Super Size Me

Morgan Spurlock, USA, 2004, 100 minutes

If money is the root of all evil then fast food must be the root of all obesity. But what would happen if you ate nothing but fast food for a month? Filmmaker Morgan Spurlock makes himself the test subject in an experiment to answer exactly that. The rules for this investigation are simple; for thirty days Morgan will not eat or drink anything that is not on the McDonalds menu, he will consume three square meals a day and over the thirty day period he must try everything on the menu at least once and must also super size his meal whenever he is offered to do so.

Over the course of this month long pig out Morgan travels the country interviewing a vast menagerie of folks: from experts on nutrition to the regular commoner-garden fast food consumer as well as offering a brief look at the food culture of America through its schools, corporations and politics. The effect of this McDiet takes a shockingly large toll on Morgan both physically and emotionally. The three independent physicians he consults throughout the experience are taken aback by the severity of the fast food lifestyle on previously healthy Morgan, and the nutritionalist he is seeing continually begs him to stop throughout. But we must all spare a thought for poor Alexandra Jamieson, Morgan's healthy eating vegan girlfriend!

Each day, 1 in 4 Americans visits a fast food restaurant amounting to a sending of over $110 billion per annum on fast food alone. It is little wonder then that 2 in every 3 American adults are over-weight, and if left unabated obesity will over-take smoking as the leading cause of preventable death in America; in fact The World Health Organization has declared obesity a global epidemic. But is the public at fault for an increased lack in self-control or are the fast food corporations to blame?

Review by Jane Birch
Written for EUFS Programme Spring 2005