When I was younger and much skinnier, gorging was something I did on a daily basis. Hey, it’s America. When I ate until I couldn’t possibly take another bite, it was excused. “He’s a growing boy,” people around me always used to say. Well, I’m still growing, but now it’s in a horizontal direction.

My dad warned me. He told me my metabolism would slow down, and I would eventually get fat, just like he did. I didn’t believe him at first. However, I slowly matured from a 120-pound freshman to a 205-pound senior in high school. Sitting at a hefty 210 pounds, I now consider myself on the verge of being obese.

Unlike some people, I know my weight situation is totally under my control. I drink far too much beer, but I don’t sue Anheuser-Busch for giving me this bulge between my neck and waistline. I eat McDonald’s more than I probably should, but I don’t file suit against them either. I am responsible for my own well-being.

But, not all people have that same responsibility. For instance, in the fall of 2002, a few teens sued McDonald’s for making them fat. They wanted the fast food giant to pay for their subsequent health problems such as diabetes and high blood pressure. Apparently, the mother of one of the plaintiffs had “always believed McDonald’s was healthy for [her] son.” Frankly, I think that was frivolous; so did the courts.

One of the teens, Gregory Rhymes, was 5’6″ at the time and weighed around 400 pounds.

One of the lawyers representing McDonald’s put it best, “People don’t go to sleep thin and wake up the next day suddenly obese.”

However, I don’t necessarily agree with McDonald’s when they claim their food is nutritious. Some of it is, but who are they kidding? A filmmaker, Morgan Spurlock, decided to test this statement after learning of the lawsuit.

After a month of eating nothing but McDonald’s three times per day, Spurlock had gained 25 pounds, 60 cholesterol points, and an award- winning documentary titled “Super Size Me: A Film of Epic Portions.”

Spurlock and the three doctors hired to monitor his health were not fully prepared for the resulting side effects of an all-McDonald’s diet. After a few days, Spurlock was having troubles with headaches, vomiting up burgers, and battling with depression. His liver also “became very, very abnormal” according to one of the doctors.

Although you can tell from the title that a funny spin is put on Spurlock’s adventure, I’m not smiling, and I don’t think Ronald McDonald is either. Spurlock claims his goal was not to attack McDonald’s, but to help better educate the public about our horrible eating habits.

At least one good thing has come of all this; McDonald’s is dropping its Super Size. Even though they claim the movie had nothing to do with their decision, Spurlock says, “This film had a tremendous impact on [McDonald’s] decision to eliminate super-size portions and it is really going to have an impact on people who see the movie on how they see their own diet.”

Leave it to a movie to put America’s obesity problem into terms every American can understand.

America’s weight problem is growing. According to the Surgeon General, adult obesity has doubled since 1980 with around 61 percent of adults being overweight in 1999. Approximately 300,000 Americans die each year from this problem as compared to 400,000 deaths from cigarette-related health complications. The direct and indirect costs of our epidemic summed to $117 billion in 2000. There are a number of suggestions made by the Surgeon General to combat this problem. I’m sure all of you are familiar with the federal Food Guide Pyramid, but only 3 percent of us meet four of the five recommendations.

Exercise is also extremely important to our health, but less than one-third of our country exercises the recommended 30 minutes at least five times per week. In fact, 40 percent of adults don’t exercise at all in their free time.

Good eating and exercising habits form when we’re young. Maybe if someone had told me to “put the fork down” back then like my antagonizing coworkers so eloquently say to me now, I wouldn’t have to worry about my weight. It’s OK, though; I’m in control of my food intake and physical exercise. Wish me luck on my journey down to 200 pounds.