Super-Size Me is a 2004 film by Indie filmmaker Morgan Spurlock. It was inspired by a court case in which two girls sued McDonald's for causing them health problems. McDonald’s argued that the girls could not prove that their health problems were directly related to their food. This intrigued Spurlock, and he decided to conduct an experiment to test this claim, as an attempt to expose the Fast Food industry as being a major cause of the obesity epidemic. In his experiment, Spurlock ate nothing but food from McDonald’s three meals a day for a month. This is the amount of fast food nutritionists recommend eating over the course of eight years. He traveled to several different McDonald’s locations across the country. Over the course of his …show more content…
experiment, Spurlock suffered many physical and mental consequences due to his unhealthy diet. He was eating an entire pound of sugar a day through his daily intake of fast food. His friends and family began to fear for his survival.
When he wasn’t eating the fast food, he felt sick and depressed. By Day 21 of his experiment, he started having trouble breathing. His doctors determined though these symptoms that he had become literally addicted to fast food. By the end of the experiment, he gained nearly 25 pounds. His liver had turned entirely fatty. He had several doctors to guide him through the experiment, all of whom encouraged him to stop the experiment when it became life-threatening. One doctor strongly suggested to him not to eat fast food for an entire year after concluding the experiment. The documentary presented an interesting analysis on how people get hooked on fast food. First of all, there are fast food restaurants everywhere. Manhattan holds the record of most McDonald’s locations, at eighty-three. Secondly, fast food is marketed heavily at people at a young age. McDonald’s is famous for its iconic clown, who has been appearing in commercials for them for decades. As of 2003, McDonald’s spends $1.4 billion on advertising a year. McDonald’s, Wendy’s, and Burger King among others give out toys with their meals. This creates happy memories for kids buying fast food, and a fondness that will …show more content…
later follow them into adulthood. I would be lying if I did not say that I also said that I have fond memories related to McDonald’s, however I will say that this film points out to me how devious their ways of selling their products are. I do not eat at McDonald’s very often at all, no more than once or twice a year, sometimes never. In moderation, I think it is fine, and I do not think I am at risk of becoming addicted to fast food because I rarely eat there. This film does show that McDonald’s are trying to get people addicted to their food, they have even invented terms for frequent customers, “Heavy” and “Super Heavy” users. The film shows a man named Don Gorske, who eats 700 Big Macs a year. Surprisingly enough, he is not overweight physically. This was not revealed in the film, but he later went on to reveal that the main thing he eats is one or two big macs a day. However, two big macs only equal about 1080 calories. While this is a lot, his two big macs are basically all he eats, so he actually consumes less calories than the average American. This is a really interesting strategy, and he claims not to have any known health problems. So, this lifestyle actually is not as dangerous as one might think, one just needs to take other precautions, in this case not taking in very many more calories. I do not think there is inherently wrong with eating fast food every once in awhile. What I do find wrong is how McDonald’s as a company attempts to sugarcoat their product, encouraging people, especially kids, to eat there whenever possible. The documentary also presents the fact that many schools provide their students with fast food, setting them up for the future.
One school that he visited only had one in six meals that were actually cooked, and not frozen and reheated. Kids would only be eating french fries or a cookie, and the staff was only left to assume that the purchased food was a side order. Serving fast food in schools could potentially get them addicted to fast food, leading to further unhealthy choices. The documentary also explores the eating habits of another school in Wisconsin, this one for troubled kids. They have a very healthy menu, called “All-Natural Ovens” that promotes healthy eating. I think this is a good strategy, however, I think our school has, in my opinion, an even better one. Our kitchens do serve what can be classified as fast food, but also serve a lot of salads and sandwiches. There’s a wide variety to choose from, and I think that’s a good thing. It takes a lot of strength to have a strictly healthy diet, never eating anything bad, but takes even greater strength to have a bit of unhealthy food every once in a while. For me at least, the placement of the temptation of food is very hard for me to overcome. It’s a good lesson for kids to have to learn to make choices based on their own lifestyles, to determine how much they need to eat based on their own needs, and to have a little junk food every once in awhile, but not let it overtake you. The healthy options are all there,
but you have some less healthy options there too. This has always been a struggle for me. The recommended number of calories for a teenage male is 2800. I do not play any sports and all of my hobbies are primarily sedentary, so I probably need less than that. Coming to high school was the first chance I really had to eat fast food on a regular basis, it was a rare treat before. I got too into it, and I gained eight pounds in my first month of school. I realized I needed to exercise more balance, so I cut down treats to once every few days. Between that and walking to the train station and taking the shuttle, I was able to lose those eight pounds in three months and have since been able to maintain the weight I had before coming to this school. I still buy lunch at this school daily, but I do not eat as excessively as I used to. This documentary was a witty and yet thought-provoking commentary on our junk food-heavy society. The statistics presented were both eye-opening and depressing. The film should be seen as a warning for all Americans, for how junk food affects our health and well being. It certainly got me to think about what I eat, and I think that Super Size Me should get more exposure in order to get other people to consider the choices they make in what they eat as well.
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.
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.
Super Size Me begins with Director and actor Morgan Spurlock being 32 years of age at the time of filming in 2003. Spurlock is recorded as being physically above average, which is attested to by several doctors as well as a nutritionist and a personal trainer. He asks these professional to track his health and wellness during the “McDiet”. Spurlock’s McDiet is a test where he will eat only food from McDonald’s for thirty days to see how it would affect his health. Throughout the filming of Super Size Me, Spurlock’s health g steadily degenerates until it eventually reaches a state of critical danger for himself, even before the experimental thirty days have concluded. While Spurlock is testing his McDiet, he also investigates further into particular
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.
The first step that Spurlock utilizes is documenting his daily life through this modified “McDiet. He include visual aspects in his documentary, like personal footage, to help support his claim. Throughout this documentary, Spurlock includes records of him eating out of only McDonald's every day for a month. He documents his every meal and the experiences he has after eating. He would record how he is feeling and his health condition at many points in the film. From day one to day thirty, he shows how much he had eaten and his final analysis of his experiment. The immoderate McDonald's diet that Spurlock consumed helps show the health risks, consequences, and dangers of fast food. By performing this experiment, Spurlock was able to prove that fast food is a major factor in rising health and obesity problems. Another analytical track that Spurlock incorporated is the uses of text to he...
Obesity in the United States, which the media has labeled a national crisis, has also been connected to poverty rates. Big fast food industry’s target poor communities, and spend millions of dollars each year to create advertising that appeals to these specific areas. These industry’s also target naïve children when advertising because they know that eating habits developed in childhood are usually carried into adulthood. Children who are exposed to television advertisements for unhealthy food and who are not educated well enough on good nutrition will grow up and feed their families the same unhealthy foods they ate as kids. A big way fast food giants are able to make certain young people have access to unhealthy food is by strategically placing franchises in close proximity to schools. They will often place three times as many outlets within walking distance of schools than in areas where there are no schools nearby. The way fast food advertising is targeted towards children is very alarming considering how important good nutrition is for young people and how a child’s eating habits can affect their growth and
He proves his theory by wanting a smoothie and going to 2 different ‘wholesome foods’ just to be unsatisfied with the overly priced, ($9.00 and $7.75) more calories (roughly about 300), and longer wait periods (about 10 minutes each smoothie) to just go to a local McDonald 's and satisfy his craving for just $3 and 225 calories, plus it only took seconds to make (Freedman 506-507). Most are quick to jump to the assumption that fast food is unhealthy for you, although it is not particularly great for you, neither is the wholesome foods. The media shows that all processed foods make us ill and overweight, so we really do not have a choice but to believe that if we eat fast foods, we will become sick and unhealthy (Freedman 508). For that he attended a stress management seminar where a wellness coach spoke to those who came. She said that “ it’s okay to eat anything as long as its plants or animals origins aren’t obscured by processing”. Furtherly explaining that it is okay to eat a potato chip since it comes from a potato, but it is not okay to eat a cheeto because “what plant or animal is a cheeto” even though cheetos and potato chips have about the same amount
Fast food restaurants such as Burger King and McDonald’s, create advertisements where it urges people to consume their product. For example Mcdonald’s created a product where you can get two items such as a mcdouble and a medium fries for three dollars. According to “The battle against fast food begins at home”, by Daniel Weintraub, it shows how companies are intriguing their customers. “ The center blames the problem on the increasing consumption of fast food and soft drinks, larger portion sizes in restaurants and the amount of available on school campuses”(1).For the most part, the Center for Public Health believes that fast food companies are the problem for health
Scientists claim that the consumption of fast food leads to rapid weight gain, heart attacks, diabetes, reduced immunity, irreversible changes in the liver, raising the level of cholesterol in the blood. The fat contained in fast food, mainly consists of saturated fatty acids, which are deposited on the walls of blood vessels.
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.
In my health class the teacher showed the class a movie, it was called Supersize Me. In the movie some guy decided to eat Mc Donald's for a whole month. People were wondering how the outcome will be on eating fast food for a month. They wanted us to know it’s not healthy for us to eat fast food