I finally got around to renting Super Size Me, an amateur documentary about the impact of McDonald's on the waistline and health of America. You should see it too.
The fact that I rented it when I did wasn't coincidental. Obesity Awareness Week has just come and gone. Local surgeons are considering gastric reduction surgery on a 22 stone (140 kg) 11 year old who was brought up on crisps and chocolate. A father made a complaint, saying (correctly) that I had said his obese daughter was obese: if your family doctor can't bring up the subject, who can? On a Friday night I gape at the "muffin tops", girls dressed in boots, boob tube, and a broad belt over which hangs the result of all those cheeseburgers. It's a hot topic, and the UK statistics are just as bad as those across the pond.
Which image do you think reflects the reality of frequenting McDonald's? The slim model on the company's home page?
... or the caricature on the Super Size Me web site?:
The film contains some shocking revelations and asks as many questions as it answers, prompting ongoing debate and rebuttal.
You can get a pretty good feel for the general flavour of the film by downloading the free title track as an MP3; it's become something of an Ohrwurm ("ear worm") for me:
Download MP3 (5.4 MB) here.
If I had to pick one point of reflection from the film it would be the comment made by one interviewee contrasting the problem of obesity with that of smoking. It is now socially acceptable to publicly chastise a smoker sitting at the same table as you. But not many people would ask the person opposite them "So, how does it feel to be so fat?". Perhaps this will change. Perhaps it has to...
As a medical doctor of course I found the health consequences of the McDonald's diet frightening—especially the deranged liver function tests. I agree education is important, but in isolation it's not enough. Through clearer labeling on food we will give some people the choice of purchasing low-fat Brand A over high-fat Brand B (ditto for salt, calories, E numbers, preserves, milk proteins, etc.). But they can't make an informed choice unless they are able to weigh up the consequences of a decision one way or the other. Even if we do so empower them, many won't make the choice we might consider 'right'. Some, I'm sorry to say, are too thick. Others have different priorities (q.v. the Mad Cow Disease fiasco, when prices of British Beef were lowered to boost sales in the face of health concerns, resulting in the beef flying off the shelves!)
It's important to record my awareness of the problem now. In 20 years, if I can still reach the keyboard over my stomach, I might re-read this and wonder why the hell we (society as a whole) didn't do something about it. We have to blame someone, right?
del.icio.us,
Digg,
StumbleUpon
Translate this page: DE | ES | FR
Follow tag feeds: film, health, medicine, Musings, usa.
Buy for yourself on Amazon.com or Amazon.co.uk, leave a "tip"
For me, it's hard to identify one particular moment during the film that hit home--it was all terribly frightening. But if I had to pick one thing that made the point as clearly as humanly possible, it had to be the deleted scene that is on the DVD, The Smoking French Fry.
If anyone hasn't seen this extra feature, be sure to do so--you will never want to put one of those things into your body again.
WLW