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Supersize Me:

Supersized Nation

by Josh Day

I can count on two or three fingers the times I've been "Supersized" under the golden arches.

The last such experience occurred in 2003 when I was on my way to Lexington, VA, for a Sigma Nu College of Chapters convention with two other guys. All three of us were ravenous. Ordinarily, I have trouble finishing the "large" Mcdonald's portions--I rarely ate fast food during college, but there were times when it just couldn't be avoided.

I ordered a supersized two hamburger meal--you know, the flimsy pancake-sized burgers with two pickles, ketchup, mustard. What I got was a half pound of fries and a drink so large it seemed more fitting a mead tankard for a Viking king. I finished the fries and the burgers with gusto, but I could not finish the soft drink. And to this day, I do not understand how some people slurp down those mini-kegs of carbonated liquid sugar and chemicals

Documentary filmmaker Morgan Spurlock couldn't handle his first "Supersized" meal either. After forty minutes of trying to force down a supersized Big Mac and cheese meal, his stomach turned on him, and his lunch landed on the concrete outside his car.

This was one of the many gimmick scenes in a gimmick themed film. As an experiment, Spurlock decided to eat nothing but McDonald's for an entire month -- three squares a day, and he could only eat what was sold at the golden arched counter. And he could only "Supersize" when prompted by the server.

You can guess what happens. His health deteriorates rapidly, he puts on twenty+ pounds, and his liver becomes fatty, like an alcoholic's on a drinking binge. Adding another level to the gimmick pageantry, Spurlock employed three doctors to monitor his decline as he ventured into the golden arched rings of McDante's deep-fried Inferno. They tell him he may die if he continues his experiment... of course, this was after all three had only predicted nominal health problems as a result of this diet (the most specified M.D., an Internal Medicine physician, actually tells Spurlock he doesn't think much will happen to him aside from a spike in triglycerides).

Shows what a college education and multiple years of medical school fail to teach about the human body and its nutrition needs, doesn't it?

Spurlock develops mild heart palpitations, mood swings, depression, chills, cold sweats, and a plethora of other symptoms. Yet he stays with the McD's diet to the salty end.

Because the experiment is a gimmick--does anyone really think that his health would not deteriorate over the course of the month?--the "Mac Attack" spree really doesn't tell us anything we don't know (except for the doctors; they learned eating nothing but McDonald's actually hurts you).

But the rest of the movie is extremely informative, entertaining, and disturbing. "Supersize Me" is a film every American should see, and those of us who eat fast food once a week should see twice.

Spurlock is a fun narrator and protagonist, and as he odysseys all over the country eating nothing but McDonald's, the viewer feels like he is eating the same greasy fries, the same sausage-bacon biscuits. The movie reminded me of the honest, hard-hitting "Roger and Me" by Michael Moore before his days of fame. Like Moore in "Roger and Me," Spurlock is the average Joe on a fool's errand to destroy hypocrisy, change conglomerations, and reveal the truth. Unlike Moore and his films post-Roger, "Supersize Me" does not suffer from self-parody and inflated self-importance, and it is not heavily loaded with agendas and politics.

As he travels across America, Spurlock interviews a number of people, ranging from McDonald's customers--one guy eats at least one Big Mac every day--fast food lobbyists, nutritionists, his vegan girlfriend, and school kids.

In one of the most disenfranchising scenes, Spurlock goes into a school cafeteria and examines what our kids are being fed at the food line, often from government subsidized deliveries. In most schools, nothing is really cooked anymore--it all arrives in boxes and is so heavily processed that it is on the level with most fast food chains.

When speaking to a food service director of an elementary school, it becomes obvious what is going on; the soft drink and processed food industries, including Sodexho, the corporation that supplied the University of North Carolina at Asheville--my old alma mater--have the schools and local governments totally in their pockets. A girl buys nothing but fries from the food line, and when Spurlock asks the food director if she is getting her proper level of nutrition, the director responds, "She's probably supplementing her bagged lunch with a side item; a lot of them do that."

The little girl had only brought a can of Coke from home.

And that's the status quo in most schools these days.

"Supersize Me" is an honest look at the state of the union concerning the outrageous number of obese citizens and the marketing machine of the fast food empires that keep people fat. In the end, the responsibility for healthy eating comes down to the individual, not the government, or the companies. However, Spurlock argues that children are so inundated with the fast food presence that parents are hard pressed to compete with Ronald McDonald, or the Coke machine down the hall from their homeroom.

My biggest complaint about this excellent and informative documentary was Spurlock's lack of examining the free choice factor. Again like Moore's "Roger and Me," the fact that no one is forced to eat McDonald's, or that anyone can leave Flint, Michigan, and find a new job, is glossed over. Ultimately, it is the responsibility of the individual, or the parent, to watch their diets and the diets of their children.

As Spurlock points out, the greatest weapon against fast food is education--not lawsuits. Moderation is key, as it is for most everything. Most people, and most children when they reach the proper age, realize McDonald's is not good for you. Eating healthy or eating horribly is everyone's individual right. At one point, Spurlock enters into an argument with his vegan girlfriend. "Ham is not heroin," he says, "they are two different things." The point is clear: fast food may be harmful, but it need not be policed.

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