This race has super sized itself to death...

There's an album by Roger Waters, he of Pink Floyd fame, called "Amused to death". Its one of my favourites - dark and tragic, full of portents of doom and gloom. One of the songs goes, "this race has amused itself to death..." and perfectly describes the fear frenzied, TV sedated malaise that has fallen on us in the early 21st century. Except it was released in the 1980's during the Reagan era and while appearing ahead of its time reminds us that periods of military build up and empire building (not to mention massive deficit spending) are always just then back in our past if we care to, or still can remember them.

Well now there's a movie "Super Size Me" about a man who experimented with super sizing himself to death. Okay the point wasn't to kill himself with fast food, but it was a crash diet of three square (well round) McDonalds meals a day for a month. The results are hardly suprising given that a big mac is about 900 calories and all the other fixings probably take it well over 1500 calories so he was probably pounding four to five thousand (or more) calories a day. But at least he proved that super sizing ones food really does super size ones body, for Morgan Spurlock it was a massive 25 lbs gain in one month. Beefcake! And then there were many other side effects on his well being that are documented in the movie.

The New York Post has a story about "Super size me", as does Newsweek, and the movie even has its own website. In the mean time McDonalds is trying to distance itself from the documentary by claiming that it has plenty of healthy food options and that no one eats all their food from McDonalds. Well of course not - sometimes they still pop next door to Burger King or Jack in the Box! But the point is, even if they only eat a McDonalds six days a week, or five days, or four or three or two or one... at what point does including a Big Mac with fries or some other "happy meal" become an unhappy meal and become a grave and present danger to ones well being?

Unfortunately you wont be finding out much more information or seeing Spurlock's documentary any time soon, someone has bought it and has stopped all showings and previews of it . Lets hope it wasn't McDonalds who bought it to bury it before it gets into wide circulation and before they find themselves labled as purveyors of billions of Meals of Mass Destruction.