We all know Morgan Spurlock's infamous documentary, Super Size Me, which was made in 2004 to show what can happen if all you eat is McDonald's for 30 days. He didn't do this because he loved McDonald's, he did this to show America the issue with eating fast food on a regular basis. Morgan explains how fast food has really taken over our diets due to its convenience and goes deep into not only the negative effects on your nutrition but also the corruption and ugly practices taken on by companies like McDonald's. I recently found out that some (I'm not sure how many) public schools still routinely show Super Size Me in Health class. It is insane the impact Morgan has made from this movie.

Well, Super Size me 2: Holy Chicken! is Morgan coming back 15 years later to take it a step further in an attempt to start his own fast food chain. After talking to several Marketing experts and studying other fast food chains, he decides to base it all on chicken. Fried chicken, of course, since how would a chain make it anywhere if they only served grilled chicken? Morgan was soon to find out how difficult it is to simply find large chicken farmers that don't solely have contracts with companies like Purdue and Tyson. He repeatedly got shut down and questioned on what he was doing.

As you can see in the photo above, Morgan got deep in the weeds again and wanted to see every step of the process - on the sides of both starting a restaurant with the best possible team and working in the farms to see where the chickens come from, how they are raised and handled, and learning about the farmers themselves.

Once again, Morgan doesn't fail to reveal some eyeopening facts on where the chicken we consume, whether from the grocery store or from restaurants, comes from. You'll be surprised by how chickens are optimized to be as young and fat as possible for production and the little it takes to be called "free-range" by the USDA. He also reveals the poor treatment from farmers talking about their work with companies like Tyson. These companies force consistent production 365 days a year and have full control over these farmers' lives.

In my opinion, the sequel was better than the original! In the end, he shows how "honest, healthy fast food" is simply a contradiction and impossible here in America. Even though his restaurant looks to be closed as of September of last year, this movie hopefully makes as big of an impact as the first.

A big takeaway from this documentary is how we vote with our dollars. My mindset used to be, "I'm only one person. Me avoiding certain companies won't affect them. I like it, and it tastes good. Oh well." Understand that this is ignorant and the reason these companies are so big is because we have this mindset. If you have the opportunity, turn to your local farms and farmers markets. These are hardworking people who got away from the corruption of Big Food companies. Also, it is not a bad idea to avoid fast food in general - nutrition experts like Dr. Cate Shanahan even suggest skipping a meal if your only option is convenient fast food. From my personal experience, avoiding fast food is much easier than it sounds. It is just a simple decision to extend your healthspan and lifespan and will show less support for Big Food companies.

Thank you for reading! Please either like, share, and/or comment on this post and go watch the film for yourself! Currently, this documentary can be found online through Amazon Prime or you can rent it on YouTube, Google Play, or Vudu. 

This podcast episode is really what first got me interested in Kelly Starrett. He has a very interesting point of view that I agree with - that due to modern technology, we're not moving or sleeping enough.

“We’re contending with a lot of the demands of being modern humans and it sets us up to not really reap the benefit and the bounty that is so extraordinary about being human. Because these bodies, they’re badass, man (Ever Forward Radio Podcast Ep. 242).”

Here are some of the key topics that Kelly hits in this episode that struck me as important:

• You should have a physical practice, which includes everything to pay attention to each day. Before training, you should be making sure your sleep, nutrition, breathing, and activity throughout the day is managed correctly. 
• "Position is the hallmark of efficiency." We should be valuing position/posture as much as strength, speed, and respiratory efficiency. We can lift incorrectly and walk incorrectly until it weakens our tissues too much.
• Injuries created by sport or by happenstance teach us countless lessons on managing pain.

“This is why we do sport in the first place. Not to win Olympic medals, not to be on a team for any other reason than it helps us know ourselves and it helps us know our friends and it helps us see the world very cleanly. And I think this is why I hope that everyone has some kind of competitive or at least a physical practice because it really simplifies in a really easy model what’s working in your life and what’s not working in your life.”

Here are also a few helpful, specific tips:

• If you have back pain, begin walking more to restore function. 10,000 steps per day is what he calls the "minimum therapeutic dose" for staying mobile.
• If you have a little kid at home and a free day on the weekend, do everything your kid does. Toddlers walk an average of 2.5 miles per day. You’ll find you won’t have to warm up as much and you’ll be able to maintain a normal range of motion simply by being human and staying in motion.

Of Kelly's dozens and dozens of interviews, this is one of my favorite because he covers many different topics and gives great tips to go along with it.

Whether you are an elite athlete or the average person who exercises for strength of longevity reasons, this is what Kelly sees as most important, in this order:

1. Read a book on sleep - he recommends Why We Sleep by Matthew Walker or Sleep Smarter by Shawn Stevenson.
2. Walk a little more each day.
3. Then, work on things like making sure you are eating right and getting the basics right with training.

This podcast episode can be found on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and several other media apps as well as the YouTube video above.

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