supersize me

what a great movie. it is a couple years old by now (2004), but still very valid. yes, morgan spurlock went to the extreme and ate only at mcdonald's three times a day for one month, but he was trying to prove a point. and did he ever. (and we all know there are people who eat there once or twice a day, so he wasn't that far off.) after seeing other sort of off the wall movies, what i appreciated about this one was all of the facts and statistics he included. he had a complete health work-up before, during and after his experiment so he could accurately say what that 'food' physically did to his body. he interviewed doctors, nutritionists and professionals in various fields. he included many facts about mcdo and other fast food chains. i think the movie was well done.

mcdo doesn't recommend people eat there everyday, but do you really think they would ever stop someone from ordering? one thing the movie pointed out was how differently mcdo operates compared to the rest of the fast food places...they gear their image and their advertising towards kids. kids, in turn, bug their parents to take them there until the parents give in. mcdo 'restaurants' have playgrounds. they started the whole happy meal idea and giving toys away with meals. they have the monopoly game every now and then. their representative is a clown, for crying out loud!

i do believe they do not twist people's arms to eat their product, it is the person's choice. if people want to eat crap, who is mcdonald's to tell them not to? but they could change the way they do things. don't gear themselves towards children. don't have the supersize me option (which i do believe they got rid of). put the nutrition information (or lack of) right up there next to the price. they say they have nutrition information posters or brochures, but no one reads them. make them!

something i thought was very interesting was the fact that the doctors he was seeing never thought his body would have such a reaction to this experiment. doctors, of all people, should know what that kind of food does to your body, yet none of them expected such a rapid decline in his health. i said to someone once i thought smoking did as much damage to your body as eating fast food on a regular basis. they thought i was nuts. i have no real evidence to back up that opinion, i don't know of any study that has actually compared the two body stressors and seen which has a worse effect, but i still believe it. people don't realize how much food effects them - their physical and emotional health.

do a search for morgan spurlock or supersize me and you'll come up with more interesting information.