April 29th, 2005
Supersize Me and a climate of fear
Last night in the UK, Supersize Me was shown on TV. I’ve heard a little bit about this film, but not enough to go and see it in the cinema. Ok, some bloke eats nothing but McDonald’s for a month and he gets sick. So? What do you expect if you eat nothing but that crap for a month.
If you ate, say, fish and chips or nothing but English Breakfasts for a month it would have the same effect. In fact any high fat, low nutritional value, food would have the same effect right? Of course.
So, with this in mind I thought I’d watch it for the entertainment value of some bloke just eating McDonald’s for a month. Sounded good.
It made me feel very ill and guilty. And I like to think I have a pretty good diet. I’m not sure that was the desired effect from the audience the director had in mind. I had the feeling he was after more of an anti-McDonald’s feeling. Not the case. At least not with my wife and I.
For those who haven’t see it, let me fill you in on some of the highlights:
- Morgan Spurlock embarks on eating nothing but McDonald’s food for 30 days under medical supervision from a Cardiologist, a Gastroenterologist, a gP and a Nutritionist.
- He follows three simple rules.
- No options: he could only eat what was available over the counter (water included!)
- No supersizing unless offered
- No excuses: he had to eat every item on the menu at least once
- He began to make himself ill pretty quickly. One nice scene was him throwing up after eating a Supersize meal (which includes 2 litres of Coke).
- He gained well over 10% of his body mass in 4 weeks.
- The doctor said, and I quote,
If you were drinking right now, and I saw these (blood test) results, I would tell you — if you continue, you will die.
- Morgan slowly becomes addicted to the sugar, caffiene and fat in the food. He begins to feel depressed and lethargic until he eats some McDonald’s, at which point he feels rather peppy.
- Near the end of the 30 days his liver is turning to fat. Some of his blood results are off the charts. And he begins to smell.
So, all in all it was watching someone self-destruct. Literally. Entertaining? Not really.
One thing which did annoy me about the film was it adding to this climate of fear we live in at the moment. If terrorists don’t kill you, then McDonald’s will. I’m getting a bit tired of it all. If you eat this, you’ll die of that. If you go there, you might get blown up. Everything and everyone is out to get you. Apparently.
But anyway. It was a good film, made me feel ill but other than that quite entertaining and informative.
Oh, and apparently cheese has the same ‘pleasure’ chemicals as heroin. Explains why I like cheese so much!
I rented this on DVD when it was released and I found it very similar to you. It enforced the annoyance I have against companies such as McDonalds filling youngsters full of crap.
I found the psychology of it all quite fascinating. Children go into McDonald’s early in life because they provide facilities which aren’t available in local communities anymore (at least in the US), like playgrounds. Whilst they’re there, they eat. They then associate food like that with having a good time (because they are playing) and so the cycle begins…
Not good.
Damn it — missed it and wanted to see it as well…
As for cheese, I jack up daily and should no doubt be whisked off to the nearest Rehab Clinc. Besides, the cheese in Mcdonalds isn’t real, its steam rolled cows lips. :D
I could be wrong, but I think the film is somewhat in response to the lawsuits out there from people who “wake up fat one day” because they didn’t know McDonald’s was hurting them. Yeah…they’re out there. Also, McDonald’s actually promotes some of their menu items as “healthy options”…and this film clearly dispels that myth.
For most of the world, those who are intelligent enough to realize the stuff is candy, not a meal, it’s not much of a surprise.
I have to disagree with your take on the film Mark.
At no point was it suggested it was surprising that eating McDonald’s 3 times a day makes you ill and fat, of course it does.
I think rather that this was the “hook” to make you watch the film, which was instead about the pervasive nature of junk food (and other companies than McDonald’s were included in the film).
The fact that children eat this cr*p from an early age, the fact that much of it is addictive, the fact that McDonald’s is so pervasive with advertising and other more underhanded methods that children don’t really have a fair “choice”. The film made all of these valid points and more.
Although I don’t agree with people bringing court cases against McDonald’s for making them fat, I do think that people are indoctrinated that this is acceptable food, and fail to realise the full extent to which this kind of cr*p can damage your health.
I don’t really eat McDonald’s anyway, but it certainly put me off from eating it at all — just the size of everybody in the film was enough of a warning.…
I hugely against “the culture of fear” that is pervasive, especially here in the U.S. I don’t watch the local news or any of those “news magazine” shows because that’s all they are about. And then there’s those weapons of mass distraction. Though I can understand where you’re coming from, I think that Supersize Me was not just towing the fear line. It offered a lot of really good information. I don’t think Spurlock’s point was to prove that if you eat junk you’ll get sick. I think he was trying to show that it is junk in the first place. In our other cultures — “more is better” and “gotta have it now” — some of us don’t even accept that fast food is really bad for you.
I saw it a while ago on DVD and came out of it thinking it was a poor Michael Moore imitation.
BTW liking the new icon treatment. Any plans for users to be able to select an appropriate icon when they join a discussion (sort of like smilies)???
Lee — I agree with you in that this was the hook for the film, maybe I couldn’t get past what the bloke was doing to himself.
I’m not sure where you’re from but in the UK we’ve had a bunch of TV shows dedicated to this kind of thing and of course the election is looming at the moment so health is high on the nation’s agenda.
So, what I was hearing in the film was nothing really that new, it’s all been said before and is currently being said at the moment, at least in UK it is.
Graham — Whilst the Michael Moore films are challenging, and to a point entertaining, the bloke just did my head in! I can’t stand him!
Thanks in regards to the icons — they are of course Gravatars and I thought you of all people would have one ;-) No plans for selection of icons and Smilies images are available in Expression Engine — maybe i’ll switch them on for a while…
I knew about Avatars but didn’t know about Gravatars *shame on me* . Anyway I now have one pending approval which is the mirror image of the ipod my kind boss bought all of of us here at SJ for our hard work in April. What a nice man — have to say that as he’s behind me :) ooo errrr back to work?
If anyone else like me doesn’t know have a Gravatar or know what one is then all you should need to do is go to:
http://www.gravatar.com
It’s FREE
Description of a Gravatar:
A gravatar, or globally recognized avatar, is quite simply an 80?80 pixel avatar image that follows you from weblog to weblog appearing beside your name when you comment on gravatar enabled sites. Avatars help identify your posts on web forums, so go on get one!
Glad to hear it Graham, looking forward to seeing it…
wahoo my gravatar has been approved, but have you altered the settings? no way is that 80x80???
anyway doesn’t matter, have good weekend off in 6 hours by train to watch the mighty Cardiff City obliterate Gillingham, c’mon you Bluebirds:
http://munibluebirds.fotopic.net
Rest easy, following this I’m going to place the UK’s cheese supply under citizen’s address ASAP. Such behaviour is quite unacceptable; I’ll let you know if they’re up for a plea bargain.