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).

Spurlock's experiment—and the facts he presents—underscores the deeper issues that the US faces concerning obesity. His film notes that kids are inundated with 10,000 food advertisements a year—90 percent of them for sugary foods, junk foods, and fast food. Families often eat on the run, relying on packaged or fast food. And exercise for adults and kids has become less and less a normal part of life. Adults work longer hours without exercise, and schools require far fewer physical education classes. Video games, cable TV, and movie rentals all lead families to become inactive—and encourage passive, mindless overeating.

Maybe the real problem is that for many millions of people, life is out of balance. Everyone knows that the key to successful weight loss and weight maintenance is simple: a well-balanced diet and exercise to counterpoint the inactivity of modern life.

Yet, not only do many of us lead lives that are out of balance concerning diet and exercise, but, mentally speaking, people can live in extremes: extreme loneliness, low self-esteem, feelings of worthlessness, and hopelessness about the future. And often these culprits foster much overeating and obesity. Mary Baker Eddy, writing in Science and Health, hit this issue squarely on the head when she wrote, "The poor suffering heart needs its rightful nutriment, such as peace, patience in tribulation, and a priceless sense of the dear Father's loving-kindness" (pp. 365-366).

Isn't it really the desire for satisfaction and the sense of well-being that comes from feeling truly loved that's at the root of so much overeating? In fact, this desire is at the foundation of addictions and excesses of every kind. Yet the real desire—the nutriment that overeaters are seeking—lies in understanding one's spiritual worth and beloved nature as God's child.

Spurlock's film has prompted McDonald's to no longer serve Super Size portions and to introduce a line of healthful salads. And Spurlock now presents his documentary to schools around the nation to effect change in school lunch offerings. But the deeper, permanent healing of obesity lies in the nurturing of each heart. Not the heart defined by diets of high or low cholesterol, but the heart filled with the love God imparts to each of Her children—the profound love that satisfies every craving and tempers every extreme, bringing every life into more perfect balance.