Filmmaker Embarks on 30-day Fast Food Binge
By Brendan O.
One in four Americans visits a fast food restaurant every day. It’s no wonder that America is the “fattest” country in the world. We are so subliminally manipulated by fast food and junk food that we can’t help but crave sugar and fat.
A man named Morgan Spurlock embarked on a quest to uncover the effects of fast food on the human body. He performed an experiment during which he ate only McDonald’s food every day, three meals a day, for thirty days.
His rules were that he must eat three meals a day, he could only eat food from the McDonalds menu, he must ‘supersize’ only when asked, and he must eat everything on the menu at least once.
Spurlock records his journey through fast food hell in his documentary. “Supersize Me”,a sickening revelation about America’s deadly obsession with fast food.
Spurlock travels around the country interviewing people about their association with fast food and junk food. He visits most of America’s “fattest” cities and delves into the corruption of the fast food world.
We learn that 60% of Americans are overweight, and that left unabated, obesity will surpass smoking as the leading cause of preventable death in America.
We also learn that McDonald’s feeds more than 46 million people a day, that’s more than the entire population of Spain. We track his progress, the health effects that this food has on his body, his weight gain, his impaired mobility, and other side effects.
Spurlock visits schools and interviews students and cafeteria workers about the healthiness of American school food. Most schools in the US feed their students USDA approved food that is almost as unhealthy as feeding them fast food. We see kids in schools who eat nothing but chips, soda, and candy bars for lunch every day. We wonder why one in every three children born in the year 2000 will develop diabetes in their lifetime. (Diabetes, on average, will cut 17-27 years off your life.)
Spurlock investigates how fast food and junk food have enthralled America’s children. The average child sees 10,000 TV advertisements for junk food per year. McDonald’s distributes more toys per year than Toys-R-Us. The purpose of these toys is to get America’s children to want to eat McDonald’s food. The toys attract the kids and the high sugar and fat content of the food keep them coming back for more.
Towards the end of his journey through fast food torture, Spurlock’s health significantly deteriorates. The several doctors and nutritionists that he has hired to keep tabs on his health all reprimand him and urge him to stop. He suffers serious liver and kidney symptoms, impaired mobility, depression and several other negative health effects.
“Supersize Me” is superbly documented and magnificently put together. Spurlock is a real high flier and hero. His sacrifice has brought to light the ghastly reality that is the fast food and junk food industry.
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Wow! It sounds like concepts such as self-responsibility, self-control and delayed gratification are going by the wayside in our eating habits: very similar to what we see in our political culture, and a lot like what sometimes has been called the “me-first” attitude.
Lon