KissaBoo

After Super Size Me, you need a Happy Meal

Wow, only a couple of days until the first anniversary of this site and it's one of the longest starts of a month without a post.

During this last week of celebration, my lovely and I went to see Super Size Me after being barred from a Red Sox's game (Note: the last time this happened Mussina was one strike away from a perfect game for the Yankees, this time ManRam whiffed on a pop-up in the ninth, but the Sox still did manage to win the first ever game the Dodgers have officially played in baseball's oldest venue.)

3.5 (MovieLens Scale). I highly recommend this movie - if you occasionally dine on any fast food, have kids in school, drink cola, or generally eat, you should see this movie. Sadly, it took me only one day to once again get a combo at Wendy's, but I am changing my eating habits. As a person who both believes in capitalism/free enterprise and has always thought that smokers have the right to take their lives into their own hands, I have to say that this movie makes a compelling case for why this is not just a matter of personal choice, but a problem I fear will take government intervention and not just social engineering and business strategy to correct.

Let me first say that the auteur's quixotic quest to eat only McDonald's and everything McDonald's over 30 days is not really that compelling an argument for why fast food is a problem in America and the world. Everyone should believe that an extremely healthy guy (who happens to be my height) who goes from exercising and mostly vegan meals to barely walking and extremely gluttonous, fatty meals is going to be in trouble. His initial good health is both a blessing and curse in this instance since while his body is better able to cope with this abuse, a more seasoned pro like yours truly could have taken it more in stride with my previous conditioning. His argument for not exercising is that the majority of American's don't, so that is all fine and dandy. He also seemed to eat very large meals even for McD's. Two breakfast sandwiches for breakfast, shakes with combo meals, etc. are all more than I almost ever eat there and unfortunately the audience never learns the actual breakdown of what he was purchased / consumed.

The part of the movie I was most frightened by is McDonald's huge advertising budget and how they significantly target children. There is no way a parent can really compete. Combined with their lack of concern with educating consumers about the nutritional contents of their food, it is quite disheartening.

I would love to see a healthy, tasty, and successful fast food chain emerge to challenge the current state of affairs, but the forces against them to obtain any market penetration are incredible without a huge public outcry. I'd hate to back legislation to limit the amount of advertising dollars a company can spend since I believe in free enterprise and I recognize this isn't the strongest time for media supported by those dollars, but it may be the only way to combat this trend in the near future. I definitely will have to investigate how my congress people voted (or will vote) on the "Cheeseburger bill", which prevents consumers from suing fast food companies. Not only is it unnecessary additional legislation, if a legitimate case can be made that these companies are knowingly endangering people's lives, how can this bill be allowed?