Get our Best Book Club Books of 2025 eBook!

Summary and Reviews of Don't Eat This Book by Morgan Spurlock

Don't Eat This Book by Morgan Spurlock

Don't Eat This Book

Fast Food and the Supersizing of America

by Morgan Spurlock
  • BookBrowse Review:
  • Critics' Consensus (4):
  • Readers' Rating (1):
  • First Published:
  • May 1, 2005, 304 pages
  • Paperback:
  • May 2006, 320 pages
  • Rate this book

About This Book

Book Summary

Can man live on fast food alone? Spurlock tried to do just that for a month during which he gained twenty-five pounds, his blood pressure skyrocketed, and his libido all but disappeared. In this groundbreaking, hilarious book, Spurlock debuts a wry investigative voice that will appeal to anyone interested in the health of our country, our children, and ourselves.

The literary debut of the funniest and most incisive new voice to come along since Michael Moore-and the acclaimed director of the film phenomenon of the year.

Can man live on fast food alone? Morgan Spurlock tried to do just that. For thirty days, he ate nothing but three "squares" a day from McDonald's as part of an investigation into the effects of fast food on American health. The resulting documentary won him resounding applause and a worldwide release that broke box-office records. Audiences were captivated by Spurlock's experiment, during which he gained twenty-five pounds, his blood pressure skyrocketed, and his libido all but disappeared.

But this story goes far beyond Spurlock's good-humored "Mc-Sickness." He traveled across the country-into schools, hospitals, and people's homes -to investigate school lunch programs, the marketing of fast food, and the declining emphasis on health and physical education. He looks at why fast food is so tasty, cheap, and ultimately seductive, and what Americans can do to turn the rising tide of obesity, hypertension, and diabetes that have accompanied its ever-growing popularity. He interviewed experts in twenty cities-from surgeon generals and kids to lawmakers and marketing gurus-who share their research, opinions, and "gut feelings" on our ever-expanding girth and what we can all do to offset a health crisis of supersized proportions.

In this groundbreaking, hilarious book, "benevolent muckraker" Morgan Spurlock debuts a wry investigative voice that will appeal to anyone interested in the health of our country, our children, and ourselves.

Membership Advantages
  • Reviews
  • "Beyond the Book" articles
  • Free books to read and review (US only)
  • Find books by time period, setting & theme
  • Read-alike suggestions by book and author
  • Book club discussions
  • and much more!
  • Just $60 for 12 months or $20 for 3 months.
  • More about membership!

Reviews

BookBrowse Review

BookBrowse

If you've read Fast Food Nation or Fat Land this offers very little new information but for the many who are still oblivious to the dangers of of eating what passes for food in places such as McDonalds, Spurlock's book or documentary will offer much food for thought...continued

Full Review (461 words)

This review is available to non-members for a limited time. For full access, become a member today.

(Reviewed by BookBrowse Review Team).

Membership Advantages
  • Reviews
  • "Beyond the Book" articles
  • Free books to read and review (US only)
  • Find books by time period, setting & theme
  • Read-alike suggestions by book and author
  • Book club discussions
  • and much more!
  • Just $60 for 12 months or $20 for 3 months.
  • More about membership!

Beyond the Book



From the book:

  • 37% of American children and adolescents are carrying too much fat.
  • 60% of all Americans are either overweight or obese.
  • One in every three children born in the year 2000 will develop diabetes in their lifetime. Diabetes will cut 17-27 years off your life.
  • Each day, 1 in 4 Americans visits a fast food restaurant.
  • In 1972, we spent 3 billion a year on fast food - today we spend more than 110 billion.
  • You would have to walk for seven hours straight to burn off a Super Sized Coke, fry and Big Mac.
  • In the U.S., we eat more than 1,000,000 animals an hour.
  • Left unabated, obesity will surpass smoking as the leading cause of preventable death in America.
  • ...

This "beyond the book" feature is available to non-members for a limited time. Join today for full access.

Membership Advantages
  • Reviews
  • "Beyond the Book" articles
  • Free books to read and review (US only)
  • Find books by time period, setting & theme
  • Read-alike suggestions by book and author
  • Book club discussions
  • and much more!
  • Just $60 for 12 months or $20 for 3 months.
  • More about membership!

Read-Alikes

Read-Alikes Full readalike results are for members only

If you liked Don't Eat This Book, try these:

  • Gulp jacket

    Gulp

    by Mary Roach

    Published 2014

    About this book

    More by this author

    The irresistible, ever-curious, and always best-selling Mary Roach returns with a new adventure to the invisible realm we carry around inside.

  • Eating Animals jacket

    Eating Animals

    by Jonathan Safran Foer

    Published 2010

    About this book

    More by this author

    Brilliantly synthesizing philosophy, literature, science, memoir and his own detective work, Eating Animals explores the many fictions we use to justify our eating habits - from folklore to pop culture to family traditions and national myth - and how such tales can lull us into a brutal forgetting.

We have 5 read-alikes for Don't Eat This Book, but non-members are limited to two results. To see the complete list of this book's read-alikes, you need to be a member.
Search read-alikes
How we choose read-alikes
Membership Advantages
  • Reviews
  • "Beyond the Book" articles
  • Free books to read and review (US only)
  • Find books by time period, setting & theme
  • Read-alike suggestions by book and author
  • Book club discussions
  • and much more!
  • Just $60 for 12 months or $20 for 3 months.
  • More about membership!

BookBrowse Book Club

Book Jacket
The Devil Finds Work
by James Baldwin
A book-length essay on racism in American films, by "the best essayist in this country" (The New York Times Book Review).
Book Jacket
The Mysterious Bakery on Rue de Paris
by Evie Woods
From the million-copy bestselling author of The Lost Bookshop.
Book Jacket
The River Knows Your Name
by Kelly Mustian
A haunting Southern novel about memory and love, from the author of The Girls in the Stilt House.

Members Recommend

  • Book Jacket

    The Seven O'Clock Club
    by Amelia Ireland

    Four strangers join an experimental treatment to heal broken hearts in Amelia Ireland's heartfelt debut novel.

  • Book Jacket

    Happy Land
    by Dolen Perkins-Valdez

    From the New York Times bestselling author, a novel about a family's secret ties to a vanished American Kingdom.

  • Book Jacket

    One Death at a Time
    by Abbi Waxman

    A cranky ex-actress and her Gen Z sobriety sponsor team up to solve a murder that could send her back to prison in this dazzling mystery.

  • Book Jacket

    The Fairbanks Four
    by Brian Patrick O’Donoghue

    One murder, four guilty convictions, and a community determined to find justice.

Who Said...

In war there are no unwounded soldiers

Click Here to find out who said this, as well as discovering other famous literary quotes!

Wordplay

Solve this clue:

A C on H S

and be entered to win..