Reflection on Watching The Film Super Size Me

The film SuperSize Me documents Morgan Spurlock going through with an experiment to diet only on McDonald’s for thirty days. The purpose of Spurlock’s experiment was to show people that eating unhealthy, junk food such as McDonald’s every day is extremely unhealthy and is harmful to your body. This experiment harmed his health by increasing his body weight, increased blood pressure and feeling extremely sick. It was also to make people more aware of the foods they eat and the repercussions that come with it. Spurlock chose McDonald’s to experiment with because they are dominating in the fast food industry and is the most well known in America. Spurlock wanted to show Americans what would happen if they ate just McDonald’s for 30 days straight. He embarked on this journey due to the obesity epidemic in America, to show how the fast food industry influences obesity and provides poor nutrition. Further the experiment from Super Size Me is discussed in this essay.

Spurlock had to follow specific guidelines throughout the experiment that he could not break. There were five guidelines that he had to follow; must eat McDonald’s for all three meals every day, must have every item on the McDonald’s menu at least once, may only eat food from the McDonald’s menu (cannot even take aspirin), must supersize his meal whenever it is verbally offered to him, and he cannot exercise throughout the experiment (must limit himself to 5000 steps a day). Before this experiment, Spurlock was a very healthy man with no health issues or illnesses. He had excellent blood and iron levels and low blood sugar. His health was at risk after this experiment, as well as his physical and emotional wellbeing. By the end of the thirty-day experiment, Spurlock had consumed 30 pounds of sugar and 12 pounds of fat, increasing his body fat from 11% to 18%. Only after five days, he began feeling depressed and sick and found that McDonald’s could make him feel better. Spurlock said that he would feel hungrier faster and when he did eat, the food made him feel better because he was becoming addicted to it. The physical results included stomach pains, chest pressure and pains, not as energetic during sex, headaches, difficulty breathing, walking up the stairs was hard, and heart palpitations. The emotional results include feelings of depression, mood swings, always hungry, feeling of exhaustion, would crash easily due to too much sugar, and beginning to get addicted to fast food. Morgan gained 25 pounds, increased his triglycerides by 21.5, was having double the normal calorie intake, increased his body fat by 7%, his cholesterol rose from 168 to 233, and he was twice as more at risk of heart disease. It is clear that having only McDonald’s for thirty days straight is extremely unhealthy and can be very dangerous for your health.

Obesity is a major issue in North America as people decide to make unhealthy choices instead of healthy ones. Fast food companies are not to blame for the obesity problem in North America because people are responsible for what they choose to eat, not the companies. People choose what food they want and don’t take into account if it is bad for them and get used to bad eating habits. Nobody is forcing these people to buy or eat fast food, people are in control of their own mouths and bodies. Human beings are lazy and continue eating unhealthy food because they are too lazy to cook up a healthy meal at home, too lazy to work out and stay in shape, and too lazy to even pay attention to warning signs on their unhealthy habits. Instead of blaming obesity on yourself, people tend to blame the fast food companies which is wrong because it is your own fault that you are overweight. People state that fast food companies advertise these unhealthy foods at a very cheap price and make it look irresistible so the go buy it and eat it, but instead they could be cooking a healthy meal at home and saving money. Lots of the people who are already obese are the ones blaming these companies so they can blame someone else, other than themselves. Many people who do eat fast food are not obese and exercise to burn off the calories so obesity comes from the person’s choices and the companies are not to blame. I do believe that society does promote an unhealthy attitude toward food. You can’t pass through a city without seeing multiple places of the same fast food company all close together, as shown in the movie that Manhattan alone had 74 McDonald’s. Our attitude towards food is seen as just another thing in our life because it is cheap and easily accessible to us, unlike those who struggle to eat on a daily basis. Our society tries to promote food as much as possible and it usually isn’t fruits and vegetables that we see on advertisements. There are shows solely based on food; how good it is, how to cook it, and how much one guy can eat. Society has a consumer mindset; the cheaper the price and faster you can get it, the better. People don’t seem to be worried about quality and nutrition. If they can have it now, they want it now because we live in such a busy world with no time to sit down and eat a proper meal, so we look to fast food places for quick and easy access to food. McDonald advertisements promote unhealthy, greasy, high-calorie food that is affordable, not like some fruits and vegetables that are expensive to buy. Society has an unhealthy approach to food and is being promoted in a negative way which is an issue in North America and other societies.

After watching SuperSize Me, I can say that I have less of an appetite towards McDonald’s. I already knew that McDonald’s was unhealthy and was not good for you, but after seeing the effects of what it can do to you after eating it for thirty days straight is extremely scary and an eye opener to what junk food can do to you. Even after watching this, I can’t lie and say I will not go to McDonald’s any more or any fast food company because that is a lie, it is sorta hard to stop going to these places because in a way we are all addicted and love how this unhealthy food tastes. This movie showed what fast food could do to your body when you excessively eat it and the harms it has on your health. I believe that people, including myself, should limit fast food and junk food to at least once a week or even twice a month. It seems hard, but a healthy meal at home is much better than McDonald’s and you can save money as well. During the week, I tend to have dinner everything with my family that my mother cooks, which is nutritious, but of course I do go out for lunch or the weekends and it gets hard to make the healthiest choices when tempted with so many delicious options. This film really showed people the impact of these foods and it makes me want to limit the amount of it I eat. I tend to go to McDonald’s every Friday, after school with my brother if we aren’t busy, to get chicken nuggets and fries, but after watching the movie, I want to reduce that to maybe every other week, especially after learning how many calories nuggets have and that it is barely even chicken. People continue to go to McDonald’s because it is delicious and cheap. Fast food is unhealthy that you eat it so quickly and your body doesn’t even have time to process it so you get hungrier quicker and overeat. McDonald’s using advertisements to bring people in and advertise how delicious their food looks. McDonald’s also lures young kids by having playgrounds in their restaurants, hosting birthday parties, having happy meals with a toy, and having their own cartoon characters that children love; all these factors make kids want to go back to McDonald’s which parents continue bringing them to even though they know it is an unhealthy choice.

People will continue going to McDonald’s even after watching SuperSize Me because it becomes addictive and we psychologically believe we need McDonald’s or other junk foods because it makes us feel good and is also comfort food. We ignore the bad things fast food has even after watching the harmful effects in the film because humans tend to make bad decisions sometimes and their health isn’t the most important factor when there is a delicious Big Mac waiting for them with delicious, salty fries for a cheap price. McDonald’s and other fast food companies will always exist, trying to prove to us that their food can be incorporated into a healthy diet, but it is our ultimate decision whether we want to eat it or not.

Works Cited

1. Brownell, K. D., & Horgen, K. B. (2004). Food fight: The inside story of the food industry, America's obesity crisis, and what we can do about it. McGraw-Hill.
2. Fast Food Nation. (2001). Directed by Richard Linklater. Participant Media.
3. Gornall, J. (2007). Nutrition: A healthy backlash. BMJ, 334(7599), 1309.
4. Hill, J. O., & Peters, J. C. (1998). Environmental contributions to the obesity epidemic. Science, 280(5368), 1371-1374.
5. Nestle, M. (2003). Food politics: How the food industry influences nutrition and health. University of California Press.
6. Spurlock, M. (Director). (2004). Super Size Me [Documentary].
7. Story, M., & French, S. (2004). Food advertising and marketing directed at children and adolescents in the US. International Journal of Behavioral Nutrition and Physical Activity, 1(1), 3.
8. Thompson, S. H., & Bender, R. H. (2009). Food and society: Principles and paradoxes. Polity.
9. Wells, N. M., & Harris, J. D. (2017). Fast food feasting: Impacts of fast food restaurants in US schools. Journal of Policy Analysis and Management, 36(1), 159-184.
10. Wilson, D., & Goldenberg, S. (2004). The fast food nation. The Guardian. Retrieved from https://www.theguardian.com/society/2004/may/16/health.business