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Super Size Me

The TVClubHouse: Movies & Library ARCHIVES: Movies: May 2004 - March 2005: Super Size Me users admin

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Ocean_islands
Member

09-07-2000

Monday, June 14, 2004 - 3:01 pm   Edit Post Move Post Delete Post View Post    
222

I recommend this film to everyone. You will have grave misgivings about going to any fast food outlet again.

This is a documentary about a filmmaker who decides to eat McDonald's every day for a month, track his health, and see what happens.

Look for it now or later in the video/dvd store.

about the movie link

223

Mamie316
Member

07-08-2003

Monday, June 14, 2004 - 4:29 pm   Edit Post Move Post Delete Post View Post    
I am really looking forward to seeing this. I'm glad that you liked it . I always worry about a movie with too much buzz but I will go see it now.

Yankee_in_ca
Member

08-01-2000

Monday, June 14, 2004 - 5:07 pm   Edit Post Move Post Delete Post View Post    
I saw this several weeks ago and it's still a movie I think about.

Not that I ever really ate fast food, but every now and then I would (once a month or so, especially on tight connections in airports) when it seemed it was the easiest and fastest thing.

After seeing this movie, I will not eat fast food again. And not just at McDonald's. No fast food. Not even in an airport. And it's not just fast food. I can honestly say that since watching this movie I've given a lot more thought about all the food and drink that goes into my body.

The thing I enjoyed about this film is that, while you have no doubt heard about Spurlock's "gimmick" -- he ate nothing but McDonald's for 30 days -- there are a LOT of real facts and figures about fast food and the marketing of fast food throughout the program.

At the same time, his personal experiment is compelling. While you admittedly have to take his word for it on many aspects of how he FELT during his month-long test (i.e., that he really did feel sick and sluggish, or that he really did have trouble walking up the steps) -- you are actually told/shown what happens to his body through scientific data. You can see how his blood pressure rises; you can see how much weight he gains and how quickly; you can see what happens to his liver. To me, that balanced out his claims, and showed me that there really was something bad happening to his body.

What I'm trying to say here is that, while people could say (and have said) that this is just a gimmicky way to get an already-decided point across, you can't deny the power of seeing what happens to his body, how children respond to fast food marketing, etc.

The movie is not just a recital of facts and figures, though... it's also quite humorous. For some reason, I particularly thought the vegan girlfriend was hysterical. It's also not preachy, which might be hard to believe given what I said above, but it's not. A little sensationalistic? Yes, but full of enough facts to make you think twice about your food choices, I think.

(There is also a whole segment about the foods being served to kids at school -- at the same time that physical education classes are being cut. It's just plain horrible for our collective health and well-being.)

Ocean_islands
Member

09-07-2000

Monday, June 14, 2004 - 6:35 pm   Edit Post Move Post Delete Post View Post    
I have to say I was amazed to find out that physical education classes are required in only one state: Illinois. I grew up in Illinois and I thought everyone had to have P.E. Now, P.E. was not fun, but I'm glad I had to do it.

Rupertbear
Member

09-19-2003

Monday, June 14, 2004 - 7:02 pm   Edit Post Move Post Delete Post View Post    
Yeah but notice how they always make those high school movies and they show the p.e challenged kids who have a hard time vaulting the horse, climbing the rope...I think aversion to p.e is quite wide spread. ;)

Hermione69
Member

07-24-2002

Tuesday, June 15, 2004 - 6:11 am   Edit Post Move Post Delete Post View Post    
I hated P.E. It was torture for me. All the bullies picking on the weaker kids and the P.E. teachers never did anything about it. I got picked on more in my elementary and middle school P.E. classes than all other times combined in my entire school career. I can't think of any other class in which a pecking order was not only so established, but ignored by the teachers.

I am much more physically active now at the ripe old age of 35 than I ever was in school and part of that was BECAUSE of P.E. being such an awful experience for me. I didn't tend to enjoy physical activity when I was younger because of the unpleasant associations. I still hate participating in group sports. My anxiety levels still go through the roof at the mere thought of them. I enjoy solo exercise now-- aerobics, taebo, walking (just started running), lifting weights and am quite physically active...., but the mere thought of anything involving a "team" like volleyball or softball just makes my stomach hurt!

I didn't realize that P.E. classes are only required in Illinois, though. Are you sure that it is not also a local decision? We had minimum P.E. requirements that we HAD to fulfill in Virginia where I went to school.

At the school where I work now, they do a lot more variety. It is not all team sports. They do workout videos with yoga and pilates and and other things that likely would have made P.E. more palatable to me had that been done when I was in school.

I'll look forward to catching this movie when it comes out on DVD. No way would I be able to hear enough of it in the theater without caption to appreciate it.

Ophiliasgrandma
Member

09-04-2001

Tuesday, November 16, 2004 - 4:36 pm   Edit Post Move Post Delete Post View Post    
I just watched the DVD. It's scary, very scary. As a nation I think we are doomed!

Kaili
Member

08-31-2000

Tuesday, November 16, 2004 - 8:44 pm   Edit Post Move Post Delete Post View Post    
I loved the video- Tim and I were cracking up at "I've got the McJitters"- I thought it was well done, entertaining, and sick. Did you watch the special features on the DVD?

Ophiliasgrandma
Member

09-04-2001

Wednesday, November 17, 2004 - 9:52 am   Edit Post Move Post Delete Post View Post    
No, shoot, I didn't realize there was one. I shudda knowed.

Eeyoreslament
Member

07-20-2003

Wednesday, November 17, 2004 - 12:04 pm   Edit Post Move Post Delete Post View Post    
For the readers out there, get the book "Fast Food Nation"by Eric Schlosser.

Rslover
Member

11-19-2002

Monday, December 06, 2004 - 9:49 am   Edit Post Move Post Delete Post View Post    
I loved this movie. I think they should show it to all kids in the first grade (with the appropriate editing). The features on the DVD were great. Loved seeing how those fries never disintegrated after all those weeks. Scary!

Alegria
Member

07-05-2002

Thursday, December 09, 2004 - 6:34 pm   Edit Post Move Post Delete Post View Post    
Now I want to rent the DVD. I'm so glad that McDonalds is not on the list of food groups for my family. ~big sigh~

Karen
Member

09-07-2004

Friday, December 10, 2004 - 12:02 am   Edit Post Move Post Delete Post View Post    
I am just playing devil's advocate here... I don't like eating McDicks any more than the rest of us... but this is kind of interesting.

In light of Morgan Spurlock eating continuously at McDonalds for a month, and documenting his degression, Soso R. Whaley set out to Debunk The Junk, and she actually lost ten pounds and lowered her cholesterol on the same 30-day McDonald's diet. The page I've linked to documents her thirty day trial, and shows how easy it can be to skew results to a matter of your liking.

The thing about "Super Size Me" is that Morgan Spurlock set guidelines that every meal - 3 meals a day - had to be "Mc Meals", including potato and drink - and that, when offered a "Supersize" meal, he would not say No. No one eats three Mc. Super Meals a day. The Debunk The Junk Website documents Ms. Whaley's 30 days of losing weight and lowering her cholesterol by eating at McDonalds. A small exerpt from her dialy blog's first entry:

I, on the other hand, am motivated to eat at McDonalds for 30 days to show just how easy it is to skew the results of any test to reflect your preconceived notions and come up with just exactly the results you want to see. In my case I’m going to use some of the same parameters Mr. Spurlock used, but I would rather see results which show I can maintain a healthy lifestyle and actually lose weight at McDonalds so I will not be scarfing down Double Quarter Pounders with cheese. My real purpose is not to prove something, rather, I see this as a unique opportunity to explore food and weight issues and separate the wheat from the chaff when it comes to what is reported about our health and well being in the media and other sources.}

Kitt
Member

09-06-2000

Friday, December 10, 2004 - 12:05 pm   Edit Post Move Post Delete Post View Post    
I seem to remember he only had super-size meals three or four times over the course of the 30 days - I might be wrong on that but that's my memory.

I think this woman missed the point of the film. Of course it's possible to make good choices at MacDonalds (well, reasonably good choices anyway) but that's not what a lot of people do. Not what most people do I would expect.

And I have to wonder, what was she eating before, that she would lose 10 pounds in 30 days eating 1800-2000 calories a day? That's a lot of weight loss for a lot of calories, as any seasoned dieter would tell you!

Kaili
Member

08-31-2000

Friday, December 10, 2004 - 1:55 pm   Edit Post Move Post Delete Post View Post    
He did only have a few supersized meals because they didn't often ask. And he was ordering and living like the average person, or the average person who eats a lot of junk fast food. He cut the exercise- and remember the salad with dressing was more fattening or higher cal or something than some other sandwich choice. Of course he could have gotten a bottle of water- but how often do most people do that? They get a soda.

Yankee_in_ca
Member

08-01-2000

Friday, December 10, 2004 - 2:07 pm   Edit Post Move Post Delete Post View Post    
Spurlock either said in the film, or in an interview I read or saw, that he did not order salads and water -- though he admitted that you COULD order those things -- because that is NOT what most people order at McDonald's. He wanted to order what most people order.

He did also acknowledge that very few people will eat those things 3 times a day, but he wanted to see what would happen if he did.

He also included the Big Mac dude in the film, who ate Big Macs every day but was thin and said he had very few health problems.

So given all that, I don't have a problem with his experiment.

Kaili
Member

08-31-2000

Friday, December 10, 2004 - 2:36 pm   Edit Post Move Post Delete Post View Post    
The Big Mac guy lives in Fond du Lac (about 45 miles south of here). I thought it was kind of cool that they also used the Appleton charter school lunch program in the movie- they must have spent a bit of time around here. I wonder if they found out about the school or the Big Mac guy first. He freezes them and saves them in case he can't make it to McDonald's on a certain day too.

Tashakinz
Member

11-13-2002

Monday, March 28, 2005 - 6:22 am   Edit Post Move Post Delete Post View Post    
Caught this documentary last night. I don't eat carbs so I don't eat at Mickey D's very often to begin with, but wow...what a physical transformation in 30 days.