Super Size Me

Super Size Me is a fun and irreverent look at the fast food industry and the ever expanding American waistline. It follows an experiment by the filmmaker Morgan Spurlock to target claims made by fast food industry giants that a diet high in fast foods alone does not cause the harmful weight gain and side effects seen by obese Americans today. He does this by going on a 1 month McDonald’s diet, stopping all exercise, and having doctors measure his health along the way.

Now Spurlock follows a few basic rules. 1. Everything he eats must be from McDonald’s. If they don’t sell it he can’t eat it. 2. He has to have three meals a day. 3. He supersizes if and when asked. 4. He must have everything on the menu at least once (yes that means he has to have that nasty looking fish sandwich.)

Of course the part that makes this interesting is what it does to this one man. There is nothing revolutionary in the rest of the data presented. We all know what has been said, that there is a nationwide epidemic of obesity, that schools are full of vending machines, and that fast food is not good for us. But Spurlock’s experiment shows just how not good it might be.

At the beginning Spurlock is in pretty good health. He visits a number of doctors such as a cardiologist, gastroenterologist, general health practitioner, and a nutritionist. He is 6′2 and weighs 185 pounds with all of his vital statistics within a healthy range after a battery of tests. In just over a week he gains 10 pounds, at the end of the month he has gained 24.5 pounds! In one month! The text at the end mentions that it took him more than a year to lose this weight again. Even more alarming are the changes in his vital statistics which show that his liver is getting fattier and most of his readings have moved into the high range. In addition he registers feeling fatigued, having mood swings, and addictive withdrawal from the food. Now some of this could be attributed to an active person suddenly becoming a couch potato like the rest of us, but it is concerning when you consider how many people spend their whole lives sitting in front of a computer or a television eating.

Spurlock talks to the lawyers who sued McDonald’s on behalf of two overweight youngsters, it talks to people on the street of their opinions, both on the case, and on how often they eat at McDonald’s and the responses are sometimes startling. Youngsters recognize Ronald McDonald but not Jesus or George W Bush. Teens say they eat at McDonald’s every day but that it doesn’t matter as long as they get some exercise. But there is much glossed over. He talks about how growing up his mother cooked every night, but he does not talk to mothers to see how often and why they take their children to eat at McDonald’s.

Spurlock paints the argument with a broad brush; this is a question of the responsibility of large corporations versus the responsibility of the individual. The big corporation is only out to make big money, which it is, and doesn’t care what happens to the individual. As can be attested from the outcome of the film this is not entirely true. The large corporation is out to make money, but it does care about its consumers. If there are no consumers, or consumers see them as bad and out to hurt the public they won’t buy, and no corporation wants that sort of bad publicity. In fact, since the premier of this film at Cannes McDonalds has begun phasing out its super size feature. It has begun selling more ‘premium salads’ and is offering new ‘adult Happy Meals’ with things like pedometers in them to facilitate an active lifestyle. These companies are concerned for their customers and they should be. Active people are hungrier and eat more, hopefully for the corporation, more of their food.

Schools have also begun changing their tune. Though it removes income from the school many schools are severing ties to corporate foods removing soda machines and pizza huts from their schools. Now this too is a good idea but it is not sufficient. Removing the temptation does limit availability of junk food but the education that children receive about food and proper nutrition is more important. As the filmmaker points out gym and nutrition and health classes are being cut out of schools as they focus more on teaching to standardized tests. If the children are not learning this at school they should be learning this at home.

Though Spurlock takes the fast food industry to task for supplying fast food he does not take to task the neglectful parents who allow their children to eat fast food three times a week or more. Are these parents so busy they can’t share a meal with their kids? In this day and age our relationship to food has changed, not only outside the home but within the home. We live in a time of abundance, but our lives have sped up and we not longer spend hours in the kitchen preparing the family dinner. Indeed so many families are busy jumping from one activity to another that they don’t even see each other for meals.

One of the interviewees’ comments on criticizing a smoker for their smoking being socially acceptable and criticizing an obese person for being fat is ludicrous and mean spirited. There has been, and will probably always be a bias against people with these problems but there is a great difference between the two. Smoking has not shown a significant genetic link, no one is born smoking. There is often a genetic predisposition to weight gain or illnesses like hypothalamus gland problems can cause weight gain. There is no illness that causes someone to pick up tobacco and smoke it. To criticize someone for their weight is seen as cruel as it should.

The mood and the filming are very good especially when it is considered that this was done with a fairly small crew in some tight spaces like cars and New York apartments. The emotion of the film travels with the filmmaker Spurlock. It begins upbeat and begins to drag later on as the diet goes on and energy gets low. Thus the film has an uneven energy. Spurlock is excited and determined to carry out his experiment over the wishes of his vegan girlfriend. But as the diet and the movie progress they lose energy, both Morgan and the movie become bloated and lethargic.

Spurlock’s movie provides some funny moments but it skims the surface of the issue. It provides a personal journey and a narrow scope to define a large problem. While Spurlock’s experiment provides some interesting hypothesis it proves little. Because of the brevity of the test and the fact that it involves only one person it does not constitute concrete proof that there is a problem. What his film has done is make the problem’s roots more visible and facilitate greater discussion of the problem. This is another of those films in the Michael Moore genre that stretch the definition of documentary and turn it into a personal arena in which the director can play.