Super Size Me?

Last week I drove to Western New York to visit my family. I did not pack any food for my seven hour drive, and when I got hungry enough I decided to pull off the highway to get a bite to eat. Sadly, one of the foods available to me at that moment was McDonald’s. I could have gone to the convenience store and grabbed a yogurt, or perhaps a granola bar – but the smell of the burgers and fries took over my senses and I had to give in. And while I stood at the counter debating over the Quarter Pounder or the Big Mac I realized that I had not been to the “Golden Arches” in more than five years.

It was around 2004 that I first encountered the movie, “Supersize Me.” This documentary was about a man who ate nothing but McDonald’s for breakfast, lunch, and dinner for one month. By the end of the thirty days he had gained considerable weight and was becoming very sick according to his physician. The doctor actually asked the man to give up on his month long project in the interest of good health. The constant flow of fast food was starting to affect his liver, mood, and cardiovascular fitness.

This morning irony struck when I read the topic of this month’s Educational Leadership as, “Health and Learning.” Each month this publication focuses on one topic in the American Public School System, providing those in educational leadership with information and insight to potentially improve schools large and small. The December 2009 issue covers students’ diets, sleep habits, emotional wellness, and exposure to drugs and alcohol.

As a school community we have focused in school eating habits with our district wellness policy as well as our policy to allow bottled water in the classrooms. One of the points made in Ed. Leadership’s article about healthy eating is that children who are continually exposed to fat, sugar, and salt will find these foods to be their friends. These children will then turn to these foods for comfort in times of stress, or just as a better tasting alternative to healthy foods. Once this cycle begins, it can be a hard one to break, and the repercussions can bring agony later in life.

You can see the first four minutes of the movie, Super Size Me by clicking the link below. I give this film two thumbs up!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V168xofxgu0