SUPER SIZE ME

SUPER SIZE ME is an acclaimed documentary about obesity in America that has gotten the fast food industry to change some of its practices. It shows the impact that even a small movie like this can have on our society.

With the news media filled with reports about how much fatter Americans have become in the last 20 years, young filmmaker Morgan Spurlock decides to eat only at McDonald’s for 30 days straight. To measure his progress, he hires three doctors and a nutritionist, including a cardiologist. Two rules: 1) he can only get as much exercise as the average American gets (about four miles of walking a day); and, 2) whenever the McDonalds attendant asks him if he wants to “supersize” his food, he must agree.

While carrying out his bizarre diet, Spurlock visits several school lunch programs across the country and interviews several experts, including a former Surgeon General, a food industry representative and people on the street. When Spurlock’s liver starts becoming toxic and his weight starts skyrocketing, the three doctors express surprise at how badly his McDonalds diet seems to be affecting his health.

Several fast-food companies have decided to offer more healthy alternatives on their menus in the wake of Mr. Spurlock’s documentary, several lawsuits and scientific reports on obese Americans. Mr. Spurlock has an engaging, humorous personality, which holds the viewer’s attention. He makes a very good point about the unhealthy quality of much fast food.

The major flaw in the movie is that, while Spurlock promotes his new diet as an experiment, from the very beginning of the documentary he is very critical of the fast-food industry, displaying a bias that obviously affects the objectivity of his experiment. Spurlock also eats three generous McDonalds meals a day during his experiment, a very high calorie intake for even a modestly overweight person. The documentary also contains some gratuitous foul language and sexual references.

Mr. Spurlock seems to have a socialistic, humanist perspective that’s anti-capitalist. There is, however, a biblical way to approach eating. God wants us to eat healthy, because our bodies are His temple. Practical wisdom, as defined by the Book of Proverbs and the Gospels, also should tell us that the high fat content of many fast-food meals is something we should avoid most of the time. By promoting such ideals, Christians and other people can encourage the food industry to offer more healthy alternatives, without resorting to clumsy government intervention.