Friday, February 03, 2006

Book 6 - Don't Eat This Book: Fast Food and the Supersizing of America

For those of you that live in a box, in 2003, Morgan Spurlock took it upon himself to eat a diet of McDonald's for 30 days. The rules were that everything he ingested had to be on the McDonald's menu, if they asked him if he wanted to supersize, he would have to and he had to live the typical sedentary lifestyle that most Americans live which is to walk a mere 1.5 mile in the entire day. I saw the movie that documented his month of McHell called "Super Size Me." I won't go into the details of the movie, but suffice it to say that I now seriously rethink my decision to eat at any fast food restaurant.

This book did summarize that experience of his but it also discussed the cattle industry, the new booming diet food/pill industry, the sugar substitute issue, etc. He has some very alarming statistics and stories about the things we are shoving in our face at an alarming rate. As you all know, my husband are having a little weight loss contest. Part of my problem is that I have quite the affinity for fast food. Happily I have made it since the beginning of this year with nary a fast food run. That may not sound like anything amazing to the average person but for me, that's big time. Frankly after reading this book, I am not even craving it. Mr. Spurlock's main point was not to go after McDonald's per se, but what he calls Big Food - those lobbyists in Congress that make sure we are not at all aware of what we are putting into our and our children's faces. He would love us to go back to eating fresh food. He is not a vegan and is the first to admit that he craves a really great cheeseburger on occasion, but he has done enough research to know that perhaps a steady diet of cheeseburgers, chicken nuggets, and french fries is not really the way to go. More and more, I am agreeing with him. I'm not saying I will never eat McDonald's fries again. Chances are I will. However, in reading this book, I am realizing that my elevated energy level this month is not a fluke. I feel great because I have eaten more veggies and fruit in this last month than I probably did for several months before.

Even though this book was chock full of statistics and horror stories, I found that it moved along at a nice pace and was never too scientific for me. I highly recommend it if you are even remotely interested in what is going into your mouth. Final thought on this matter - I find it very telling that no one in Big Food has been able to discredit any of the findings of Mr. Spurlock. All they have been able to do is throw names at him like "Food Nazi." Interesting that they have not chosen to challenge even one single statement in this whole book. That leads me to believe he was, at the very least, on the right track.

Elizabeth at 10:30 AM

3comments

3 Comments

at 11:19 AM Kami said...: I saw the movie. I was so horrified. I love how he said he'd smack his future kids any time they drove past the golden arches. :)
at 11:36 AM Shari said...: There is also this book called Fast Food Nation (I think). That one was really good too. It's scary what fast food does to you.

And dang, girl. You are a reading machine!!! :)
at 4:44 PM Anonymous said...: I never read his book but we as a family did watch his movie. It is now a household sin to visit any of the major fast food establishments. In fact we lately have not even been eating out at all (due to a very limited budget) and cooking every meal at home. I have not experienced one upset stomach (sometimes due to the fact that most our our town's food in restaurants is prepared by college age kids). What the food industry and government allows to be put into our food is just criminal. I read some interesting facts about high fructose corn syrup the other day (which is in everything) and its just gross. Keep up the good work with all the weight loss. I am still hangning on to a few (well more than a few) extra pounds since my son was born nine months ago. Time for me to get on the treadmill.