Having heard that two obese teenagers were suing McDonald’s for making them fat, film-maker Morgan Spurlock decided to see what would happen if he ate nothing but McDonald’s food and drink, three meals a day for thirty days. “Super Size Me” is the result.

Thankfully he wasn’t stumbling blindly into this endeavour – he had a back-up team that consisted of a cardiologist, a gastroenterologist, a general practitioner and a nutritionist. We are treated to footage of his regular medical check-ups that start with the reassuring news that he is fitter than the average thirty-three year-old and end with all of the experts advising him to give up the experiment or risk damaging his body permanently.

Spurlock uses all the resources at his disposal to get his message across, incorporating footage of obese Americans, diagrams, cartoons, maps pinpointing the fattest cities in the US, talking heads from industry and legal professionals and his own video diaries. Chapters in the film are book-ended by the sinister advertising-inspired work of artist Rob English, which features malign Ronald McDonald-ised children. It’s a lot like being in a really interesting health education class where the teacher is witty and informed and never patronising, so you listen and soak up the information. Amongst the statistics is the shocking but hardly surprising revelation that two-thirds of American adults are obese. We are also told that McDonald’s refers to its customers as “heavy users” and “super-heavy users”. Spurlock obviously revels in reeling off America’s fat-statistics, doing so to the accompaniment of Curtis Mayfield’s “Pusher Man” while Ronald McDonald cavorts around in McDonaldland, like a sinister pied piper luring children to death by clogged arteries and heart-attacks.

The measure of Morgan Spurlock is to be found in his video diaries. He is an engaging host, both funny and informed and it’s interesting to watch how his personality changes as the McDonald’s diet goes on. On the first day he’s like a child, clearly thrilled by the idea of eating junk food for a whole month. On the second day when he gets his first super size meal, it is a different matter as he forces pounds of food down his gullet only for it to make an unscheduled re-appearance moments later. By the last couple of weeks he is bloated and sluggish and looks fit for the knackers’ yard. And he’s really worried when he wakes up with palpitations in the middle of the night. He always tries to keep his sense of humour intact, though, never allowing his ailing health to get in the way of taking the mickey out of the American diet.

What is worrying is that in a culture where image is everything, companies like McDonald’s are cashing in on the current healthy living fads by providing salads that contain more sugar and salt than a burger and fries combined. And this isn’t the only cynical marketing ploy being employed – the Big M regularly sponsors sports teams and soft drink manufacturers are hell-bent on putting their vending machines in every school in America. Even the government are involved; providing cut-price processed foods to schools in bulk, so that most kids will only get one or two home-made meals at school every month. No wonder the US is breeding so many big-boned behemoths! In fact the only schoolkids we see that are getting healthy lunches are those at a school for children with behavioural difficulties. And of course there are the marketing strategies aimed at children that according to one legal professional, make children equate fast food with happiness.
The soundtrack to the film incorporates as many ironic tunes as Spurlock can shoehorn in. We are treated to acres of American flesh accompanied by Queen’s “Fat Bottomed Girls”, Curtis Mayfield’s “Pusher Man” and Spurlock’s opus “Super Size Me” performed by a band called Toothpick. It’s one of the aspects of the film that creates the most humour.

How much you enjoy the film is largely dependant on how much you like Spurlock’s manner of presenting information. If you like your facts in bite-sized pieces, this could be right up your street. If however you prefer your documentaries to incorporate deeper meditations on corporate philosophies and responsibility, you may be disappointed. Whatever you feel about this film, lobby your local secondary schools to show it to their students. God knows if it can inspire my anti-health food other half to eat fruit, imagine what it will do for younger, more impressionable minds.