Product Description

A tongue-in-cheek and burger in hand look at the legal, financial and physical costs of our hunger for fast food, by the funniest and most incisive new voice since Michael Moore. Can a man live on fast food alone? Morgan Spurlock tried. For thirty days he ate nothing but three square' meals a day from McDonald's as part of an investigation into the effects of fast food on our health. Don't Eat This Book gives the full background story to the experiment that so captivated audiences around the world in the documentary Super Size Me, and explores in further depth the connections between the rise of fast food and obesity. In this groundbreaking and hilarious book of epic portions, Morgan Spurlock lays bare the devastating facts for all to see

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #652681 in Books
• Published on: 2005-05-13
• Released on: 2005-05-24
• Original language: English
• Binding: Hardcover
• 304 pages

From Publishers Weekly
Fact-packed and funny, this offshoot of Spurlock's Oscar-nominated documentary Super Size Me serves both as a substitute for and addition to the movie. Spurlock spent a month not exercising and eating nothing but food from McDonald's, filming his declining health and ballooning size. It was a terrific premise for a movie; the book provides even more of its backstory and outtakes. Spurlock describes America's obesity epidemic, its relation to the fast food industry, the industry's cozy relations to U.S. government agencies and how the problem is spreading worldwide. He details the long-term and often fatal (albeit well-known) health hazards of the high-fat, high-sugar, factory-farmed fast food diet combined with the sedentary lifestyle prevalent among Americans. The statistics, while grim, aren't as compelling as Spurlock's often humorous descriptions of his own gradual disintegration into exhaustion, mood swings, liver deterioration and high blood pressure as his month progresses. Spurlock's wisecracks make the statistic-laden information easily digestible and possibly useful as a classroom text. He includes inspiring examples of schools that provide healthy, local (even student-grown) food in their cafeterias, and offers lists of resources for parents and educators wanting to make changes in their own communities. Spurlock is surprisingly optimistic about the future, and his book is a powerful tool in his rip-roaring campaign to turn around America's love-hate relationship with fast food. Agent, Elyse Cheney Literary. (May 19)

From AudioFile
If you've read FAST FOOD NATION or FATLAND, or if you've seen Morgan Spurlock's documentary, SUPERSIZE ME--in which Spurlock spent one month living on McDonald's food--you may wonder what can be added to the vilification of the U.S. fast-food industry. Surprisingly, DON'T EAT THIS DOOK is packed with plenty of fresh health and nutrition facts. (Do American grandparents REALLY exercise more than their grandkids?) Unlike Spurlock's popular documentary--a merger of muckraking and performance art--his audiobook focuses on a more specific point: Corporate forces have compromised our desires, our freedom of choice, and our ability to make objective decisions. With his hint of a Kentucky accent, Spurlock is a homespun and invigorating reader. R.W.S. © AudioFile 2005, Portland, Maine-- Copyright © AudioFile, Portland, Maine

From Booklist
Spurlock, whose film documentary Super Size Me, earned an Oscar nomination and substantial media attention earlier this year, expands into a book his polemic against fast food in general and McDonald's in particular. He rails against America's ubiquitous burger outlets, holding them uniquely responsible for the country's obesity crisis and fretting that these corporations' overseas successes have spread worldwide the least seemly fruits of U.S. economic and agricultural success. With insight, he links Americans' expanding girth to consumers' demand for larger, less fuel-efficient vehicles, such as SUVs. He cites research demonstrating that fats are bad for people, sugar is bad for people, meat is bad for people, and advertising's seductions multiply these health perils exponentially. This is territory already well explored and thoroughly mapped in Schlosser's Fast Food Nation (2002) and Nestle's Food Politics (2003). Spurlock's ingenuous persona and his bumptious spiritedness added immeasurably to the film's charm and provided both entertainment and plausibility despite his sweeping generalizations and shaky conclusions. In print, this gee-whiz approach makes him come across as a lightweight, overshadowing and undermining whatever serious purpose he intended and whatever valid charges he might have brought against today's fast-food behemoths; however, the popularity of his documentary will spur demand for his book. Mark Knoblauch
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved