Super Size Me

While this movie does focus on McDonalds for the experiment and was done basically because of the lawsuits filed by 2 women that wanted to blame the fast food industry for their health issues, it goes much further that that.

Every single fast food place does all of the things that McDonalds does...provides an avenue to addict your children, just as they may have addicted you as a child.

Growing up in the decades I did, there were no such thing as Wendys and the like on every street corner.  And I also grew up when there were maybe 4 different kinds of cereal, and all I got was Wheaties or Raisin Bran.  I got Burger King once a month when we would come into Houston to go to Ellington AFB to buy groceries at the commissary.  Now while I fought my weight in my childhood it wasnt because of the food issues so much but due to being a television kid and someone who didnt have a lot of friends anyway.  So therefore I was less active that much more....It wasnt until the summer before high school that I lost all the weight and became a different person in high school...

But because of all of that I have battled my weight all my life.  I think in the year after high school was where I was my heaviest, and then not again till 2003 when I was diagnosed with hypothyroidism which is now being taken care of with meds.  However just that little scare with all the symptoms which included a lot of weight gain in a short period of time, I was freaking out about what I was eating.  I was always a gym rat, but this is when running entered my life...

I still drank a lot, I partied a lot, I smoked a lot.  Slowly but surely all of those things fell by the wayside...and slowly but surely my eating habits began to change as well.  The past couple of years though while I still managed to eat healthy quite a bit of the time, I was with someone that had less than stellar good food tolerance and it would be that everytime that things were good with us, I would gain weight.  Mexican food, chips and queso, Whataburger, spaghetti etc., just were not a well rounded diet...when we would break up, I would go back to eating my kind of food and would drop the weight more or less...not like this time though.  Of course, the stress of that relationship is gone, therefore my overall health is improved just because of that alone!

Even the other night when we went for Greek, we ordered one appetizer and ONE entree and still the 2 of us couldnt finish either dish between the 2 of us.  And I sat there, and as I do all the time now, I watched person after person walk by with these plates that were falling over with food, just for themselves.  I even found myself staring at some people sitting down while we were ordering thinking UGH...you dont need to eat THAT MUCH FOOD!!!

Just like in the video from the Today Show, a portion for one at an Italian restaurant of pasta is equal to like 16-18 pieces of white bread!?!??!  That is just plain disgusting.  I bet you wouldnt sit down and eat 16-18 pieces of bread at one time, or even over 2 meals!!!!

I know this seems harsh, but people are just overweight, epidemically so, and that very fact is being passed on to children.  Everyone goes for convenience and cheap and satisfy the addictions to these fast foods that so many have been marketed to for so many years.  If you havent watched Super Size Me, you need to...seriously, its just mind boggling and eye opening.

There were 3 times in this movie that stood out:

1. When showing photographs to 1st graders of people, like George Washington etc., there was one picture they showed the kids that NOT ONE OF THEM knew who it was, but they knew who 'Wendy' and 'Ronald McDonald' were.....the person in the other picture?  Jesus.  Seriously?
2. Trying to get people to recite the Pledge of Allegiance, which they had trouble, but ask them to sing a jingle from a McDonalds commercial and they knew ALL the words...
3. And the story of the person that was smoking, and then got berated because of that, but yet when proposed to berate the overweight person for eating all that food that has the SAME killing effect of a person, no one would dare do that?

And I tell you after the first time I saw this when it first came out, oh how many years ago???  I have never had another chicken nugget since...it might not be 'fake' chicken but it sure is gross...

1 in 3 kids born in 2000 or later will have diabetes by adulthood.  Why is this OK?  And why are funds being cut off from requirements of more than once a week for gym in school and that Health Education is no longer a required subject in the majority of school districts????  Dont even get me started on the food selections in schools because of the savings and (revenue for the school), not to mention the pressure from these companies because they, in the end, make millions off of it all at the expense of the children....

There are addicting chemicals in all fast foods joints foods...why else do I crave Whataburger still to this day after almost 6 months and I only ate it sparingly, and if I should ever eat another one I can tell you it would be euphoric...Again watch the movie, you will see that after almost 3 weeks, Spurlock started feeling depressed and lethargic until he ate something from the fast food place.

I know that I am probably pissing some people off, but its not to berate anything other than people are killing themselves and honestly, yes I know its 'cheap' but there are ways to eat healthy without going off budget.  At least to some degree to start weaning yourself off all the 'foods' that are being ingested...

You know how you hear the cliche "its a vicious cycle"?  Until you make a change for yourself, or your family, you will continue to feel bad, and later on...they will feel badly as well...if you eat better (even if in just baby steps), you will feel more like being a bit more active, then you naturally want to eat better, your mood will improve, making you happier, and so forth and so on..this is NOT a vicious cycle...this is a step in the right direction!!!

Again, people all the time think its OK for someone who smokes, drinks or does drugs to be berated for 'slowly killing themselves'...but I have news...there are MORE people out there nailing nails in their own coffins every single time you put crap into your body...and if you think that processed food is the only thing out there processed...you have another thought coming...even your 'fresh' meats and produce are 'processed' to some degree...Just because its not in a can or a box; doesn't mean squat...

to be continued...