000x better or more.

That is also the reason why flash has to eat so much food.

Do to flashes superhuman metabolism if he didn't eat that much in a day he would starve.

"

Dc officialy anounced flash has an exelerated matabolism to support his superspeed.

 

It is the same way with teenagers. Teenagers can eat more fast food than normal people due to their high metabolism making up for it.

 

Flash basicly has a metabolism simular to a teenager only 1,000x better or more.

 

That is also the reason why flash has to eat so much food.

 

Do to flashes superhuman metabolism if he didn't eat that much in a day he would starve.

"

Environmentalist who eats meat? Shocking. Do you cut down trees with crude oils and throw them at whales and baby seals too? *shakes head and then runs away from thread as fast as possible* 

"Maybe it is time for one of the most profilic eaters to follow one as well? "

I think Wally learned how to control how his body works.