6/8/04 "Supersize Me"

I was thrilled when this movie came to the local downtown theater, the Loring Hall. It's known in Hingham as a bit of an artsy-fartsy film place, a place you can go see indy films if you don't wanna hump all the way into Cambridge. It's nice, also very historic and a source of fierce personal pride to many residents in Hingham. I can remember going to see things like "Clash of the Titans" and "Popeye" there. And it's got a balcony! As always, BEWARE THE FATTENING SPOILERS.

Notes From the Red Book

6/8/04 "Supersize Me"

trailers-"The Terminal" (Yes! Can't wait to see the next Spielbergian feel good flick.)

Mississippi is the fattest state.

three doctors-cardiologist, gastro-entemologist, and gen practitioner

starting-168 cholesterol, 185 1/2 lbs

more McDonald's in Manhattan than anywhere in the world.

a 7-11 double big gulp = 2 liters of soda?!?!

"I've got a McStomachache...I got the McGurgles and McSweats....some McGas...this is making me McCrazy."

heckling smokers vs fatties

drive by McDonald's, punch my kid in the face

10lbs, in five days???

kids know Ronald McDonald, but not Jesus

17 lbs in 12 days

210 final weigh in

Houston is fattest city.

This movie was brilliant, absolutely brilliant. I'm never eating again. Ok, I am. But it gives you a lot of heavy info in a light way, and made it very very interesting. In this movie, Morgan Spurlock, the director with the Fu Manchu moustache, decides to go on a McDonalds-only diet after hearing about two overweight girls who were trying to sue McDonald's for making them fat. Before beginning, he consults three different doctors, a fitness expert, and his own vegan girlfriend. They all basically tell him, hey, it's your funeral. But he is determined, and goes for it. There are rules-he may only supersize if he is asked to do so, and he has to try everything on the menu at least once. He also cannot have ANYTHING unless it's on the McDonald's menu-including water. After five days, he's gained ten pounds. 10 POUNDS in FIVE DAYS. I was horrified.

The film follows Spurlock's thirty day fast food odyssey, interspersing his menu choices with information, interviews, and visits to various schools, businesses, and McDonald's around the country. At the end of his experiment, his liver is almost toxic, he has gained almost thirty pounds, and his cholestorol had gone through the roof. His vegan girlfriend puts him on a diet immediately after and he has since "returned to normal".

I found this movie fascinating. I eat at McDonald's maybe once a week. It's fast, it's cheap, it tastes good, hey, who doesn't like Mickey D's? My favorite foods there are the fries, the quarter pounders, and the steak bagel sandwiches. I am probably going to food hell. But since I saw this movie, I have become hesitant about eating there. Some information provided by Spurlock-McDonald's feeds more than 46 million people a day - more than the entire population of Spain. You would have to walk for seven hours straight to burn off a Super Sized Coke, fry and Big Mac. McDonald's says: "Any processing our foods undergo make them more dangerous than unprocessed foods". I found a lot of this information scary and hard to believe, yet, Spurlock has done his homework.

Another amusing quote came when Spurlock was speaking to an expert on how fast food chains achieve lifelong loyalty because people keep fond memories of the fast food places they ate at as children. Spurlock retorted, "Every time we drive by a McDonald's I'm gonna punch my kids in the face."

As some one who is overweight, and someone whose mother is diabetic and whose grandparents died of stroke and heart attack, I found this movie speaking to me and making me feel not a little bit uncomfortable, and my mind was definitely echoing what I heard many others saying as the theater emptied, "Why did I visit the concession stand?" I know my main reason for eating at McDonald's is not the taste of the food, it's because it's A-quick, and B-cheap. Dieting is expensive. And Roger Ebert had an interesting quote in his review of this movie-"You didn't ask, but what I Truly Believe is that unless you can find an eating program you can stay on for the rest of your life, dieting is a waste of time. The pounds come back." So true, Roger, so true. And Morgan also made statements about exercise and how no one, especially children in schools, is getting enough. Basically, America wants it quick, fast, easy, and tasting good, and McDonald's gives it to them. But in taking it, not just from McDonald's, we are giving ourselves diabetes, heart disease, strokes, and even cancer. Not from the McDonald's food...but from the obesity that results.

I can't say honestly that I will NEVER eat at McDonald's again. I'm sure I will. But this movie really makes you think, and many of the pictures were worth a thousand words of well meaning advice. At the very least, now whenever I'm feeling hungry, instead of grabbing the first thing I can lay my hands on, I find myself stopping to think..."What else (as in alternative) can I have?"

On a different note, the scariest thing I saw in the movie occured during a piece when Spurlock was sitting down with some first graders and showing them pictures of George Washington, George W Bush, and Ronald McDonald. He then showed them a hidden picture, and all of the kids couldn't figure out who it was, and only one even made a guess, "George Bush?" The picture was of Jesus. I freaked out and actually yelled, "No WAY!!!" in the middle of the movie theater. Yeah. We have our work cut out for us.

See this movie. It'll get inside your head...in more ways than one. Until the next time, this is Sarah saying, "DON'T supersize me, please."