James Painter has another documentary.

Painter, the chairman of the School of Family and Consumer Sciences, first made “Portion Size Me,” a documentary that focused on two graduate students eating only fast food for one month, in 2005.

Painter said he was inspired to make his film after being dissatisfied with “Super Size Me” three years ago.

“His final statement was ‘I want to shut down the fast-food industry,’ and I thought that was so stupid,” Painter said of the older documentary. “It’s not that fast-food is bad, it’s bad fast-food is bad.”

Now Painter has created “Portion Size Me Too,” a documentary on how to eat healthy at fast food restaurant.

“It isn’t the (fast-food) industry, it’s us making the bad decisions,” said Painter during his lecture in the Arcola/Tuscola Room of the Martin Luther King Jr. University Union on Wednesday.

During his lecture, Painter showed a segment of his documentary involving a short skit in which a fast food restaurant cashier asked confused customers their weight and activity level before giving them portions her computer deemed appropriate. The customers often considered the portions too small.

The audience gasped when the documentary told how many calories were in cheeseburgers and fries the restaurants offered.

Painter said that value meals really are not a value and that saving a little money was not worth all the extra calories.

Painter asked the audience what would happen if that logic was applied when buying a hammer to pound in a small nail. He said audience members wouldn’t buy a sledgehammer because it is only a few dollars more but is so much bigger.

Painter said the people should not buy value meals just because they are financially a bargain.

Some audience members understood Painter’s message.

“It’s not really a value if you’re getting something you don’t need,” said Robyn Paige, Special Assistant to the Vice President for Student Affairs.

The second part of the documentary showed Painter going to local restaurants and explaining what items are healthy and which are not.

He compared choices at Taco Bell, Burger King, and Jitters and Bliss.

Painter said salad dressing can double the number of calories in a salad and taking the breading off fried chicken can cut the calories in half. Painter said that high calorie foods are the most popular at fast food restaurants.

Painter believes that people can make healthy choices, even while eating at fast food restaurants. In the documentary, Painter interviewed Gene Hoots, the owner of the Mattoon Burger King. Hoots said customers need to take responsibility for their food choices.

“You can’t make the customer eat something healthy if they don’t want to,” said Hoots.

Josh Van Dyke can be reached at 581-7942 or jmvandyke@eiu.edu.