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Super
Size Me
 Super Size me is an excellent
documentary about a relatively healthy guy,
writer/director Morgan
Spurlock (left)
who decides to eat
nothing but McDonalds for a month. He charts his mental and physical
progress as he vows to lead the lifestyle of a sedentary American.
He doesn't walk anywhere, gets as little exercise as possible, and only
supersizes if the clerks ask. He travels across the country to
multiple Golden Arches and includes in the film interviews and facts that he uncovered as he
researched one of America's most successful and recognizable corporations. He seems to go about the whole thing
without a particular axe to grind but of course ends up exposing the
company on multiple levels. The physical results of his
experiment, while not exactly surprising, are eye opening in the
fact that his liver almost shuts down and his doctor advises him to
not be far from a phone in case he suffers some debilitating attack
and needs an ambulance, a scenario which the doc considers quite
likely after monitoring his vital signs. The cravings for the fatty food he
begins to feel are also quite telling and go far to demonstrate how
such nutritional habits can lure a person in subtlety and be as
addicting as any drug. When his girlfriend explains that he is no
longer worth a damn in the bedroom and his personal trainer marvels
over his physical deterioration, it makes for fairly compelling
viewing when combined with a bunch of interviews with people who eat similar
diets everyday without a second thought.
After the film came out but before we
had seen it we were traveling through Yuma, Arizona on a trip to the
coast and found ourselves suddenly famished so we stopped at the
nearest place to the highway, a normally crowded Mickey D's. The
place was deserted. Also there were pamphlets on healthy eating
where the condiments used to be. Coincidence? Who knows but the
fact that the chain discontinued super sizes shortly after the film
came out must say something.
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