Don't Eat This Book: Fast Food and the Supersizing of America
by Morgan Spurlock
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Book Summary Information
Author: Morgan SpurlockEdition: Hardcover
Audio: English (Original Language); English (Unknown); English (Published)
Published: 2005-05-19
ISBN: 0399152601
Number of pages: 320
Publisher: Putnam Adult
Book Reviews of Don't Eat This Book: Fast Food and the Supersizing of America
Book Review: Essential companion to Super Size Me
Summary: 5 Stars
I loved this audiobook. I would recommend the audiobook format only, as Spurlock's narration is very engaging. If Spurlock ever wanted to retire from the documentary business, he could easily make a career of acting, voiceovers, and audiobook narrations. His impassioned reading captures the seriousness of the issue, yet his killer sense of humor and talent for wordplay keeps us laughing while absorbing the shocking statistics.
I think that Booklist underrates Don't Eat This Book. Likewise, some reviewers have complained that this book disintegrates into one long rant. Admittedly, Spurlock does go on at length against the evils of the Fast Food industry and the dysfunctional aspects of American culture, with his focus never veering from McDonald's for more than a few paragraphs. Yet in my case, he is preaching to the choir. I completely agree that junk food is a health hazard that has been pushed on us through clever marketing strategies. Spurlock points out the discrepancy between big food's "personal responsibility" self-acquitting mantra and the fact that the industry (like the tobacco industry) knowingly uses ingredients (umm, chemical formulas) with known health risks, and sometimes without even informing us (like McDonald's prolonged use of trans fats and McFries derived from potatoes that are "actually registered as a pesticide"--no, I'm not saying the potatoes are sprayed with pesticides, the spud itself--the New Leaf Potato--is a pesticide). The food industry spends big bucks in marketing research to manipulate our behavior and buying trends, but then washes its hands clean when we actually fall prey to its hook, line, and sinker.
Spurlock believes that many people really do not know the full extent of the harm of a diet consisting primarily of fast food and other poor quality food choices. A plethora of debilitating diseases, ranging from cancer to diabetes, are the spawn of such a diet. You don't even need to wait a lifetime to see the results of this fast food diet: thanks to Morgan Spurlock, you can see the results in less than a month. If you're a "Super Heavy User" (that is, you patron McDonald's more than twice a week), Spurlock reasons, then on the nights that you don't eat at MickyD's, you are probably "not eating veggie tofu stirfry between yoga classes." You are probably eating similar types of low quality food throughout the week, precipitating Type II diabetes and weight gain.
If Spurlock just offered one complaint after another, then I would agree that this book is little more than an entertaining albeit alarming rant. Yet Spurlock counters his complaints with viable solutions. He offers suggestions as well as anecdotes of lifestyle turnaround stories and examples of schools that took the initiative to offer its students healthier options. I especially appreciated the story of an economically mixed school district that did away with lunch lines that separated the free and reduced lunch kids from the regular paying kids. Using student ID cards that provided anonymity, the kids flocked to the fresh fruits and vegetables serving area in the cafeteria.
We can see for ourselves in Super Size Me how Spurlock's rather fit body underwent a metamorphosis of Ovidian proportions. In less than a month, his liver functions profile was off the charts, he became sluggish and moody, he felt "purring" in places he didn't want to feel purring, he couldn't concentrate, and he gained over twenty pounds. In less than a month. I have another true story to share about a friend who grew up Super Sizing himself and then drastically changed his lifestyle. I met this guy this past autumn and thought to myself, what a tall, handsome young man. He told me a few weeks after I met him that he had been overweight for most of his life. Despite growing up in a Greek household that boasts the Mediterranean diet, he would eat fast food with his friends and drink about two 20-ounce Cherry Cokes a day. He said that in high school, he was a "pimply, overweight kid" who hadn't reached his full height. He said that he was probably about 5'10" when he graduated high school, and he is now 6'4". He said that girls never gave him a second look in high school. I commented sincerely that they were probably swooning now. (If they weren't, I was!) After he started college, he experienced significant growth spurts. He started walking, running, and working out. He also stopped eating fast food and pop, and to this day, can't stand fast food. Well, the transformation from a pimply, overweight kid into a Greek god is remarkable! He is one of the most handsome men of my awareness, and I never would have known that he struggled with weight issues or pimply skin when he was younger. The point of this story isn't just what a hottie my friend is, but how our diet can affect our health. Morgan Spurlock's 30 days of fast food wasn't just a stunt (as his "McCritics" dubbed the movie). It was a fast-forward example of how this diet can negatively alter our bodies, our attention spans, and our moods while potentially shortening our lives.
Oh, some worthwhile quotes for good measure. Spurlock observes that Ronald McDonald never actually eats the "grub" in any of the TV commercials. He then quotes a rock star who sings the caveat, "You don't get high from your own supply." When Spurlock is criticized for not being a doctor or nutritionist, he quips, "Boy, you got me there. Guilty. I'm not a doctor. I don't even play one on TV." Since he surrounded himself with medical professionals throughout the filming of Super Size Me, Spurlock didn't need to be one himself. Or when he said that McDonald's comparison of its adulterated apple pie with a real Granny Smith apple makes as much sense as comparing a Granny Smith apple with a chair. And who can forget the infamous scene in the parking lot, his second day of eating McDonald's and first "Super-Sized" meal? Spurlock says that his body was rejecting McDonald's the way some bodies reject organ transplants. His vendetta against McDonald's is hilarious, especially as he discredits one McClaim after another. I can't blame him; I'd hate it myself if I ate nothing but that McCrap for a month.
Summary of Don't Eat This Book: Fast Food and the Supersizing of America
The literary debut of the funniest and most incisive new voice to come along since Michael Moore-and the acclaimed director of the film phenomenon of the year.Can man live on fast food alone? Morgan Spurlock tried to do just that. For thirty days, he ate nothing but three "squares" a day from McDonald's as part of an investigation into the effects of fast food on American health. The resulting documentary won him resounding applause and a worldwide release that broke box-office records. Audiences were captivated by Spurlock's experiment, during which he gained twenty-five pounds, his blood pressure skyrocketed, and his libido all but disappeared.
But this story goes far beyond Spurlock's good-humored "Mc-Sickness." He traveled across the country-into schools, hospitals, and people's homes -to investigate school lunch programs, the marketing of fast food, and the declining emphasis on health and physical education. He looks at why fast food is so tasty, cheap, and ultimately seductive, and what Americans can do to turn the rising tide of obesity, hypertension, and diabetes that have accompanied its ever-growing popularity. He interviewed experts in twenty U.S. cities-from surgeon generals and kids to lawmakers and marketing gurus-who share their research, opinions, and "gut feelings" on our ever-expanding girth and what we can all do to offset a health crisis of supersized proportions.
In this groundbreaking, hilarious book, "benevolent muckraker" Morgan Spurlock debuts a wry investigative voice that will appeal to anyone interested in the health of our country, our children, and ourselves.
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