A rather crude documentary with rudimentary camera work and audio effects, this film nevertheless won several awards including for best direction at the Sundance Festival and a Documentary Screenplay Award from the Writers Guild of America with an Oscar nomination for Best Documentary to boot. The obvious reason is that the subject and conclusion of the movie finds relevance and resonance with a lot of people concerned about health and looks.
Morgan Spurlock, writer, director and main "actor" in the documentary who seems like a health buff whose girlfriend is a vegetarian chef, undertakes to eat nothing but McDonald's fast foods for one month. He puts himself under the care of a physician, a nutritionist and various other medical specialists to record his state of health before the experiment and to monitor the "progress" or rather the deterioration of his health in the duration of his experiment. Not surprisingly, his internist, Dr. Daryl Isaacs, several times in the course of the month-long "adventure" strongly advised him to go off the McDo diet as his cholesterol levels shot up to unhealthy parameters as well as the occurrence of deleterious changes to his pulse, respiration and overall resistance under medically controlled stress tests. He also complained of strange tingling sensations in unmentionable parts of his nether region. As for me being an older person whose sensations in the same parts are waning, I would be hard put to say whether that would be an unwelcome development.
As a candidate to become an emergency medical technician (basic), I found the disclosures in the film and the results of Spurlock's experiment alarming. I live in a working class neighborhood where parents (some couples, quite a number - single parents) probably do not have much time to shop fresh food and cook them. I surmise this from my observation that I often see pizza and other fast food deliveries coming and going at all times of the day. I once had a lady neighbor who would go out between 5:00 and 6:00 in the morning and come back with boxes of fast foods, coffee and cola drinks for herself and her children. Then in the evening, a pizza or fried chicken delivery person would come ringing at her door. Gazooks! I wondered, how could they stand eating those stuff everyday? As an immigrant to the US only recently turned citizen, I find the partiality of my now fellow Americans towards fried foods worrisome and certainly in conflict with my taste. While I do sometimes enjoy fried chicken, hamburger and chips I would not even contemplate eating fried foods for breakfast, lunch and dinner. I was having an excess of such in my first few months here and for a change I actively searched for a seafood restaurant (in Tampa, Florida). To my disappointment and frankly some disgust, I found that the menu consisted of deep fried battered fish, shellfish, calamari and scallops. While I would eat some fish fried, I would prefer tasting some of the sea in my seafood especially when it comes to scallops, crabs, oysters and clams and that calls for steaming, blanching or putting them into light soups.
The film does not draw definite conclusions, perhaps to avoid lawsuits, but does avert to disturbing correlations between ill-health and fast foods. McDonald's representatives refused to be interviewed by Spurlock. Nevertheless, after its release, McDonald's came out with allegedly healthy items in its menu including salads (alas still loaded with calorie rich cheeses and dressings) and Mexican style corn wraps.
I wonder if there is a correlation between the fact that I often see the blue and white ambulances of my destination rescue station on call in my neighborhood and the fact that many of my neighbors practically subsist on fast foods for their staple diet?
Morgan Spurlock, writer, director and main "actor" in the documentary who seems like a health buff whose girlfriend is a vegetarian chef, undertakes to eat nothing but McDonald's fast foods for one month. He puts himself under the care of a physician, a nutritionist and various other medical specialists to record his state of health before the experiment and to monitor the "progress" or rather the deterioration of his health in the duration of his experiment. Not surprisingly, his internist, Dr. Daryl Isaacs, several times in the course of the month-long "adventure" strongly advised him to go off the McDo diet as his cholesterol levels shot up to unhealthy parameters as well as the occurrence of deleterious changes to his pulse, respiration and overall resistance under medically controlled stress tests. He also complained of strange tingling sensations in unmentionable parts of his nether region. As for me being an older person whose sensations in the same parts are waning, I would be hard put to say whether that would be an unwelcome development.
As a candidate to become an emergency medical technician (basic), I found the disclosures in the film and the results of Spurlock's experiment alarming. I live in a working class neighborhood where parents (some couples, quite a number - single parents) probably do not have much time to shop fresh food and cook them. I surmise this from my observation that I often see pizza and other fast food deliveries coming and going at all times of the day. I once had a lady neighbor who would go out between 5:00 and 6:00 in the morning and come back with boxes of fast foods, coffee and cola drinks for herself and her children. Then in the evening, a pizza or fried chicken delivery person would come ringing at her door. Gazooks! I wondered, how could they stand eating those stuff everyday? As an immigrant to the US only recently turned citizen, I find the partiality of my now fellow Americans towards fried foods worrisome and certainly in conflict with my taste. While I do sometimes enjoy fried chicken, hamburger and chips I would not even contemplate eating fried foods for breakfast, lunch and dinner. I was having an excess of such in my first few months here and for a change I actively searched for a seafood restaurant (in Tampa, Florida). To my disappointment and frankly some disgust, I found that the menu consisted of deep fried battered fish, shellfish, calamari and scallops. While I would eat some fish fried, I would prefer tasting some of the sea in my seafood especially when it comes to scallops, crabs, oysters and clams and that calls for steaming, blanching or putting them into light soups.
The film does not draw definite conclusions, perhaps to avoid lawsuits, but does avert to disturbing correlations between ill-health and fast foods. McDonald's representatives refused to be interviewed by Spurlock. Nevertheless, after its release, McDonald's came out with allegedly healthy items in its menu including salads (alas still loaded with calorie rich cheeses and dressings) and Mexican style corn wraps.
I wonder if there is a correlation between the fact that I often see the blue and white ambulances of my destination rescue station on call in my neighborhood and the fact that many of my neighbors practically subsist on fast foods for their staple diet?