Summary Of Super Size Me

Super Size Me

Summary

Super Size Me is an American documentary film released in 2004; starred and directed by Morgan Spurlock. This film is about Spurlock conducting a 30 - day dietary experiment; where he consumed nothing but McDonald’s food items for 30 days straight. The main purpose of this film was to find out whether fast foods really have an impact on people getting fatter and obese. Spurlock undertook this project mainly because of two reasons - the growing obesity rate of American people and the failed lawsuit by two overweight teenage girls against the fast food giant McDonald’s. These two girls claimed that they put on a lot of weight due to eating McDonald’s foods regularly and McDonald’s lawyers refuted the claim by saying that

there is no proof that these girls became overweight just by eating McDonald’s foods. There are some other variables at play in this case. As a result, Spurlock undertook this project of consuming McDonald’s food items for 30 straight days in all three meals he had every day. Moreover, in order to take care of the other variables, he maintained a normal life style and activity span (for example walking around 5000 steps a day) like an average American for this 30 days.
Before the experiment Spurlock consulted with three doctors (a Cardiologist, a Gastroenterologist and a General Practitioner, for medical supervision and they did a thorough medical checkup on Spurlock’s body for charting his body stats before, during and after the experiment.

Throughout these 30 days, Spurlock consumed around 5000 kilo calories (twice as much as for a person of his age, weight and height) by eating every item from McDonald’s menu for at least once. And he “Super Sized” the meal only when he was offered to do so by McDonald’s (in these 30 days he was asked to Super Size his meal 9 times and 5 of them were in Texas). After this 30 - days of experiment to be only on McDonald’s foods, Spurlock gained 11.1 KG (24.5 pounds) and he also had a 13 percent of increase in his BMI (body mass index). On top of that, his cholesterol level was skyrocketing, he was experiencing frequent mood swings, fat accretion in the liver and his sex drive was reduced significantly. Moreover, he got addicted to taking these foods due to the addictive ingredients that prevail in them. It took him 14 more months to lose this extra body fat. This documentary film showed people how frequent intake of fast foods can affect our psychological and more importantly physical well - being. It also showed us that, how the fast food companies encourage people to intake their foods that are filled with “poor nutrition” for their own revenue

generation.
Question Answer -
a. What is the percentage of adults that are obese in America today?
In 2012 - 2013, 35.3 percent adults in America aged 20 years or above were obese and 69.2 percent adults in America aged 20 years or above were overweight (obesity included).
b. Since 1980, how has that number changed?
This number has doubled since 1980.
c. What is the fattest state in America?
Mississippi is the fattest state in America.
d. Why is obesity is mentioned as the number 1 cause of preventable death in America? What is another cause of preventable death mentioned in the video? What other health conditions does being obese lead to?
Obesity is mentioned as the number 1 cause of preventable death in America because it leads to 400,000 deaths every year due to obesity in the country. Smoking is the other cause of preventable death mentioned in the video. Obesity can lead to high blood cholesterol, high blood pressure, type 2 diabetes, stroke, heart diseases, metabolic complications, different kinds of cancers like - colon, breast, prostate cancer etc. gallbladder disease, breathing problems, sexual health problems and erectile dysfunction and skin conditions.
e. How many joints does McDonalds operate?
McDonalds operates more than 35 thousand joints in over 100 countries in 6 continents.
f. How many McDonalds are in Manhattan, where Morgan lives?
There are 83 McDonald’s joints in Manhattan and there are 3 McDonald’s joints from Morgan’s home to his office.
g. Has there been a change in the number of McDonalds in the U.S. today since the movie was made?
Yes. Currently there are around 16 thousand McDonalds in the US.
h. What kinds of questions do they ask him?
First the doctors ask Morgan about the overall status of his body (like any history of fatigue, chest pain etc.). They also ask him about the medications that he takes and his use of alcohol, drugs and cigarettes, whether he is allergic to anything, history of diseases like heart disease or diabetes in his family and about his sexual activity.
i. What is Morgan’s health status at the beginning of the documentary?
Morgan’s health status is normal for a guy of age, height and weight (for instance, his blood pressure was 130 over 105, his eye sight, cholesterol level, triglycerides, heart rate, his BMI, his flexibility, his muscle strength endurance etc. were all normal and perfect).
j. How do the doctors think Morgan’s body will respond to the 30 day “challenge”?
The doctors think Morgan’s triglycerides; cholesterol level will rise after the 30 day challenge. His risk of developing heart disease will increase and his mental health will change.
k. Morgan also gets assistance from what other professionals? Why?
Morgan got assistance from a dietician for keeping track of his weight, BMI and calorie intake. He also met an Exercise Physiologist for keeping track of his flexibility, his muscle strength endurance, his body density and to have his cardiovascular assessment.
l. What is Morgan’s girlfriend profession? In your own opinion, how do you think this may affect his 30-day challenge?
Morgan’s girlfriend is a vegan chef. This will affect his 30 - day challenge because his girlfriend as a vegan chef will constantly complain about him eating all those fatty and meaty foods at it might tempt Morgan to have organic vegan food every once in a while.
m. On day 1, Morgan asks people if they eat fast food. One lady compares the U.S. fast food restaurants to France fast food restaurants. Explain how McDonalds differs in Europe and the U.S. What does this comparison tell you?
McDonalds joints’ environments and the foods are cleaner in Europe compared to the McDonalds joints in the US. Moreover, there is no “Super Size” coke in Europe and the American “Small” size of coke is bigger size in Europe. That tells me that the Europeans are more health conscious than the Americans.
n. What is Morgan’s demeanor at the beginning of the documentary? How does this change or not over the course of the 30 day challenge?
At the beginning of the documentary Morgan was a guy with normal behavioral traits and during this 30 day challenge he developed frequent mood swings and he became addicted to fast foods. He started feeling irritated if he could not eat those foods.
o. During the documentary, Jacob Sullum, the senior editor of Reason Magazine, talked about the differences in social acceptance between smoking and being fat. Discuss in detail what he talks about. What are his points on both health issues? What is your own opinion?
Jacob Sullum talks in details about how questioning smokers about their bad habit has become acceptable in the society while no one questions an overweight or obese person about his / her habit of over eating. He thinks that, smoking and over eating both are bad habits and detrimental to health. So if we frown upon the smokers, we should do the same to the people that overeat. In this regard, I think Jacob Sullum is right because when we question smokers about their bad habit they go into a defensive mode and internally they also make the mindset to quit smoking or at least not to smoke in public. I think if we do the same with fat people then it might have similar results.
p. Based on the documentary and your own research using sources listed above, what health problems are linked to obesity?
Obesity leads to various health issues such as - high blood cholesterol, high blood pressure, type 2 diabetes, stroke, heart diseases, metabolic complications, different kinds of cancers like - colon, breast, prostate cancer etc. gallbladder disease, breathing problems, sexual health problems, asthma, hormone abnormalities, sleep apnea, insulin resistance, and erectile dysfunction and skin conditions.
q. Based on the documentary, how are mcnuggets made?
McNuggets are made from chickens with large breasts. They are stripped from the bones and ground up as chicken mash and then are combined with different kinds of stabilizers and preservatives, pressed into different shapes, de-fried, freeze dried and then served to the customers.
r. According to the documentary, does McDonalds provide the nutritional data of the foods they serve? Has this changed since the documentary? Are there any locations in the U.S. where nutritional data is required by law to be available to consumers? In your opinion, is nutritional data important? Does it influence your food decisions? Do you think it influences other people’s food choices?
According to the documentary, McDonalds provide the nutritional data of the foods they serve on their website but this data is not available or presentable in most of their outlets. Yes, this has changed since the documentary because now more McDonald’s outlets have nutritional data with them. In 1985, the Food & Drug Administration (FDA) made it compulsory for food producers all over USA to provide nutritional data on the packaging of the food. Yes nutritional data is important because it informs the eaters about what they actually are consuming. Nutritional data does influence my food decisions because usually I tend to avoid foods that are high in calories and fat; and nutritional data provides me with the info about which food contains high calorie and fat. The impact of nutritional data on people varies. Some people take it seriously and for some, the taste of the food is the only thing that matters.
s. Give the epidemiological data on obesity in children in the U.S. today.
The percentage of children aged 6–11 years in the US that were obese increased from 7% in 1980 to almost 18% in 2012. Similarly, the percentage of adolescents aged 12–19 years that were obese increased from 5% to nearly 21% over the same period.
t. In your own opinion, do you think children in middle school are able to make the “right choices” with regard to foods? In other words, do you think children can discipline themselves to make healthy food choices and eat correct portions, while at school when they are served things like fries, mashed potatoes, soda, cookies, etc?
Children in middle school are still not matured enough to make healthy food choices. So in most cases they won’t make the “right choices” and can discipline themselves if they are served with fast foods.
u. When you were that middle school aged, were you able to make the right nutritional choices?
No. I just ate what seemed tasty to me.
v. What was your diet like at that age?
At that age I would usually have cereal in the morning. Chips and fruits in school and my supper usually contained carbohydrates, meat and protein.
w. Did your diet differ if you were eating at home or at school?
Yes. I mostly ate homemade foods at home while I would eat chips and other foods bought from departmental stores when I was at school. Sometimes I would take homemade food to school.
x. What was the biggest influence on the food choices you made?
When I was 14 I started gaining a lot of weight and then I gradually became food conscious after reading a lot about dietary habits and obesity on the internet.
y. Near the end of the documentary, Neal Barnard discusses a drug that has a similar effect to those experienced by a heroin addict and a chocolate addict. Name the drug and describe the reaction in the two addictions when that drug is taken.
The drug is called Noloxon and it blocks the addiction receptors in the brain and the addicts lost their interest in the things they are addicted to.
z. Do you think it would be different if a woman were to do the 30-day challenge? Why or why not? What other issues may come to play?
Yes it would be different if a woman did this challenge because there are some physical and psychological features in women that are different from men and they would react differently during the challenge that they did in Morgan’s case.
aa. Using your own research, discuss and describe in detail a healthy eating program that has been developed. (For example, Jamie Oliver’s Healthy Eating Program). How did you decide that this was a healthy eating program?
There is a healthy eating program called “Healthy Living Plan”; which I think is a good choice for anyone who has hard time disciplining himself/herself to make healthy food choices because it is suitable for everyone.

It doesn’t impose any tremendous food restriction by informing people what portion of every food we can take without causing any harm to our body. Therefore, it develops healthy diet habit and improves overall health and that is why I think it is a healthy eating program because people who try other such programs usually get tired of the food restriction and eventually they lapse.

bb. Do you think you could do what Morgan did? How much fast food do you eat currently? After watching this documentary, do you think this number will change? Why or why not?

I don’t think I could do what Morgan did because I was overweight when I was a teenager and the feeling of being overweight still haunts me and I know how hard it is to lose weight and to be in shape. Usually I eat fast food once or twice a month and this number won’t change after watching this documentary since my frequency of eating fast food is already very low and when I eat fast food; the quantity is usually very small.

References

Super Size Me. (2004). New

York.
Taylor, S. (2014). Health psychology (9th ed.). New York: McGraw Hill.