Finger Pointin' Good

Get comfy. This might be a long one.

We all have those little habits that only others notice… well except those that we ourselves can’t help but notice. One of mine is that I can’t talk without my hands. I mean I could put someone’s eye out, you know what I mean? However, my hyper hand gestures are nothing compared to the finger pointing that I witnessed last night. McDonald’s, et al were back in the 6th grade playing dodge ball. Okay, that might be a bit much.

At any rate, it took me three sittings to get through this movie. Russell made me watch it. ;-) “How can you have a blog about weight, and you haven’t seen Super Size Me?” I should never doubt my instincts. So it begins…

My initial reaction is to condemn this blatant, ridiculous finger pointing and shift the judgment where it should be. No one is forced to eat this. I don’t care how many restaurants there are.

Blah blah blah - Yes, evil McDonald’s lures in children with birthday parties. I guess they think that those children grab the keys, get behind the wheel, and drive themselves to McDonald’s.

Then the complaints begin about how the workers are trained to sell you a bigger size. Waaaaaaa! Are you so brain-dead that you can’t say no? When you go shopping for clothes, they are trained to sell you more items. That’s business, people.

Now they want to call the food police to stop the sale of triple burgers, large orders of fries, etc. So okay – let’s ban the sell of ground beef in the grocery store so that no one can make a triple burger at home. After all, we can’t be held responsible for our actions. We need daddy government to police our every move.

However, as he begins to extend his commentary beyond food, the message of a social mentality begins to emerge, whether intentional or not. He talks about machines that walk for us and other aspects of life that clearly paint a picture. We want what we want when we want it, and we want it right now… and make it easy. The fast food industry did not create this mentality. They do, however, capitalize on it. This is where I begin to have a shift in thinking.

At this point, most of us should know how unhealthy fast food is, especially the companies themselves. So if they put the customer first, they will make the food healthier, right? No. Oh yes, we can now order fruit bowls, salads, wraps, and even pedometers! But most of those salads have almost as many calories as a burger. I have read and studied nutrition and the food industry for the past 10 years. So I often forget that the average consumer doesn’t realize what they are putting in their mouth. If I didn’t know better, I too would think I was eating healthy by ordering a salad. McDonald’s claims that it’s common knowledge that any processing is dangerous. It should be, but then again who would think a salad would be processed?

What really got my attention were the advertising stats. “A parent who spends every meal representing a healthy meal, even with cartoon characters, has a 1000 chance in 10,000 against the sugar laden messages in their advertising. They don’t stand a chance.” Wow! I’m beginning to eat my words.

By the end of the film, I had softened a bit on the issue. I still believe that ultimately it’s about personal responsibility. However, that requires an educated decision. Without the correct information, how is that possible? And if a child is hooked at a young age, how easily is that undone? But we mustn’t sit like zombies in the drive through and claim that we had no choice. “Give me options,” you say. The option is to not eat it.

The accompanying image was meant to portray those in the film who pointed fingers at the fast food companies instead of looking at themselves. What I didn’t realize is that the image would hauntingly reveal my own finger pointing at those struggling to make the right choice. Touché.