Wednesday, September 21, 2005

More Library Bag: Don't Eat This Book

Repulsed and compelled by Super Size Me last year, I picked up Spurlock's Don't Eat This Book, an extension of the film.

Incidentally, Spurlock has produced a school-friendly version of the film with more food talk added (and certain discussions deleted, if you know what I mean.)



I don't know why it's so hard to break away from fast food. Even though I'm one of the more conscientious parents I know, I still get sucked into that nutritional void.

Super Size Me demonstrates the powerful force that is human nature. McDonald's and ConAgra may have an unhealthy conspiracy, but we're the ones eating it up.

Here's one of those supermarket economy tips from Don't Eat This Book, delivered with Spurlock's trademark humor:

"Do all your shopping around the perimeter of the store. That's where all the fresh food is. The center is for boxed, frozen, processed, made-to-sit-on-your-shelf-for-months food. You have to ask yourself, "If this food is designed to sit in a box for month and months, what is it doing inside my body?" Nothing good, that's for sure." (p. 234)

By the way, Morgan Spurlock now has a blog.

5 comments:

mothersong said...

I LOVED Don't Eat This Book. I like Supersize Me too, though. I also have difficulty with the fast food thing. I object to fast food both because of the nutritional horror of it, and because of the way it manipulates farmers, suppliers, etc. But my three year old loves Chicken Nuggets, and I give in way, way too often. He really would be in heaven if I found a deal like you did on those chicken tenders.

Have you read Fast Food Nation? Another excellent read, addressing the topic from a different perspective.

Morgan Spurlock has that televison show, 30 Days, that is pretty good, too.

Anonymous said...

I get sucked in to. On a hectic rainy or way to hot to be outside day, it is so nice to go to playland and enjoy some fries.
Leigh Ann

Anonymous said...

No offense intended, but when you stop & consider, don't you think that every parent thinks they are one of the more conscientious parents out there? I get a regular reality check on that because my husband & I, coming from different cultures, have different things we are really attentive to. Mine is nutrition, his is physical safety. So I worry that the brown sugar in our 17 month old son's oatmeal is empty calories ruining his taste for "real food", and my husband worries that he is going to fracture his skull as he practices running, LOL.

Meredith said...

Good point. But I *really* am (rolls eyes and laughs). Being a wife and mother is my full time job, and I take my son's total development very seriously.

It's an interesting question, though--because when you see parents letting their kids do things you would never, ever consider--you have to wonder what they're thinking. Obviously, they're meeting their own parenting criteria, and perhaps even calling themselves "one of the more conscientious parents," just as I did.

Touche. :)

Meredith said...

Mothersong, I read Fast Food Nation a while before seeing Supersize Me last year. I liked it, too, although it didn't have the deadpan humor and shocking illustrations of Spurlock's movie. This is one of those cases where seeing was more effective than reading for me.