I finally saw the film "Super Size Me" on DVD. Overall, it was very good, though I thought his "experiment" of eating nothing but McDonald's for a month was brainless, gimmicky and even distracting. Well, no shit it gets you sick! At least the gross-out factor got more people to learn about what fast food entails. Much more interesting was the exploration of McDonald's culture and its narratives, the actual "super sizing" phenomenon and the more general obesity epidemic in the US.

One thing that drove me crazy: Jacob Sullum's point about the double standards of openly chastizing smokers while being tactful or even silent about self-inflicted morbid obesity was an idiotic analogy.

Smoking is largely a one-dimensional problem: the less tobacco you smoke, the better — ideally not smoking at all. On the other hand, everyone has to consume food. Fat people's problem is not that they eat; it's that they overeat. Additionally, you can under-eat (e.g. anorexia) but it's preposterous to say one can under-smoke.

And, while chewing tobacco is somewhat less dangerous than smoking, filters help and low tar is a marginal improvement, the composition of one's smoking is relatively unimportant. But when it comes to eating, the selection — i.e. nutrition — makes an enormous difference. One serving of whole oatmeal in water is quite different from one serving of Fruit Loops in whole milk.

Worst of all, there is no avoiding food. If you are addicted to nicotine, you can avoid bars, skip smoke breaks, opt not to purchase a pack cigarettes. But when you're a compulsive overeater, you have to be around food. You can stop dining out, not purchase junk food and watch your caloric intake, but there's no way to remove food from your life.

In summary: you can quit smoking cold-turkey; bad eating is a matter of degree.

update Per a question posted on LiveJournal, I'll elaborate:

The thing was gimmicky because, well, no one learned anything new (did anyone thing he wouldn't gain weight rapidly and affect his organs adversely by doubling his caloric intake and consuming 35 pounds of sugar, among other things?) and it wasn't exactly scientific — the fact he barfed up his first Big Mac should have been a sign that he wasn't exactly a representative guinea pig.

I should also mention that I did read the far superior Fast Food Nation, but there are a lot of things that can't be conveyed as well through text as through video (e.g. the various drink sizes). In fact, one of my favorite parts of the book was the single photos that preceeded each chapter.

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