Sad news update
1:02 p.m.
I’m a vegetarian, a lacto-ovo, occasional-fish-eating vegetarian. The other day, however, I was in Costco, that emporium of bulk food shopping, thinking about buying some fresh fish fillets, staring at the white sole, the slightly pink tilapia, the extremely pink trout (which I normally really, really like, especially barbecued) and felt the bile rise in my throat and had to turn away. No fish was purchased that day.
Anyway, about the film: Morgan Spurlock, who started out as a 6'2", 185 lb. guy in great shape, gained 25 pounds in one month, his blood pressure went up, his liver became toxic, and his doctors (he was being monitored by three of them) advised him at only the two-week mark that he was killing himself and should quit. He stuck out the experiment right to the end of the month, the experiment being:
...living on nothing but McDonald’s for an entire month with three simple rules:It was, to say the least, horrific, especially for a vegetarian such as myself. I confess, I have eaten at McDo’s, as we call it here in la belle province, mostly when we’ve been on the road. They had, at one time, a few selections on the menu which were actually passable, especially their Veggie McWrap. However, somehow all those “healthy choices” have disappeared. There is no attempt even to appear as though the food you are buying is good for you. After seeing this film, though, I will never set foot inside one of their restaurants again, at least not if I can help it. Maybe to use the bathroom.1) No options: he could only eat what was available over the counter (water included!) 2) No supersizing unless offered 3) No excuses: he had to eat every item on the menu at least once
On the website there is a fact sheet which has some interesting information on it. For example, did you know that left unabated, obesity will surpass smoking as the leading cause of preventable death in America? Or that the World Health Organization has declared obesity a global epidemic? I didn’t know that. There were camera shots in this film of people, ordinary people going in and out of McDonald’s restaurants, teenagers working behind the counters, and although their faces were blurred (the people on the street whose permission had not been got to photograph them) the fact that they were obese had not been disguised in any way. I have never seen so many fat people in my life. According to Surgeon General David Satcher: “Fast food is a major contributor to the obesity epidemic.” No kidding.
Okay, go to those websites and check them out for yourself. I’m just feeling ill again rereading all that stuff.
My husband got back a little while ago from driving Buddy Boy to a band practice and told me he heard on the radio that the oboist of this ensemble died a few days ago from a rare form of asbestos-caused lung cancer. I couldn’t believe it. I’m in shock. We knew her when Hubby was doing his graduate work at the U of M. She did a Masters in performance while we were there and we became friends. Sadly, we never kept it up after she returned to Canada, married the violinist of the group and embarked on a career with them. I think we may have seen her once or twice in the interim. But she was younger than me, Hubby’s age or less, and I can’t get over how unfair it is. Sorry, this wasn’t how I wanted the new year to begin.
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