Thursday, November 10, 2005
I watched the famous "documentary" Supersize Me tonight. I had of course heard of it, and I am of course as convinced as anyone that obesity in the US is a problem. Statistics rarely lie. I also agree that more responsibility is needed on the part of the fast food industry and the people using it in order to help curb this epidemic. I sympathize with the guy making the movie. This, however, is where my praise for this project ends.
His experiment of eating nothing but McDonald's for a month was completely unnecessary. His use of statistics, his interviews with experts and with people eating the fast food would have made a completely convincing documentary without destroying his own body. Furthermore, the way he set it up was to portray the worst case scenario: what person really eats nothing but McDonalds? The most extreme people he interviewed admitted to eating there "three times a week". This does not equal three times a day, by the way, in case you have trouble with the English language. To proceed for thirty days as planned when by day eighteen he was making his point was dangerous and unnecessary. Had he called it off then, I think we all would have believed him. I hear through the grapevine that he is suing the fast food corporations now too. Great. So now we have another instance of a whiny American doing himself in and blaming society. I agree with him that something should be done about obesity and the fast food industry isn't helping. But suing them to get money is not going to help either. People will still be obese. He started out with the right idea: expose the hypocrisy in the school system. You can't give them one period of recess, one class on nutrition and feed them fast food and then load them up with homework so they can't get outside to play and expect anything else. This is where real change could take place. Until we get to where the real teaching is being done, suing McDonalds will just make the victims feel more victimized and they will never learn to change the way they are by doing something. But this is, after all, the American way.
His experiment of eating nothing but McDonald's for a month was completely unnecessary. His use of statistics, his interviews with experts and with people eating the fast food would have made a completely convincing documentary without destroying his own body. Furthermore, the way he set it up was to portray the worst case scenario: what person really eats nothing but McDonalds? The most extreme people he interviewed admitted to eating there "three times a week". This does not equal three times a day, by the way, in case you have trouble with the English language. To proceed for thirty days as planned when by day eighteen he was making his point was dangerous and unnecessary. Had he called it off then, I think we all would have believed him. I hear through the grapevine that he is suing the fast food corporations now too. Great. So now we have another instance of a whiny American doing himself in and blaming society. I agree with him that something should be done about obesity and the fast food industry isn't helping. But suing them to get money is not going to help either. People will still be obese. He started out with the right idea: expose the hypocrisy in the school system. You can't give them one period of recess, one class on nutrition and feed them fast food and then load them up with homework so they can't get outside to play and expect anything else. This is where real change could take place. Until we get to where the real teaching is being done, suing McDonalds will just make the victims feel more victimized and they will never learn to change the way they are by doing something. But this is, after all, the American way.
// posted by The Pendragon @ 11:11 PM 
