Supersize Me

Supersize Me, a film by Morgan Spurlock, is an entertaining romp through the Fast Food World that we live in. In the film, Spurlock makes himself into a guinea pig, testing the effect of eating nothing but McDonald's meals over the course of 30 days, with the caveat that he Supersizes the meal if asked by the person taking his order. He has a complete physical evaluation before the experiment and follow-up exams every week. Predictably, his physical condition takes a turn for worse as the month wears on.

Aside from experiment, around which the film flows, Spurlock talks to many parties related to the issue of obesity and McDonalds' (and the fast-food industry in general) role in the problem in this country. Interspersed throughout are interviews with dieticians and doctors, lawyers, the former surgeon general, a food industry lobbyist, school nutritionists, physical education teachers, and others. Notably absent is an interview with a representative of McDonalds, though this is no oversight of the filmmaker. In the process, Spurlock addresses many issues that confront us in the United States.

First and foremost, of course, is obesity. 37% of the children and adolescents in the United States carry too much fat, according to the film's web site, while two-thirds of American adults are overweight or obese. Spurlock shows us how the problem has grown and spread throughout the United States in the last 30 years. At the same time, many physical problems have become more predominant, including cardiovascular disease and adult-onset diabetes. We are told that obesity is now second behind only smoking in the number of preventable deaths it causes in the United States.

Lawyers, noting the correlation between increased obesity and the proliferation of fast food restaurants in this country, have sued McDonalds for the poor health of two overweight teenage girls. One lawyer, when asked pointedly why he was pursuing the litigation, was unable to come up with a ready answer outside of "monetary compensation". Though not one of the primary themes of the film, the quickness with which Americans resort to "Suing the Bastards" is another disturbing truth that is explored.

In traveling the country, Spurlock introduces us to physical education instructors who lament the lack of physical education available to students. While people should ideally get 30 minutes of exercise daily, some children get only 45 minutes per week, while other schools neither require nor offer phys ed classes. One offshoot of George W. Bush's "no child left behind" program is that fewer resources are available for physical education in schools, resulting in some schools relying on private funding of gym classes while others cancel classes altogether. Meanwhile, private food providers "support" education via school lunch programs, but the result is a lot of soda and chips in school and not a lot of balance in the meals. By offering these lunches, schools support the private vendors, however the "support" received from the food industry does not come in the form of the financing of health-education classes that might allow the children to make informed choices in their food purchases. Meanwhile, a school for "problem" adolescents in Wisconsin offers balanced, healthy meals featuring whole grains and seasonal produce for approximately the same cost as they would pay the food factories, and discovered fewer behavioral problems and more attentive students as a result.

Greed is another undercurrent in the film. The private vendors of certain school lunch programs are involved because it benefits the bottom line, not because they have any interest in supporting education. Until very recently, McDonalds has shown little inclination to provide healthier alternatives because they are making billions of dollars doing business as usual. One could cynically conclude that the recent introduction of salads (which are shown to also be high sugar/high-calorie in the film) has everything to do with maintaining market share and nothing to do with an interest in public health. That's because McDonalds' management does not answer to the public, it answers to the shareholder, and the shareholder is interested primarily in the bottom line.

We are also left with questions about personal accountability. Where is the line drawn between where McDonalds assumes responsibility for not providing healthy meals and where we as individuals assume responsibility for our own choices? One teenage girl, after meeting Jared from Subway, laments that she can't afford to buy two sandwiches a day from that particular chain. She obviously has not been taught the basics of healthy nutrition. The role of lobbyists and advertising in painting our perceptions is addressed, as well as the lack of oversight that the government demonstrates over student nutrition. We even see the impact of the "Wal-Martization" of the USA.

This is an entertaining film, but it is quite disturbing. It really shows the unsavory underbelly of life in America, though certainly not with the "in your face" style of, say, Michael Moore. I do find it lacking in that there is no clear segment about the basics of healthy eating, where a few minutes spent here might have been helpful. Also, no reference is made in the film to the book Fast Food Nation by Eric Schlosser, which also addressed the McDonalds problem back in 2001. I have not read Fast Food Nation, so I'm not really sure if this is an oversight, but it seems a notable omission in my opinion. Otherwise, very well done!