Article October 4, 2004 Issue

Hold the fries

By Marilyn Jones

Americans live in a Supersize culture—big cars, big houses, and big people—the last brought on by a diet of junk food and Big Macs. That's the premise of Morgan Spurlock's award-winning documentary Supersize Me, which has just come out on DVD. As Spurlock cogently shows, the United States is increasingly becoming a fast-food nation. And statistics indicate that the rest of the industrialized world is not far behind.

Spurlock's movie documents his 30-day odyssey traveling around the US, eating three meals a day—only at McDonald's. Big Macs, Supersize fries, milk shakes, and even the occasional salad. Only what is on the menu. Concurrently, Spurlock's medical/nutrition team closely charts his alarmingly fast-deteriorating health. In the first 12 days, Spurlock gains 17 pounds—and ultimately gains more than 22 pounds. His liver becomes damaged, in much the same way as binge drinking affects an alcoholic, and his cholesterol and other markers all rise to dangerously extreme levels.

While it's obvious that no one really eats three meals a day, every day, at McDonald's, Spurlock's points are well taken. He notes that the United States is the fattest nation in the world, with 100 million people—adults, adolescents, and children—overweight or obese. One in four Americans visits a fast-food restaurant every day—in fact, 46 million McDonald's hamburgers alone are served every day globally. And Americans eat more than 40 percent of their meals outside the home. Perhaps these are a few of the reasons that obesity has become the second leading preventable cause of death in the United States (smoking is the first).

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