Unhappy meal.

• Author: McKissack, Fred, Jr.

There is a point when you want to reach through the screen and demand that Morgan Spurlock, star/director of Super Size Me, stop shoveling the McSlop into his face. His goal is to eat at McDonald's for every single meal for a month. OK, maybe slop is unkind. There are very few people who can't be tempted by a bushel of flies and a bucket of chocolate shake. However, as Spurlock gains weight, becomes short-tempered, and begins to lumber his way through life in an elephantine way during his month of living dangerously, you start to worry that he has shortened his life. Then, if you've eaten a fair share of Big Mac value meals yourself, you worry how you've cheapened your own mortality for the unwholesome combo of two all-beef patties, special sauce, lettuce, cheese; pickles, onions on a sesame seed bun.

Screw the diet books, fat-burning pills, and ab-reducing gadgetry. If you want to really lose weight and become healthy, spend time watching Super Size Me.

Spurlock, who makes commercials and music videos, has created a documentary that is as brutal as any reality show you could watch, but with the kind of progressive thinking that makes it worthwhile. He's not as didactic as Michael Moore. However, in his own less spastic way, he's an equally compelling, engaging, and humorous storyteller. Yet, Super Size Me is less stridently journalistic, weaving a first-person narrative with reporting and interviews. It is instead in the vein of, say, a P.O.V. feature on the nutritionally suspect, ad-crazy, toy-shilling, child-capturing, parental-guilt-trap-fostering fast food industry.

The premise of Spurlock's documentary is simple: He will eat everything on the menu at least once. (Check out the filet of fish scene in a hotel!) He will, whenever asked to do so by the counter help, super size his meal. His average daily caloric intake hovers around 5,000. And he goes through this while living with a vegan chef.

Prior to plunging into his new diet, Spurlock meets with three doctors, a nutritionist, and an exercise trainer. He's the model of healthy living: body mass...