Don't Eat This Book: Fast Food and the Supersizing of America by Morgan Spurlock
Putnam Adult, 2005

Review by Jennifer Sader

If your healthy eating plan is regularly sabotaged by the drive-thru window, you might want to pick up Morgan Spurlock's latest, Don't Eat this Book. Cooking Thin fans will be familiar with Spurlock's first major work, his controversial documentary, Super Size Me.

Spurlock uses the first part of his new book to counter the criticisms lobbed at him by the fast-food industry after his film became a hit. He also elaborates on his warnings about the hazards of fast food and gives more details about the health problems he encountered while on his all-McDonald's diet. He reveals the results of laboratory tests he conducted on food samples from the restaurant and compares them to the information available to consumers on McDonald's official website.

Most food samples were larger than the portions listed on the website, which increased the calories and fat, but some of the discrepancies he reports were not just a result of too-generous servings. For example, in a test of a medium order of fries, he reports: "Not only were all the bad things [calories, fat, sodium] underreported on the website, the amount of dietary fiber, which is a good thing, was over reported on McDonald's website by a factor of two." (p. 276)

Missing from the book was a listing of the food he ate during his thirty-day experiment. Besides adding voyeuristic appeal, a menu might have helped answer the charge that Spurlock irresponsibly gorged himself for dramatic effect.

There's a lot to like about this book, but the humor that made Spurlock's documentary such a hit does not always work as well in print. The most impassioned and well-argued parts of his book are about the infiltration of school cafeterias by fast food, soda machines, and other junk. Spurlock describes several impressive pilot programs designed to bring better food to schoolchildren. This could have been a great resource for concerned parents, but Spurlock's tendency to pepper his text with four-letter words will probably turn off the PTA crowd. He also has a tendency to use sarcasm and exaggeration in ways that can confuse his arguments.

Spurlock has apparently been busy lately. In addition to his book, he's working on a new cable television series, Thirty Days, a forum for his human experiments. In the series, Spurlock is not usually the star. Instead enlists volunteers to live among a group of their polar opposites to "walk a mile in their shoes," In one episode, a devout Christian lives with Arab Americans for a month to learn about Islam for the purpose of challenging the negative stereotypes of Muslims held by many Americans. In another show, Spurlock and his fiancée tried to live on minimum wage for a month in Columbus, Ohio. The purpose of the series is to promote empathy, understanding and tolerance.

The book is entertaining, especially for those who aren't easily offended. As I read Don't Eat this Book, I got the impression that it was rushed to print to take advantage of his current popularity. Though people who want serious facts about the food industry might be better off looking elsewhere, CT fans looking for a laugh or another reason to cook at home might want to check this book out.

Jennifer Sader is a freelance writer, part-time doctoral student and recreational athlete. She has completed several sprint and international distance triathlons and three half-marathons. Her next goal is to do the Columbus Marathon. She is supported in all her endeavors by her wonderful husband of ten years, Jesse Squire, who inspired her to do her first competitive event, a 5K run, at the ripe old age of 20. E-mail Jennifer Sader: jensader@yahoo.com

Photo: András