“Supersize Me” is a riveting documentary about one man’s challenging, Morgan Spurlock, to eat fast food for thirty days and to see the effects on the human body. The movie also shows the psychological and social effect of the American people by fast food companies. The movie in itself was a scientific method; containing all four types were used surveys, observations, experiments, and existing sources. As a documentary, it has no choice but to gather data from within or existing sources and display them to the public.
First scientific method was in the category of surveys, Morgan uses interviews, and in the beginning of the movie, he interviewed the citizens of New York about their thoughts on fast food. Following those interviews, Morgan interviewed his three doctors on their thoughts of this challenge all said some weight gain maybe some vitamin imbalance but not too much more. The second scientific method Morgan used was in the category of experiments, the movie was in itself an experiment, and Morgan had to eat all his meals from McDonalds and had to eat at least one thing from the entire menu. Another experiment in the movie used was children looking at pictures of well-known figures of the world including Jesus and most of them
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could not tell who it was, but when they showed fast food icons, they knew immediately what restaurant it was. The third scientific method Morgan used was another survey; Morgan visited a school to conduct interviews.
Morgan talked to faculty members who cook and create the lunch menus, which were not that healthy, and students to see what they were really eating, most ate just french fries. There were not many healthy alternatives for the kids, a lot of processed frozen foods, only six meals out of the month was home cooked. The forth method Morgan used was existing sources, a powerful tool when eating junk for thirty days. Morgan gathered from other sources all of McDonalds nutritional statistics, plus the concerning overweight statistics of America. This created a baseline for the experiment and for further research of secondary
analysis. Americans from what the movie portrayed are eating bad and gaining weight, which leads to cardiac problems in the future. “Supersize Me” shows America is in a downward spiral, majority of states have a high overweight population, this shows a decline in healthy eating and a strong exercise regime and a non-existing exercise regime and a high calorie, high fat junk diet. Morgan hopes to learn how this processed food affects our body, our mood, and our behaviors. Morgan goes from feeling good in the beginning of the movie to feeling depressed with a lower sex drive; Morgan also says he feels good when he is eating McDonalds. This is a chemical reaction to the brain that his body needs and wants those carbs and fats; this is the downward spiral America is facing. From a sociological perspective, we care about bad habits because sociologist can now see and record patterns whether good or bad, in this case bad. Sociologist can plot data, for a hypothesis and fix the said problem or bad habit. When I first saw this movie when it debut I felt disgusted, I did not know what we were truly eating or what damage was being done to the body. Know in today’s time a lot has changed especially in schools and the generally attitude of the population switching to a healthier life style. The trend will continue upward, better understanding of good eating habits and exercise is becoming more available in more houses in America.
Fast food, while a quick alternative to cooking, has always been known to be less healthy than traditional preparations, but the extent of its health benefits or detriments was not known until a lawsuit came out which inspired documentarian Morgan Spurlock to engage in a 30 day experiment. The resultant documentary specifically targeted McDonald’s, the largest fast food chain in the world, which also happens to be a major recipient of lawsuits linking obesity and their food. Spurlock endeavored to spend a thirty day period eating nothing but food that came from the golden arches, with the rules that he would supersize only when asked, and every time he was asked, and that he would have everything from the menu at least once. In the 2004 film Super Size Me, Morgan Spurlock explores the concept that McDonald’s contributes to the nation’s obesity problem through the utilization of statistics and scientific evidence as a logical appeal, comedy and repulsive qualities as an emotional appeal, and s...
Even though on his own he may have been able to get his point across of how fast food can destroy a body, he still consults with all types of doctors and specialists. Spurlock even goes out to schools and the streets to interview random people to help his belief in the subject matter. McDonald's is one of the multiple fast food restaurants that serve greasy and oversized meals that are harmful to the human body. Throughout a thirty day McDonald's only diet, Spurlock surrounds himself with logos, ethos, and pathos to impact the viewer's opinion on the true cost of eating fast food regularly.
America has always been about being the biggest nation: the biggest houses, the biggest cars, biggest cities and unfortunately the biggest bodies. There is no doubt that fast food is causing major health problems for many Americans today. In his documentary, Super Size Me, released in 2004 Morgan Spurlock decides to eat only food from McDonald’s for thirty days to see how it would affect his health. Spurlock starts out healthier than the average man for his age. Throughout the film, we can see that his health gradually degenerates and reaches a critical point, before his thirty days are over. Super Size Me is very persuasive in showing the negative effect in fast food restaurants by using logos, pathos, and ethos.
The United States of America has long been considered a “big nation”, whether is has the biggest cities, houses, and on a negative note, biggest people. In 2003, Morgan Spurlock, a healthy-bodied film director, set on a quest to show America the detrimental effects of the fast food industry and raise awareness on the controversial issue. He produced the documentary “Supersize Me”, where McDonald’s meals were consumed for every meal of the day for thirty days. His film was released to movie theatres so that people could understand the devastating effects of McDonald’s on his body in a very short time span. At the end of his experiment, Morgan gained twenty-five pounds, developed a thirteen percent body mass increase, cholesterol skyrocketed immensely, and fat accumulation in his liver rose to. He became depressed and he only felt happy and in no pain when he was eating the fast food. By using ethos, logos, and pathos, “Supersize Me” became one of the most watched documentaries in the United States. Without these appeals, this documentary would not have developed the effect that it did.
Documentary films have become very popular in the last few years, with the success of Michael Moore’s films fueling interest in learning while being entertained. Two filmmakers have benefited from this new interest in the non-fiction film movement, including directors Morgan Spurlock and Lee Fulkerson. The two filmmakers both made documentaries regarding healthy eating, or the lack thereof, in North America. Spurlock’s film, Super Size Me, was about a healthy man who wanted to see what would happen to his body if he ate nothing but items from McDonalds for an entire month. On the other hand, Fulkerson’s Forks Over Knives is about a man on a quest to improve his health by consuming a plant and whole food based diet.
While the film Super Size Me by Morgan Spurlock replicates the eating habits of what he believes are “average” americans, Fat Head by Tom Naughton on the other hand dives in deeper into the physiology behind the ingestion of food and replicates a more believable eating habit of an average American. Both films try to teach people about nutrition and change issues about either the government or companies such as McDonald’s, however one film proves to be more accurate and honest out of the both films. Fat Head not only disproves Morgan Spurlock’s film, but also shows how the government has been lying to all the American consumers the whole time by showing what professionals know about nutrition and showing facts to support his claims.
These sources include a research on obesity from 1989-2004 and the help from a cardiologist, gastrologist, and general practitioner. Utilizing these sources help boost Morgan’s credibility by showing that he has done research and the information he provides are professional. In addition, Morgan also utilizes his project of eating Mcdonald's for a month to portray the devastating effects of fast food places such as by listing how he has gained 24 lbs and 8% of body fat. By including these statistics, Morgan is able to display to the audience the terrible effects of eating fast food constantly and set an example of what would happen if they don’t stop. Thoroughly by utilizing these sources, the claims of America being the fattest country and fast food being unhealthy for the regular body can be seen as very true, as his results and research has thoroughly proved his
Morgan Spurlock decided to make this documentary to investigate the fast food companies, and the effects of certain fast food chains products, particularly McDonalds, on the health of society. This Documentary explores the United States growing epidemic of obesity and diabetes as well. Morgan decides to eat nothing but McDonald's food for thirty days. He must eat one of everything on the menu at least once, and when asked to super size his meal he must do so. Another stipulation of Morgan's experiment is that he can only take 5,000 steps a day to replicate the exercise that most average Americans get on a daily basis. He must also eat three meals a day, no exceptions and if McDonalds doesn't serve it Morgan can't eat it.
McDonald’s is killing Americans, at least that is what Morgan Spurlock believes. In his documentary Super Size Me he embarks on a quest to not only describe and use himself as an example of the growing obesity trend, but to offer the viewers with base-line nutritional knowledge that will allow them to draw their own informed conclusions. Spurlock's primary intention is to prove through self-experimentation that eating solely McDonald's food is dangerous. His secondary intention is to denounce the rising obesity rate in American by using statistics, his own research, and the opinions of experts. His broader message is for a general audience while he tailors select chapters towards more specific demographics such as parents or McDonald's themselves.
Government date shows that in the past thirty years, rate of being overweight in six to eleven year olds is up 19% and 6% in age 12 to 19. Without support, school lunches remain high in fat. (Finkelstien) According to the CDCP, obesity is double what it was in children and triple in adolescents since 1980. Many reforms were attempted to help this problem, but many inadvertently caused more problems. (Finkelstien) A 730 calorie lunch should have no more than 24 grams of fat and no more than 8 grams of it saturated yet the average USDA lunch has 31 grams of fat and 14 rams of it is saturated. (Yeoman) These very high levels of fat are why obesity is becoming worse in children. It can be concluded that school food is still extremely high in fat and this can be directly linked to the high rates of obesity in young children and
... the health risks that are caused from eating McDonald's and other fast food, Spurlock incorporates many visual and textual pieces into this documentary. This includes documenting his personal life throughout the experiment and his final health analysis graph from the start to the end. He also includes many instances of evidence to help support his argument. He includes his own personal experience, the experience from other individuals, and expert testimonies. By including all of this, Spurlock was able to justify his reasoning towards criticizing the fast food restaurants for their role in the obesity epidemic. The techniques used by Morgan Spurlock is very effective in detailing the causes and effects of obesity in order to make people more aware of the situation.
The movie was created to inform everyday people, young adults, and generally fast food eaters about the effects of eating fast food. The movie stares Morgan Spurlock in an informative documentary that Morgan takes the challenge of eating McDonalds three times
Numerous individuals around the world are familiar with McDonald’s and its unhealthy menu; however, that does not stop many from visiting the fast food giant. Super Size Me is an in-depth film by Morgan Spurlock, which shows viewers his journey from healthy eating to becoming a fast food junkie. Viewers are able to see the damage that the unhealthy food from McDonald’s causes while Spurlock eats three meals a day from the fast food chain. Spurlock visits three schools, each with different meal programs. The differences in the healthy and unhealthy choices made by the schools are abundantly clear. Audiences also become aware of how effective advertisers are in securing business for unhealthy food products. Spurlock’s documentary gives audiences an in-depth view into how an unhealthy diet from McDonald’s can affect the body, how easily good nutrition can be better incorporated into schools, and the effective advertising that causes Americans to choose unhealthy foods.
McDonald’s, one of America’s fastest growing fast food restaurants, has made more than its share of money within the last twenty years serving more than 46 million people daily. They have twice as many restaurants as Burger King and more restaurants than KFC, Wendy’s, and Taco Bell Combined. Often children have the dream of eating fast food for every meal of every day. Well, Morgan Spurlock took the challenge to see how dangerous it would be to eat McDonalds for every meal. He also took the challenge in response to a lawsuit against McDonalds by a family whose children became obese by the contents of its meals. Directed and starring Morgan Spurlock, who is married to a vegan chef and a healthy man for his age, Super-Size Me is a film that followed Spurlock for 31 days as he follows certain rules set by a series of physicians. He was only allowed to meals off the McDonalds menu including water. Also, he couldn’t exercise but had to walk the same amount of steps as the average American. Filmed all over the United States, Super-Size Me was made to inform the public on the manufactured foods they consume daily. The film also raises awareness on the dangers of what manufactured foods do to the body. Super-Size Me showed how one of the most popular fast food restaurants around today may be leading future generations to severe health problems.
Williamson, D. A., Han, H., Johnson, W. D., Martin, C. K., & Newton, R. L. (2013). Modification of the school cafeteria environment can impact childhood nutrition. Results from the Wise Mind and LA Health studies. Appetite, 61, 77–84. doi:10.1016/j.appet.2012.11.002