So last night, we (finally) watched SUPER SIZE ME. I've been hesitant to watch it since it came out. Mostly because I thought it had a different premise that it actually does. I had to sit through the first 15mins or so during my creative writing class this summer and found myself intrigued by it. So last night, Todd and I watched it.
Morgan Spurlock, for one, is hilarious. He made the documentary really fun to watch, even though the topic itself was already interesting.
If you don't know the documentary, the brief run-down is the Spurlock embarks on a 30-day McDonald's binge. For every meal, he has to eat at McD's, he has to eat one of every item on the menu and if (and ONLY if) asked to SuperSize, he has to do it. The whole thing is just to see what will happen to his body. He starts the adventure basically is peak physical condition...6'2" and 185lbs is GREAT actually.
The thing that I found most interesting about the whole movie was how great he STILL looked by the end of it. In 30 days, he'd "only" gained about 17lbs and didn't appear to be overweight. That's the tricky part. There are so many people that often perceive weight and synonymous with health. The fact is, it's not. His liver was about to completely crap out on him and his cholesterol and triglycerides had damn near TRIPLED. But if you'd have see this guy on the streets, you'd never have known that he was "near death". His three doctors and his nutritionist all recommended that he stop the "experiment" immediately (this was on day 21), which he refused to do. He found himself getting severely depressed and physically ill....heart palpitations, back pain, blah blah blah. In fact, the only time he was happy near the end of the "diet" was when he was eating. Interesting.
The thing that prompted this whole adventure was Spurlock hearing about a law suit that two teenage girls had filed against McDonald's for their overweight-ness.
That lawsuit enraged me. Big time.
Frankly, what the fuck has happened to personal responsibility in this country?!? We're such a sorry bunch of whiners...it makes me sick. Everyone wants to point to someone or something else, make it someone else's fault that they have this problem or that issue or whatever else. It's vile.
My favorite part of the documentary was when Jared the Subway Guy went to a high school to do this motivational speaking thing. Afterward, a 17-year-old girl was talking to him and then, cut to interview ala The Office, and the girl (who is grossly overweight mind you) is crying (literally) about how "it's hard because here's this guy who lost all this weight and he's telling me to just eat a sandwich twice a day...well, it's really HARD when you don't have much money" blah blah blah.
I think my exact words at that moment were: GET OFF YOUR ASS!
Seriously. Spurlock did "man on the street" interviews and ran into two VERY healthy looking black kids and they were going on and on and on about how they eat McD's every day...would eat it for every meal if they could! So why did they look SO good and SO healthy? I'll play the stereotype card here: they probably walk everywhere and play endless hours of basketball every single day. It's pretty basic nutritional math, kids. Burn more than you take in.
Now before you jump down my throat about being unsympathetic or whatever, let me state that I understand that there are extreme circumstances regarding weight loss. Sometimes, it's a seriously daunting task that only extreme measures can begin to help. I know of and have heard of plenty of people for whom gastric bypass is the only real option.
But when a 17-year-old girl, who is probably only about 75lbs overweight, is whining and moaning about not being able to afford Subway everyday, that's when I get irritated. C'mon. Get a bike. Walk to school. Join a friggin' gym. Eat less. See a therapist. I mean, quit whining and DO something.
I'm so tired of people not taking responsibility for themselves or their issues. I know I do it too. I KNOW that I complain about things that are changeable. Humans - hell, AMERICANS - do this.
But you can't go around slapping corporations with lawsuits because of lack of self-control. It's total madness.
And that lawsuit got thrown out. Like it should have.
Oh and Spurlock almost all of the weight he gained.....in about 4 months.
Yeah, dude got back to normal in almost NO time because his wife is a vegan chef and he lives in Manhattan (where people walk an average of 5 miles per day). At some point I want to see if I can actually bike to the bus stop & back every day for one week, then a month, and see if it makes a difference. I certainly feel better on days I bike (even better than when I hit the gym in the morning, actually, since I can't just decide to stop and give up before the "work out" is over). I feel more "balanced" somehow, it's hard to explain.
ReplyDeleteAnyway, yeah, just like with everything else you have to look at the big picture when it comes to health. Its not just weight, and not all overweight people are slobs that sit on the couch (some are actually trying).
Have you ever seen any of his other "30 Days" shows? I think maybe it's on FX. They're all pretty interesting. He did one where he and his girlfriend lived on Welfare for 30 days, really interesting. I like that he's pretty two sided about things. Though, I think he would have faired better in "SSM" had he actually eaten meat and/or even McDonalds once in awhile. It was a lot harder on his body to go from eating vegan all the time to eating McDs all the time. I think the average in good health Joe off the street would have been a better candidate for that one.
ReplyDeleteInteresting perspective, justspeaz. You're saying it might have helped if his arteries had been a bit greased up before he began? Obviously it wasn't *too* scientific of an experiment as one person's reaction to anything isn't guaranteed to be duplicated across the population. Frankly, the interesting part for me wasn't his own little mission but the rest of the stuff in the film like the info on school lunches and whatnot. We'll have to check out some of Morgan's other works.
ReplyDeletei don't think he was vegan before the diet. i think his girlfriend just happens to be a vegan chef. the reason i suspect this is from his comments during the last few minutes of the documentary...he mentions eating meat again, which would suggest that he'd eaten it before the diet even began.
ReplyDeleteregardless, i do understand what justspeaz is getting at.
but it is a highly unscientific experiment, to say the least.
i also really think that the thing i took away most from the documentary was the school lunches / vending options...that was pretty disturbing to see....