Stewart's Super Sized Smokescreen

It would be very easy to jump on the bandwagon and write a column on
the upcoming legislative session and the spirit of cooperation that
they all claim to be embarking on. Instead, I want to use this week’s
column to point out and respond to a “Guest View” published in the
Mason City Globe Gazette on Sunday, January 9, by Republican Iowa Senate Leader Stewart Iverson from Dows.



In this
“Guest View,” instead of talking about his goals for the upcoming
session and his vision for the future of Iowa, he—for some
reason—decides to write a review of the film Super Size Me, by Morgan Spurlock.



Super Size Me
is a documentary on our nation’s eating habits, the growing obesity
problem in the United States, and the role that fast food plays in it.
In the film, Morgan Spurlock sets out on a 30-day mission to eat
nothing but McDonald’s. Three meals a day, breakfast, lunch and dinner,
all at McDonald’s. He only eats value meals and he only “super sized”
the meal if asked. He also got the amount of exercise that the average
American gets. He consulted with three doctors and tracks the decline
of his health on a high fat, low exercise, and fairly typical American
diet. There are many chilling statistics in the film but for those of
you who haven’t yet seen it, I won’t mention most of them. Suffice to
say that America is the number one fattest nation in the world with more than 60%
of adults either overweight or obese. Obesity is second only to smoking
in preventable deaths in America. And there are 400,000 deaths per year
in overweight or obesity related illnesses.



In
Senator Iverson’s view, the movie is “radical activism taken to a new
level.” He expresses concern about Mr. Spurlock’s plan to tour the
nation’s high schools with this film, specifically his upcoming stop in
Ames on September 30 of this year. He sums it up by saying “what
parents need to know about this film is that it not only undercuts the
most important single element in health and nutrition education, being
personally responsible for making healthy choices for balanced diet and
maintaining an active lifestyle, it brings with it a disgusting view of
profanity, sexual content and gross imagery.”



I would
think that parents would rather know that according to a professor at
the Yale University Center for Eating Disorders, we live in a toxic
environment. He defines a toxic environment as one where there is
constant access to cheap, fat-laden foods, one where gas stations sell
more candy than gas, and one where there are 3 million soda vending
machines; one for every 97 Americans. They should also know that if
current trends continue, one out of every three children born in the
year 2000 will develop diabetes in their lifetimes. Oops, I wasn’t
going to mention more statistics.



In one
of the more telling parts of the movie, there is an interview with a
lobbyist from The Grocery Manufacturer’s of America, a very powerful
lobby with two main objectives in mind: no government agency is going
to even suggest that anyone eat less of their products, and no
government is going to pass unfavorable legislation for the food
industry. The lobbyist interviewed admitted that they are part of the
problem.



Perhaps
we now know why Senator Iverson spoke out on the movie. It’s a classic
example of throwing up a smokescreen. Instead of talking openly about a
very important issue, he is suppressing the discussion by calling the
movie a “so-called documentary” full of filth and not worthy of
watching. He closes the guest view by asking people to “join me in
doing everything you can to reject this brand of “education” and
instead pursue genuine health education that equips our kids with the
tools they need to make smart choices and lead active, healthy lives.”



Senator,
I agree, and I expect you to introduce legislation this session that
will accomplish this noble objective. There is only one state in the
nation that requires mandatory physical education in K-12 and that is
Illinois. Strangely enough, fund-raisers and private donations mostly
fund that program.



For
anyone that’s curious, the movie is rated PG-13. In the Senator’s view,
the disgusting parts of the film are scenes showing Spurlock vomiting,
receiving a rectal exam, and his girlfriend’s descriptions of their sex
life post McDiet. There is also footage of a gastrointestinal bypass
surgery. Granted, I could have done without the brief rectal exam
footage but overall, the film is an eye-opening look at a very big (no
pun intended) problem in America.