Fast Food

Morgan, Spurlock. “Don’t Eat This Book.” Fast Food and the Supersizing of America. New York: Penguin Group, 2005. 308 pages.

“Americans are eating themselves to death”(7) states Morgan Spurlock in his book Don’t Eat This Book, supporting this statement with a list of facts throughout the book. Morgan Spurlock is the award-winning man who ate only McDonald’s for thirty days in his movie Super Size Me. Spurlock talks about the impact on our lives the fast food companies have such as advertisement, portion control, effects on children, and what�s “really“ in our food.

The book is split up into sixteen informative chapters. Beginning with the facts of obesity in children and adults and ending with ways school can transform there “slop” lunches into healthy affordable meals. This book is filled with examples comparing the portion size of a meal to the actual nutrition facts. One study Spurlock quotes found “if you give someone a one-pound bag of M&Ms, the average person will eat eighty of them. If you give the same person a two-pound bag, they will eat 112.”(?) This shows how Americans really understand portion control.

In chapter one Spurlock points out that “we constantly have to be reminded what not to eat…somewhere, sometime, some genius bought a pair of sneakers and said �Ooooh, look. They give free mints with the shoes!” Pointing out the “warning label.”(1) Throughout the book there are many humorous points such as this one.

In the ninth chapter Spurlock