Super Size Me


I watched Morgan's Spurlock's documentary Super Size Me this weekend. Wow, what an eye-opener! Essentially, the documentary follows Spurlock through his 30 days of eating nothing but fast-food, specifically McDonalds. While you can probably guess that this was rough going at some points, I thought what was even more interesting was the interleaved commentary about how children are fed in public schools, how marketing dollars of food companies compete with Mom and Dad's message (if any) of "Eat healthy, little Sally!," and the general habits and nutrition ignorance of Joe Public.



I recommend that you take a look at the documentary. Even someone like me, who assumes airs of being half-way knowledgeable about nutrition and so on, learned a few things when I watched Supersize Me.

While this film demonizes McDonalds, I'd like to say a few words in McDonalds' defense--McDonalds is a business, and I'm sure Ray Kroc had no idea what the stunning success of his business model would breed. In a sense, the corporation has become a 'victim' of its own incredible size and the demands of a publicly traded stock.

But more importantly, McDonalds has made moves to redress at least some of the ill effects that come with its ability to reshape society through its sheer ubiquitousness--for instance, it announced it would no longer fry fries in partially hydrogenated oils. It also changed its policies so that the company would no longer buy chicken from corporate farms that followed particularly cruel procedures for housing and handling its chickens. I have to commend the board for taking these, and other, actions.

That said, you probably shouldn't eat there any more often than once per month, if you're concerned about your health.


Posted: Sun - February 13, 2005 at 06:50 PM          

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