***Official SUPER SIZE ME Discussion Thread (1 Viewer)

As a huge fan of the books Fast Food Nation and Fat Land: How Americans Became the Fattest People on Earth, I'm curious to see this new documentary that was recently picked up by Samuel Goldwyn Films and Roadside Attractions.

It sounds slightly one-sided in that filmmaker Morgan Spurlock subsisted on nothing but McDonald's food for 30 days, which no one in their right mind would do (hopefully), but it sounds like it's got some potential to visually illustrate what the books can only write about, a disturbing trend in Western culture that, in time, will likely effect other cultures around the world as they develop.

This is the official movie site (clever design):
http://www.supersizeme.com/

Here's a couple links to articles about the film:
http://www.nypost.com/entertainment/16393.htm

You might have to register for this one, but the registration is free:
http://www.chicagotribune.com/busine...omepagebiz-utl

http://www.themoviebox.net/news/2004...-000-090.shtml

Some sources seem quick to draw comparisons to Michael Moore and/or Bowling For Columbine, but I guess we'll have to wait and see.

I'm just curious if anyone around these parts has managed to see the film already and would like to comment. It hits the U.S. Comedy Arts festival in a couple of weeks, so perhaps word of mouth will build?

Im interested in seeing it.

I never eat fast food (yes I have read Fast Food Nation)and try to eat healthy. Not long ago, after eating a McDs cheesburger out of desperation(I needed to eat something quickly)I was suprised, I felt sick afterwards.

I know what you're saying. I went for over a year without touching fast food after I read that book and when I finally had a burger out of simple lack of alternatives, it really didn't sit well (which was weird as I would still eat the occasional homemade burger). I'm hardly exempt from the occasional craving, but that book cured a lot of reliance on packaged and fast food. I was just lucky I had a metabolism that kept me skinny (if not overly healthy). Fat Land is nearly as scary.

Hopefully this movie might have similar effects on some of the people I have to be seen with when I dig through the $5.50 DVD bin at Wal-Mart

I can imagine, like any documentarian, including Michael Moore, Spurlock will tailor the footage to best support his own theories (and those of writers like Eric Schlosser and Greg Critser), but that doesn't necessarily invalidate the points he's obviously trying to make.

Should be interesting to see if this one takes off.

Didn't Micheal Moore already do this? Oh, wait, he just didn't make a documentary about it. (rimshot)

I've taken courses in virology, immunology, and microbiology. I've had people relate to me the snippets in Fast Food Nation (fact or not, it's still an interesting read). I've gotten to the point where I don't care anymore, because quite frankly, anything can kill you.

Pass the Big Mac please.

I hear you. Nowadays just about anything and everything allegedly causes cancer, so you're damned if you do, damned if you don't, and damned either which way.

The way I figure it, I got it anyway at 16 even though I'd hardly done anything risky, and then beat it, so if it happens again, so be it. In the meantime I'm not going to lose sleep worrying about it.

Yea but I still dont like the idea of eating a fried cattle feet burger, 60% fat patties made from pieces and parts.

Also its a sanitary concern as well for me.

Fried cattle feet are probably the least of your worries, my good man. You might just be eating minced-arm-de-Juan the migrant, if the chapter in Fast Food Nation about rendering plants (that supply companies like Tyson those tasty little chicken nugget-thingies) overworking illegal immigrant labour has any truth to it. Apparently, every once in a while, some tired, uneducated slave would hack a little of himself instead of that side of beef onto the converyor belts below. "Here's a bandaid. Back to work. We got pattties to make! And don't even think about calling the labour board." USDA Choice, indeed.

Another great quote from that book, and one he backs up with a fair amount of evidence:

"There's shit in the meat."

Or at least there was...

I have to agree with Dome and Yee-Ming to some extent: we all die a little more each day. Measured, reasonable intake of junk food won't really speed up the process enough to worry about.

My post wasn't meant to go up against the notion that we're eating unhealthy and unsanitary food. It's just that there's a limit to what I have to watch to eat.

I think the whole Mad Cow thing is silly though. It's true that the disfunctional prion that causes it is very similar to Crutchez Jacobs (I can't spell it) disease, but the tertiary structures are so dissimilar that one won't cause misfolding of the other.

If there's anything people should really worry about is antibiotic resistance. But that's just getting too off topic for this thread.

When I watch this documentary, I hope the blame is put on people. Cause otherwise, I'm just going to be pissed.

The book Fat Land, when all is said and done, basically lays the blame at the feet of people - people from every walk of life who've let family, school, culture and religion (not necessarily in that order) fall apart over the last two decades. Hopefully SUPER SIZE ME brings the role of the indivudual into play and doesn't just hold McDonald's and Big Business up for riducule (although I DO love that Fat Ronald poster! )

People aren't getting fatter because of McDonalds. They're getting fatter because we have metabolisms refined through thousands upon thousands upon thousands of years of genetics. Just 100 years ago, the idea of having three square meals a day was a luxury many people could only dream of. If you wanted something to eat, you had to hunt it down or capture it, fish it, kill it, clean it, and cook it. Or you had to grow it and work the land.

Now here we are in the 21st century in America, with more food than we even know what to do with, and our bodies are simply not designed for that kind of - how shall I put it - "recreational dining". The human body can go days without food, and just as recently as the 1800's, people did exactly that.

It's not McDonalds. It's our modern McLife. That's what's making Americans fatter.

I loved, loved, loved this movie. Here's my review:

http://www.hollywoodbitchslap.com/re...1&reviewer=128

Curious to see if Spurlock removes anything for the theatrical release. According to the official site, McD's is officially "not happy" about the movie.

I thought it was a breezy, funny and enlightening breath of fresh air.

Tell me this isn't a pre-emptive strike against this film:

http://edition.cnn.com/2004/US/03/02....ap/index.html

I also heard this on the radio news this morning, but that particular broadcast didn't the rather obvious connection to Super Size Me. At least CNN took note. This simply reeks ot Big Business covering its ass (what else!) hoping it will knock some of the wind out of the documentary that will make it look bad. Sadly, many minds will probably forget that supersized portions even existed by the time the movie hits theatres, thus wondering what all the fuss is about, and thus ensuring that McDonald's new arguably "haelthy" menu items will become prevalent in media health converage.

Classic quote from the CNN story:
"Riker said the phasing out of super-sizing has "nothing to do with that (film) whatsoever."

Yeah, right!

Crazy how it all works, man...

ridiculous. maybe that is the reason why nobody was fat back then, but you have to remember that many americans are obese, but not people in other countries. people eat just as much food as americans eat, but not as much garbage food such as mcdonalds. the documentarian relies on mcdonalds for 30 days (ugh) but for many americans, it is their main source of food.

CJ

How is this even remotely possible?

I think you're both right to a point.

It does have a lot to do with the quality of food. Back in the 50s and 60s, people ate a lot of meat, more than they do now. They ate a lot of bread, too, Dr. Atkins. Yet they were thinner than they are today.

Why? Because they didn't eat out all the time. The wife cooked dinner, which always consisted of at least one vegetable. Where are the vegetables in a McDonald's #1 combo? (And potatoes don't count.)

But there's something else we have today that we didn't have when I was a skinny kid: UNLIMITED AND INSTANT ACCESS TO FOOD.

When I was in elementary school, we had no vending machines. You ate breakfast at 7:00 in the morning, and then you frigging STARVED until noon. After lunch, you went out and played at recess for half an hour, then STARVED again until you got home at 3:30, when you got a snack.

Then you had to wait for mom to cook dinner. You couldn't just snap your fingers and instantly have it, like you do at a drive-through. After dinner, you maybe got a bedtime snack around 9:00 pm. You did not sit there with a box of Oreos in front of the TV. Anyone remember Mom saying, "What are you doing in that cupboard?! Get out of there! You just ate dinner!"

We have no one to tell us that these days. Back then, there were no all-night grocery stores, no all-night drive-throughs, and no super-size meals. I think a bottle of coke was 8 ounces prior to the mid-1960s. I'll bet that, prior to the 1970s, the average-sized fast food hamburger/fries/coke combo was not much bigger than a Happy Meal is today.

So I think you're both right. It's a combination of the quality of the food, the portion size, and the 24-hour unlimited access to it.

Because fewer people are married, so there's no one at home to cook dinner. Even if they are married, both of them are usually working nowadays, so there's less time to cook. Also, people work longer hours now than they did 20 or 30 years ago, so that also leaves less time to cook.

If that's an excuse people are making, it's a piss poor one.