March 26, 2014
What I've Learned 10 Years After Being In 'Super Size Me'
This article was written by Alexandra Jamieson - the co-creator of the Oscar-nominated documentary Super Size Me
Ten years ago, we were sitting on the couch when the “big idea” happened. Morgan Spurlock and I were dating, and visiting his mom in West Virginia for Thanksgiving when our ongoing conversation about food and health took an inspired turn. Morgan asked, “What would happen if I ate nothing but McDonald’s for 30 days?” The light bulb went off and a few weeks later, we were filming the movie Super Size Me. If you’ve seen the film, you know what happened: Morgan got sick, gained 25 pounds, his cholesterol shot up 60 points, and his liver got so sick he was giving himself non-alcoholic hepatitis. In 30 days!

Until that point, no one had shown how quickly and dramatically you could change your health with food. And while he ate all this fast food, “super sizing” his portions whenever asked to do so at the drive-thru window, he traveled around the country, interviewing top health and nutrition experts to uncover what was really going on in our food culture:
- School lunch programs were serving nutrient-poor and ultra-processed foods
- Kids were being brainwashing into brand loyalty with high-impact marketing
- Emotional eating and food addiction are epidemic
- Those who need it most lack access to healthy, affordable, fresh food
- Fix more of our own fresh food at home
- Fix our relationship with food
- Fix the toxic food culture we live in
- Expand education for our kids about how to fix and enjoy real food
- Increase access to real, affordable food for the working poor
- Hold the Food Industrial Complex to higher standards by raising our voices, and our wallets, in support of real food.