I just watched Super Size Me, and I don't feel very well. The film is disturbing, of course, and a bit far-fetched in that the man ate all his meals at McDonald's for a month and super sized when asked. He had to eat everything on the menu once, but of course he didn't have to eat the Bic Mac and friends all the time, could have mainly eaten their salads -- even if they are nasty iceberg lettuce monstrosities. But still, ick. The worsening of his health was incredibly fast. And the sizing comparisons were unreal. The original size drink is now the kid's size -- and the largest offered in Europe. Anyone remember the paper bag of fries, not the paperboard sleeve? I'm just so thankful that I almost never eat fast food, and if I do it's Chick-fil-A or Wendy's, where you can be a bit more sane. And while Abigail love's those Chick-fil-A nuggets and waffle fries, she's also perfectly happy just to get a few fries and chow down on her fruit cup. But after this, I'm even going to rethink how many fries I let her have -- and make myself not finish them off.
They intereviewed people at Madison Junior High, which was in my old town of Naperville and was built right as I went to high school. What the kids bought from the line was of course attrocious, and I know a lot of schools are finally changing, but kids are kids. I remember in high school in Naperville, I would eat my lunch from home, then go buy a soft pretzel with cheese, a Twix and a fruit punch. No wonder I had weight issues! There was this little cubicle set up in the cafeteria that sold nothing but candy and chips and the like. Crazy. Thank God my Pittsburgh school didn't have quiet the options -- though I did love those gingerbread men they sold after school.
I slogged through gym every day in Illinois, then just two or three times a week in the 'Burgh. Now, thanks to good ol' No Child Left Behind, our local school district only does gym once a week for 20 minutes in elementary school. Now, I always hated gym, but that's insane! (Besides, where will these children learn to square dance?) I have heard countless teachers say No Child Left Behind is destroying American education, but that's a whole different topic ...
Later addendum: Oops, Madison was a preexisting junior high, I was thinking of Kennedy. But it's all moot since I went to Washington. Go Warriors! Or rather, Wildcats since our really rather racist caricature of an Indian was finally deemed offensive. Oh well. My sister's high school was the Redskins. Guess who's now the Redhawks?
About Ayzair
Welcome to my odditorium, a collection of curiosities made up of snippets about my life and occasional machinations on deeper subjects.My Blog List
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4 comments:
And then you had me. A typical day in High School would entail having scambled eggs, bacon, cheese toast with jelly, and a glass of milk for breakfast. For lunch I would have a quart of ice tea, a pimento cheese sandwich, a sandwich bag of potato chips, an apple, a Little Debbie Peanut Butter Bar, an oatmeal creme pie, and 5 or 6 Jolly Ranchers I would nurse until school let out. At home I would sit on the couch and eat the rest of the bag of potato chips, minus what was placed in the sandwich bag for lunch, and drink tea or Dr. Pepper. Then I would do my homework. For supper I would have 2 heaping plates of spaghetti with several french bread slices. About half the time I would then go to my Godparents house for a couple of pork chops, green beens, mashed potatoes, and cantaloupe. While watching TV I would eat half a bag of popcorn and drink a Dr. Pepper. Then before bed I would fix a big glass of milk and dunk about 8 Oreos. Yeah and I graduated High School at 145 lbs on a 5'11" frame.
I've been meaning to watch Supersize me, but I haven't gotten to it. I think it's ill advised to eat all your meals in one place anyway, but shear caloric intake means different things for different people, especially children. Everyone kept telling me, "Well your metabolism will slow down and then we'll see what happens." I said that then I'd stop eating so much, and when it happened I did. I was hungry several times a day for about 3 weeks before my system got used to it. Now I can't even force myself to eat as much as I used to. I think I've been pretty lucky being able to contol myself like that. Lord know I have family without thaqt king of control, and it shows. Teaching control, responsibility, and the balancing of consequences seems to be one of the biggest items on the list of what children need to know and of which they aren't getting enough.
Wow this turned into a long comment. I think I'll shut up now.
There was a report a few weeks ago in the paper about a German (or was it Dutch) professor who ran the supersize experiment on a number of normal weight students. Sadly I can't seem to find the article now. Any way he paid for their expenses, they had the same restrictions on movement as in the film, they were allowed to have different junk foods, i.e. pizza and kebabs. He had different results than the film. I think it was a three month trial and people gained 5% more body weight on average, but did not have the health problems Spurlock had, particularly the liver damage. He is running another lot of students now so I don't think a final study has yet been published, these were just initial findings. The students said the hardest part was the limits in their movement.
I had some problems with the films, and other programs he and his fiance have put out. Obviously they are going for an effect and it is a propaganda film. No deep thoughts are really passed on. There was a recent article where the fiance said that dairy causes osteoporosis and claimed no one in China has it. While I have no medical experience in the rural areas of China, I have seen a lot of pictures of stooped older Chinese. And in the film the bit equating smokers and fat people. It just doesn't work. Smoke affect other peoples health and you do not need cigarettes to survive. As much as the media would like people to believe that fat people are simply caused by fast food, ready meals, sodas and sedintary lifestyles, it simply is not that easy.
---Amanda
I agree that the film was propaganda. Everyone he asked about eating fast food was enormous, not just overweight. And he repeatedly montaged shots of McDonalds with huge people walking past. And you have to suspect someone who's girlfriend is a vegan chef and equates ham with heroine. Probably his biggest problem was that he gorged on twice the calories he normally ate. If he had eaten the same kind of food but in less quantity, I doubt it would have been as dramatic.
I saw an article, I think over at Ars Technica, but I can't find it now, indicating that a lot of the studies that indicate obesity increases risk of certain diseases didn't normalize for diabetes prevalency in the overweight population. When diabetics were taken out of the picture the health differences between fat and more fit people weren't nearly as different, indicating that the increased likelyhood of diabetes is the biggest risk to being overweight.
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