Super Shock Me

I've been waiting for Super Size Me to get shown in Philippine theaters, and guess what? It got shown in Rockwell for a few days, and before my wife and I could get there it was gone. Curious too is the fact that the Establishment appears to have ignored it, probably because they think it's not a good movie or some editors were paid to kill the story.

Morgan Spurlock , the film's director and narrator, shows us an experiment. which he does on himself. For thirty days, he eats nothing but Mcdonald's fast food. He imposes the rule that if they ask him to super-size his orders, he has to oblige. And, to best approximate the average American lifestyle, he doesn't exercise. He hires three doctors to establish his health status before, during and after the experiment. He shows us that when he started, he was in perfect health as certifed by his doctors. But after his experiment, the findings are shocking: His weight balloons by 30 pounds, his cholesterol goes up 65 points, his blood pressure increases, he develops a liver disease that often afflicted only alcoholics, his gets into mood swings, his energy drops, he has chest pains, and yes, his girlfriend complains that he couldn't get his thing up longer than he used to.

Of course, this experiment has limitations. But really, the thesis statement is very clear: If you eat nothing but fastfood for thirty days, you accept everything they offer you in the fastfood, including supersize otions, and you don't exercise, you will get sick, and pretty soon you will die.

Now is that a relevant statement? You bet it is. For one, that was how I managed through the months leading to my bar exams, when I lived in my own apartment, and the priority of my daily existence was to hurdle the daily reading list. I drank lots of coffee, coke, and I even tried out Jolt cola for that extra kick in caffein. My apartment was near the Tropical Hut food mart at the corner of Ayala Avenue and Puyat Avenue in Makati. My daily staple was Tropical Hut burger for lunch and Tropical Hut stir-fried beef and rice with egg for dinner. No wonder, I couldn't sleep on the eve of the first Sunday bar exams, and by the third week, I was dead tired. I even fell asleep while taking the commercial law exams. Now, that was just the diet of a bar reviewee. What about the law student, the college, high school and grade school student? They comprise a vast majority of this republic. How can the Establishment miss this movie?

After watching the DVD of this film, my wife and I made a resolution to take the fastfood out of the diet of our four kids. They will probably hate us for it, but I know someday, they are going to thank us.