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Super Size Me "Super Size Me", the entertaining documentary by Morgan Spurlock, is a great addition to the education of the Amerikan public about the biological and social roots of obesity. The gimmick: Spurlock only eats at McDonalds for thirty days and goes from fit and trim to dangerously unhealthy and... not-so-trim. Before beginning his thirty-day binge Spurlock gets checked out by three doctors and consults with a nutritionist. They all proclaim him a model of health and plan to follow him throughout the month. Spurlock then cuts down on his normal amount of exercise, including daily walks to and from work and around New York City, in order to mimic an average Amerikan's daily physical activity. He has three rules for his McMonth: 1) he must try everything on the menu at least once; 2) he cannot eat or drink anything that is not sold at McDonald's; and 3) he will only Super Size his meals when asked by the clerks. By the end of his experiment, he has gained 24 pounds; his cholesterol has shot up to dangerous levels, and he feels terrible all the time. At one point he wakes in the middle of the night with such severe chest pains and shortness of breath that he thinks he is having a heart attack. Spurlock concedes that he could have made essentially the same movie about Burger King or Wendy's (small comfort for the McDonald's propaganda machine). Still, McDonald's has, by far, the largest world market share of fast food poison, and represents 43% of the U.$. fast food market.(1) McDonald's responded to Super Size Me in much the same way it has responded to lawsuits charging that its food caused obesity: it claims it is offering "more choice and variety" so that consumers can make their own decisions. (Although in one sequence Spurlock searches in vain for the very nutritional information McDonald's boasts it offers.) McDonald's says that Spurlock acted "irresponsibly by consuming more that 5,000 calories a day more than twice the recommended level for adult males and by purposely limiting his physical activity. That's why this movie makes no contribution to the important dialogue taking place today on nutrition and balanced lifestyles." (2) A supposedly neutral writer--who actually is a lobbyist for McDonald's (among other corporations)--harped on this last point, noting that Spurlock if Spurlock ate 5,000 calories he "could have gained that extra weight [24 pounds] anywhere-at a health-food restaurant in Cleveland or at Taillevent in Paris."(4) This hack goes on to say, "What Americans need is balance: Sensible eating plus exercise. Staying fit is a matter of personal choice and responsibility which is just what this con man [Spurlock] and his co-conspirators want to take away from you." This appeals to the individualist streak in Amerikans, but the cold reality--which Amerikans have to understand if they are to eradicate the obesity epidemic that threatens them and (even more) their children--is that "personal choice" is not so persynal. As we said in MIM Notes 224 (December 15, 2000), "Two of the most important risk factors for obesity are sedentary lifestyle and high-fat, energy dense diet. These may seem like individual 'choices,' but as always, societal context determines choice. As one obesity researcher puts it, 'We can't just tell people, 'exercise more, eat less,' when for example, fast- food places now sell 32-ounce Cokes as their normal size.'"(3) With a glut of fast-food restaurants, with Coke and Pepsi and Mountain Dew being cheaper in some convenience stores than water, with 7-11s bursting at the seams with potato chips while a few brown bananas hide next to the Slurpee machine, eating right becomes a difficult challenge, to be mastered only by the most dedicated (and, of course, those with a little more free time and cash). Similarly, with Amerikan cities designed around the car and the elevator, it is a challenge to exercise appropriately. Spurlock notes that there are 30,000 McDonald's restaurants in more than 100 countries on 6 continents.(1) He notes how pervasive the advertising is and its obvious slant toward children. (Spurlock says that the average Amerikan child sees 10,000 television advertisements per year.) (1) "Super Size Me" shows the "choices" kids have in public schools' lunch programs and in vending machines. One student interviewed by Spurlock said that she wouldn't be caught dead eating an apple in school versus junk food because eating junk food is cool. (In MIM Notes 224 we reported that more than 5,000 Amerikan schools have agreements with fast-food franchises to provide school meals.) (3) The latest government figures "show no decline in the U.S. obesity rate, with 31 percent of adults and 17 percent of youngsters seriously overweight." (5) As if it wasn't already easy enough to get a fat-filled Big Mac meal, McDonald's has now come up with a new gimmick to make it even easier. Franchises are starting to introduce self-serve kiosks similar to bank machines and airport check-in stations. McDonald's hopes it will "shorten lines and give consumers more control over ordering." (6) McDonald's and other capitalist corporations are concerned with maximizing their profits no matter what the humyn and societal costs, under the guise of "freedom of choice and persynal responsibility". But MIM is concerned with maximizing humyn health and societal productivity for the benefit of the majority of the world's people. Under the dictatorship of the proletariat people will not have "choices" like Big Macs and 64 ounce Cokes and caramel sundaes with every meal. Physical education and activity will be mandatory and schoolchildren will receive fresh fruits and vegetables instead of vending machine snacks and French fries for lunch.
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