Super Size Me   

Morgan Spurlock

Dr. Daryl Isaacs, M.D.
Dr. Lisa Ganjhu, D.O.
Dr. Stephen Siegel, M.D.

Bridget Bennett, MS, RD

and others

Written and Directed by

Morgan Spurlock

As I was growing up, my family's dependence on fast food was non-existent.  Mom or Dad cooked most of our meals at home, or we went out to eat at nice restaurants.  As a result, I never grew up craving McDonald's (actually, our occasional forays to fast food establishments involved Wendy's or Whataburger), and after seeing this film, I have to remember to thank my parents for that.

Super Size Me is director Morgan Spurlock's method of examining the ills the fast food industry has wrought on this nation.  McDonald's is the obvious culprit, simply because it is the biggest.  It has 83 locations on Manhattan alone.  The idea was planted thanks to a lawsuit against the hamburger chain filed by two overweight teenage girls.  The judge basically stated that if they could show the restaurant intended for people to eat there every meal of every day, and that it would cause harm, there might be a case.  This is what prompted Spurlock to act.

He decided to eat three meals a day at McDonald's for 30 days.  He had to, of course, make some ground rules for his experiment.  The only things he could consume were items that McDonald's sold.  He had to eat everything on the menu at least once, and if he was asked to supersize his meal, he had to do it. 

Before he started, he lined up three doctors to outline his progress, and a health center where he would examine his diet and get his periodic weigh-ins.  The doctors seemed to think that there would not be much of a change in his overall health as a result of the radical "McDiet."  It turns out that even they were surprised at the damage that was done to his body. 

The best thing about Super Size Me is that Spurlock addresses the many issues causing the health crisis in America, not just the fast food.  He points out the deemphasization of physical education in the schools.  I can remember going to P.E. every day in school.  Now, a lot of kids get just one 45-minute period a week.  Worse than this, though is the school lunch program.  Most kids just eat fries and a candy bar for a meal (I'm no stranger to this, cherry sweet rolls and a Mountain Dew was lunch for me quite often), and school chefs don't even cook anything anymore.  Their work usually involves just opening a box of frozen, government-sent slop that is unhealthy on top of being barely edible.

The effects on Spurlock throughout the month are the most alarming things about Super Size Me.  Sure, nobody in their right mind would eat as much McDonald's food in a month as he did.  But, the fact is that many people eat there multiple times a week.  22% of McDonald's patrons are what employees call "super heavy users," those that eat there three or more times a week.  He puts on 25 pounds and nearly doubles his body fat.  All in just 30 days.  And while the radical effect of his diet isn’t necessarily natural, it becomes plainly obvious how just eating this type of food two or three times a week would have a devastating effect over time.

Super Size Me is a truly excellent documentary that succeeds mainly because it stays away from a heavy-handed, doom and gloom approach.  Consequently, this film is one of the best times I’ve had at a movie in a while.  Spurlock is an engaging personality with a bold, yet, hysterical experiment.  It is effective because a lot of the information being disseminated is, actually, quite disturbing, thus, making the laughs that much more appreciated.  The animated sequence on the McNuggets alone will have you squirming in your seat.  There are so many other revelations about McDonald’s, Spurlock’s experience, this nation, and fast food in general, that it would be impossible to list them all here.  I wouldn’t want to in the hopes that everyone goes out to see this. 

In the end, the film is an indictment not just on McDonald's, but also on the current American culture.  Obesity is a serious problem that could soon surpass smoking as the leading preventable cause of death.  As someone in the film points out, since it is now socially acceptable to tell a stranger he needs to stop smoking, when will it become acceptable to tell the obese stranger to put down those fries?  In my opinion, not a moment too soon.  Maybe, then, there will finally be some responsibility taken by both sides of the issue – the customer and the company.