Supersize Me by Morgan Spurlock: The Impact of Fast Food on Our Health

Supersize me by Morgan Spurlock follows him in a journey to see what fast food such as McDonalds would do to his body. In his documentary he shares the statistic in obesity and how much is has doubled since 1988. Spurlock states “obesity is now the seconds leading cause of death in America.” He then tells us how two teenage girls sued McDonalds for selling food that is not healthy for you and caused them to be overweight and have health issues. Spurlock then points out how Americans even knowing this still go daily “1 in 4 Americans visit McDonalds”. According to Spurlock the lawyers for McDonald claimed that the girls cannot show that McDonald food did not affect them and that it widely known that eating this food is not as healthy. Spurlock then quoted the judge who informed the girls and lawyers that the only way to state a claim was to eat McDonald’s food every day, but it would be highly dangerous. Spurlock then asks himself, what would happen if he ate McDonalds’ food for 30 days straight? He takes upon himself to figure out how this food will affect him over the course of 30 days.

Since the food that Spurlock will be eating is not considered healthy, he decides that he would need to be monitored by health care professionals. Spurlock would be monitored by a cardiologist, Gastrologist and a general practitioner. The health care professionals reviewed his health history and had a physical and blood work done for him. The conclusion for all 3 of them was that he was above average in physical and blood work. Spurlock then starts his 30-day journey of McDonald’s food. His rules are that he will be eating McDonalds for breakfast, lunch and dinner. If he is asked to supersize, he cannot say no. the first day in his journey he brought a supersize lunch. Taking about 1 hour to finish his whole meal Spurlock describe his body to be hurting and twitching caused by all the sugar in the meal. Unable to stomach what he ate Spurlock throws up the rest of his meal.

Spurlock also talks about how we have easy accessibility to unhealthy food. Stating how we can buy some in the gas station or not walking as much by driving everywhere. Spurlock states that with these unhealthy food choices we become more predisposed to concerning medical conditions like hypertension, heart disease, stroke, sleep apnea to name a few. As the weeks go by Spurlock starts feeling pressure in his chest and weird sensation in his body. In the beginning his General practitioner cannot identify what is it but told him to keep an eye on it. Spurlock also notes how he has not been feeling good mentally, stating “there is nothing wrong, but I do not feel good”. In his seconds physical he is told to slow down his consumption of fast food. Spurlock’s Doctor informs him that he has gained 17 pounds in 12 days.

Spurlock also explains that fast-food is not the only problems in our overweight stats. He states that kids are not given the healthy choices and how the food that is sent to be made is just prepackaged and heated up. Spurlock’s Journey was not an easy one for him. He noticed how his mental state was being affected as well. He started to constantly feel sad and only felt better when he ate McDonalds’. His health paraprofessional informed him that it could be addiction. In the end of his weight in he gained 24 pounds, his diet damaged his liver, his cholesterol ended up to 235 and body fat was 18%. Spurlock states that the girls he had mentioned in the beginning did not win the lawsuit since they failed to show how McDonald’s food had affected them. Overall according to his Healthcare professionals, they do not recommend eating fast food because of how unhealthy non nutrient dense food is. According to him there are organizations and the government is trying to make change but it’s not always for our best benefit. He states that they are a business and it would be up to us to make the change in the eating habits.

I chose this documentary because growing up I heard a lot of things about this film, but I did not know exactly what it was about. This was my first time watching it and I was very curious about the effect of fast food to our body. Like Spurlock stated everyone knows that fast food is not healthy for you, yet we still eat it. Having little to none nutritional background I think he learn a lot the 3-health care professionals monitoring his health thought out the film.

This documentary was produced in 2004, almost 15 years ago. I think the main these is still applicable today. Spurlock sated that the obesity rate doubled since 1998 and according the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey, in 2015-2016 about 40% of adults and 18% of kids had obesity. This was one of the highest rates ever documented by them. This how’s that even with shocking information like this documentary obesity is still a major issue for the US. The positive change that has been seen since 2004 is the change in nutrition for schools. In 2010 Michelle Obama implemented a new Law that focuses in improving lunch and nutrition for school and proving federal funding to feed kids better lunches.

In our McGraw-Hill Connect Chapter 7 page 114 it talks about the Excess of sugar intake and how our diet tend to decline when sugar intake is excessive. “The Food Consumption Survey data from 2007–2010 indicates that the average daily intake of added sugars for American adults was 73 grams and for children was 77 grams, amounting to about 15% of calorie intake.” this is something we can see in the documentary where Spurlock’s health care professionals talk to him about when he was eating McDonalds. They knew that the food was filled with sugars and empty carbohydrate. In the end of his journey his liver was even turning into fat because of everything he had consumed

Spurlock talked about how Americans tend to over eat but did not do enough to use the energy that was eaten. He blames it on the fact that we drive everywhere and tend to depend on things to come to us. Since this country suffers from obesity the best way to prevent or improve your health could be found in the book. In chapter 7 page 250. It talks about the best way for a weight loss plan. It encourages to seek advice from a nutritionist, set goals, got slow and steady. This is something that Spurlock was able to do, after his documentary the end credits stated that it took him about 9 months to lose the weight, he had gained from eating all the food. With the help of his Nutritionist he was able to drop it all in a few months.

I honestly can say that became more informed in something that I knew so little about. I was shocked to see how much this food affected his body and how little McDonalds cared about his wellbeing as well as other peoples. It is our choice in what we eat, and I will defiantly remember this information next time I crave a hot and spicy from McDonalds.