Don’t eat this groundbreaking, hilarious book—but if you care about your country’s health, your children’s, and your own, you better read it. For thirty days, Morgan Spurlock ate nothing but McDonald’s as part of an investigation into the effects of fast food on American health. The resulting documentary earned him an Academy Award nomination and broke box-office records worldwide. But there’s more to the story, and in Don’t Eat This Book , Spurlock examines everything from school lunch programs and the marketing of fast food to the decline of physical education. He looks at why fast food is so tasty, cheap, and ultimately seductive—and interviews experts from surgeons general and kids to marketing gurus and lawmakers, who share their research and opinions on what we can do to offset a health crisis of supersized proportions. “Breezy, humorous.” — The New York Times “Fact-packed and funny.” — Publishers Weekly “Spurlock expands on [Super Size Me’s] harrowing themes of American obesity and offers causes and cures, all while remaining—get this—entertaining. Like a funnier Michael Moore.” — Maxim “A sobering look at the country’s obesity crisis.” — People (Great Reads) “Just reading this book will give the average reader indigestion…a shocking indictment of the fast food industry.” — Tucson Citizen “He has a story to tell, and it’s scary enough to keep you out of that drive-through line.” — Charleston Post and Courier “Alternately hilarious and discouraging…provides further details about the health impact of the nation’s poor eating choices.” — Toledo Blade “Detailed and nuanced…very amusing.” — Maclean’s “With a combination of wit, sarcasm, anger, and hard-hitting research, Spurlock argues that groups such as the American Medical Association and the U.S. Department of Agriculture have been corrupted by corporate interests.” — St. Paul Pioneer Press “Spurlock [writes] in his trademark take-no-prisoners style and with a humor that saves him from sounding pious or self-satisfied. A powerful work of reporting and punditry.”— Kirkus Reviews (starred review) Morgan Spurlock was a writer, director, and producer, and in 2004 he was awarded the Best Director prize at the Sundance Film Festival. One Do You Want Lies with That? Don't do it. Please. I know this book looks delicious, with its lightweight pages sliced thin as prosciutto and swiss, stacked in a way that would make Dagwood salivate. The scent of freshly baked words wafting up with every turn of the page. Mmmm, page. But don't do it. Not yet. Don't eat this book. We turn just about everything you can imagine into food. You can eat coins, toys, cigars, cigarettes, rings, necklaces, lips, cars, babies, teeth, cameras, film, even underwear (which come in a variety of scents, sizes, styles and flavors). Why not a book? In fact, we put so many things in our mouths, we constantly have to be reminded what not to eat. Look at that little package of silicon gel that's inside your new pair of sneakers. It says do not eat for a reason. Somewhere, sometime, some genius bought a pair of sneakers and said, "Ooooh, look. They give you free mints with the shoes!"—soon followed, no doubt, by the lawsuit charging the manufacturer with negligence, something along the lines of, "Well, it didn't say not to eat those things." And thus was born the "warning label." To avoid getting sued, corporate America now labels everything. Thank the genius who first decided to take a bath and blow-dry her hair at the same time. The Rhodes scholar who first reached down into a running garbage disposal. That one-armed guy down the street who felt around under his power mower while it was running. Yes, thanks to them, blow-dryers now come with the label do not submerge in water while plugged in. Power mowers warn keep hands and feet away from moving blades. And curling irons bear tags that read for external use only. And that's why I warn you—please!—do not eat this book. This book is for external use only. Except maybe as food for thought. We live in a ridiculously litigious society. Opportunists know that a wet floor or a hot cup of coffee can put them on easy street. Like most of you, I find many of these lawsuits pointless and frivolous. No wonder the big corporations and the politicians they own have been pushing so hard for tort reform. Fifty years ago it was a different story. Fifty years ago, adult human beings were presumed to have enough sense not to stick their fingers in whirring blades of steel. And if they did, that was their own fault. Take smoking. For most of us, the idea that "smoking kills" is a given. My mom and dad know smoking is bad, but they don't stop. My grandfather smoked all the way up until his death at a grand old age, and my folks are just following in his footsteps—despite the terrifying warning on every pack. They're not alone, of course. It's estimated that over a billion people in the world are smokers. Worldwide, roughly 5