don's report archive
Wellness in the Headlines
(Don's Report to the World)
Thursday May 27, 2004
How many of these names do you recognize: George Washington, Abraham Lincoln, Albert Einstein, Carl Sagan and Morgan Spurlock? OK, Morgan Spurlock may not be a household name, just yet. However, just wait until everyone reads in the May-June 2004 edition of the Harvard Magazine an article about Morgan Spurlock by Craig Lambert entitled "The Way We Eat Now."
Morgan may not be as notable as the two revered presidents mentioned or the fellow who explained relativity or the polymath who made the cosmos a bit more understandable or at least added to our sense of awe about it, but Morgan did undertake something the others never considered--he ate all his meals at McDonald's for an entire month. Breakfast, lunch, dinner--all under the Golden Arches. He even made a movie about it, which he dubbed "Super Size Me," which is what he did to himself. Was the movie any good? Well, it won a "Best Director" prize for Morgan at the Sundance Film Festival this year.
Maybe you are curious about what the judges found so impressive about Morgan's directorial abilities, if not his diet selections. I personally believe the judges saw Morgan as a pioneer, like the others with whom I lumped him at the top of this essay. We have read enough abstract studies about the hazards of poor diet--Morgan took health education to the next level. He demonstrated those hazards, up close and personal. He might be a genius.
I have not seen it, of course, since I don't make a habit of going to Sundance for the annual film festival, but I understand "Super Size Me" shows Morgan's well-being deteriorate as the month goes by. Morgan reports gaining 25 pounds while suffering fatigue and headaches as his health "falls apart," little by little and bit by bit. It is not clear if McDonald's PR executives cooperated in the making of this movie, somehow based on the old adage that any publicity is good publicity, but if so, it seems to have been a very bad move. At one point, Morgan states, "My liver basically starts to fill up with fat because there's so much fat and sugar in this food. My blood sugar skyrockets, my cholesterol goes up off the charts, my blood pressure becomes completely unmanageable. The doctors were like, 'You have to stop.' "
I think Morgan was simply doing a modern day sacrifice for the "sins" of others. I suspect Morgan is a trailblazer who gave up his health so that others might choose to live well. He wanted to make a point that people would get. He offered himself, sort of, so that the rest of society would stop super sizing themselves with sugary, fat and overly processed food. His sacrifice on the cross of the Golden Arches was a statement about excesses--the gas-guzzling SUVs, the McMansion homes, the penis enlargements, breast expansions, muscle- enhancements with steroids--all of it. How easy it is for all us thin, well, fit and happy wellness promoters to lecture others about the glories and triumphs of well being, but knowing full well that most (64 percent by conservative estimates) Americans are not impressed enough or otherwise convinced to stop stuffing themselves into oblivion.
I don't know if Morgan wants to see a religion created in his honor, but I do think we all owe him a little respect. We hope he will be resurrected into a healthy guy by virtue of choosing other foods and other places to eat besides McDonald's and maybe give up the idea of becoming a metaphorical martyr for super sized America. It's one thing to be effective, but not at the cost of having to surrender one's right to be thin, well, fit and happy while enjoying the glories and triumphs of well being.
OK, maybe he's not a Washington, Lincoln, Einstein or Sagan, but the challenge that Morgan set for himself, making an impact on the super sizing of American, is nearly as profound as fighting for liberty, emancipating the slaves, explaining relativity and interpreting the cosmos. Consider, for goodness sakes, that obesity is the greatest challenge to our nation today, next to voting George Bush out of office in November. Obesity is our national cross to bear, one we need not carry, that is responsible for the prevalence of diabetes (18 million) and pre-diabetes (41 million), heart disease, strokes, several types of cancer, arthritis, infertility, gallstones, asthma, and even snoring and taking up waaaay too much space in airplanes. While it is still (but not much longer) slightly less fatal than smoking it total deaths, it is a lot more significant, largely because there are twice as many fat people as there are smokers.
I can't wait to see the movie "Super Size Me." Even if it's a stinker, despite having what the Sundance judges termed the best director, I'm ready to call for a national holiday to honor Morgan Spurlock. I say he is an unsung hero in the war on obesity. He sacrificed himself, not by falling on a sword or a hand grenade but rather by eating a whole lot of Big Macs and the like to redeem us all from dietary and other lifestyle sins.
Think of Morgan Spurlock and look on the bright side of life.
(Note: This essay will be filed in the archives in the MEANING DOMAIN under the skill area of humor. Additional articles related to this theme may be found there.)
(Ed. Note: Views expressed in this and other columns are those of the author and not necessarily those of the SeekWellness Editorial Board.)
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