Author’s goal to help people be conscious consumers

In January 2004, Morgan Spurlock burst onto the scene at the Sundance Film Festival with his witty and satirical documentary “Super Size Me.”

In the film, Spurlock used himself as a guinea pig, eating McDonald’s food three times a day for a month. He gained more than 20 pounds and experienced liver problems.

The film went on to become the third-best-grossing documentary in American history and provoked attacks on Spurlock by McDonald’s and corporate food lobbyists.

Now Spurlock is back with “Don’t Eat This Book: Fast Food and the Supersizing of America” (Putnam, 320 pages, $22).

Going beyond his film, he explores America’s unhealthy eating habits and how those habits are reinforced by fast-food chains like McDonald’s and Burger King, and by large corporations like Kraft and Beatrice Foods, which peddle unhealthy meals and snacks to the American public.

With a combination of wit, sarcasm, anger and hard-hitting research, Spurlock argues that groups such as the American Medical Association and the U.S. Department of Agriculture have been corrupted by corporate interests.

With 65 percent of Americans overweight and 30 percent obese, he sadly notes that we are eating ourselves to death. His possible solutions – exercise, healthy school lunches and changes in eating habits – involve commitment and discipline, as opposed to what he sees as “silver bullets” such as pills to reduce cholesterol.

Spurlock, 34, studied film at New York University and lives in New York City with his fiancée, a vegan chef. He is currently producing and starring in a documentary series called “30 Days,” about people who change their lifestyles radically for one month, on the FX cable channel (Wednesdays, 10 p.m., cable channel 53 in Spokane, 65 in Coeur d’Alene).

He spoke recently at his publisher’s office in Manhattan.

Q. Why did you follow up “Super Size Me” with a book?

A. There was so much we couldn’t get into the film. In 98 minutes, there is only so much you can cover while keeping it entertaining. I was contacted by a literary agent, and I sent her a hit list of things I wanted to expand upon, from school lunches to the medical profession, the government and the food industry. These are shocking and important things to talk about.

Q. In the movie you mock McDonald’s mercilessly. In the book, you note angrily that McDonald’s restaurants have been placed in some children’s hospitals that perform gastric bypass operations on obese teenagers. What tone were you trying to set in the book?

A. There is a lot more gravity to the book. The book still has an upbeat tone, because I am an eternal optimist. On the children’s hospitals, the (hospital) spokesmen say, “We want the kids to have foods that they are comfortable with.” Great, let’s put a tobacco shop in a cancer hospital so the patients can have the brands they are familiar with. It is the same ludicrous idea.

Q. Could you talk about the changes your body underwent eating McDonald’s food for 30 days?

A. I gained 24.5 pounds in a month. My cholesterol went up 65 points, and my blood pressure jacked up. My liver got so filled with fat that the doctors were comparing it to that of an alcoholic. I was on my way to giving myself cirrhosis of the liver.

There are three things that happened to me that we medicate heavily for in America. I became severely depressed while eating this food. I’d feel terrible and depressed. I’d lash out at people. Then I’d eat McDonald’s and feel great for a while. I’d get hopped up on caffeine, sugar and fat. Then I’d crash. For this roller coaster, people take happy pills.

I experienced sexual dysfunction while doing this film. I also couldn’t focus and had all the signs of attention deficit disorder. What would happen in the United States if we started to treat the causes (of these problems) rather than the symptoms?

Q. You argue that medical associations and government agencies have been corrupted by food corporation lobbyists. Could you explain this?

A. It’s been happening forever. We are complacent. We think that people are looking out for us. Who’s looking out for us? The fact is, nobody. The American Diabetes Association just announced that sugar doesn’t have much to do with diabetes: It’s not sugar – it’s when you eat sugar in excessive amounts. It’s also just coincidence that Cadbury-Schweppes is paying the ADA millions of dollars over the next several years.

Q. You’ve pointed out some examples of positive changes to school lunches and snacks. What is happening?

A. Sen. Tom Harkin has supported a fruits-and-vegetables program in eight states. They started putting boxes and vending machines in the schools, where kids could have free fruits and vegetables all day. School administrators got the junk food out. You look at the schools where they have taken out the junk food and the sugar-filled sodas and the number of disciplinary problems plummet.

Q. What kind of backlash was there against your film?

A. It was the lobby groups that came down on me. They attacked me in the press, saying, “Spurlock is not a doctor or a nutrition expert.” Duh. I’m a filmmaker putting out a film that deals with a serious issue. These lobbyists have their own “experts” who shuck and jive for the food companies.

Once the film screened abroad, the McDonald’s corporation itself came after me. In Australia they called my film a lie. In other countries, McDonald’s contacted the radio, newspapers and magazines and threatened to pull advertising if they interviewed me. Because of this, in Japan only the public television station would talk to me.

Q. What do you think of recent efforts by McDonald’s to make a healthier menu?

A. How I explain it is you have a lettuce curtain in front of a stage of fat. They’re like, “Ignore the fat behind the curtain.” Salad sales at McDonald’s are still terrible. One or two customers out of a hundred buy a salad. People say, “Look, McDonald’s is healthy now. They sell salads. I’ll have a double cheeseburger.” It’s a sham. The core of their business is fries and burgers.

Q. How can we educate ourselves about engineered foods, harmful preservatives and fattening things like high fructose corn syrup?

A. What the movie started to do, and I hope the book will also do, is make consumers seek out some facts on their own. The corporations aren’t going to tell you what you need to know. We have to become conscious consumers. Every time we eat, we vote with our forks.