SUPER SIZE ME
I. Summarize the documentary “Super Size Me”.
“Super Size Me” is a documentary directed by and starting Morgan Spurlock. Spurlock embarks in a 30 day challenge in which he will only eat food from McDonalds. The purpose of this experiment is to prove that this food is extremely unhealthy and can cause serious damage to the body. Plus, how these fast food companies persuade and encourage poor nutrition for its own revenue.
II. Answer these questions specifically, state the data given in the documentary which aired in 2004 and compare that to the most current (i.e., 2012-2013) data.
a. What is the percentage of adults that are obese in America today?
• Documentary data: Nearly 100 million Americans are either overweight or obese. That is more than 60% of all U.S. adults.
• Current data: According to the Centers of Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), more than one-third of adults and almost 17% of youth were obese in 2009–2010; this data was published on January 2012.
b. Since 1980, how has that number changed?
• Documentary data: Since 1980 that number has doubled with twice as many overweight children and three times as many overweight adolescents.
• Current data: According to the CDC, there was a dramatic increase in obesity in the United States from 1990 through 2010.Obesity prevalence among children and adolescents have almost tripled since 1980.
c. What is the fattest state in America?
• Documentary data: The fattest state in America is Mississippi, where 1 in 4 Americans are obese.
• Current data: According to the United Health Foundation, as of 2013 Mississippi is still the fattest state in America were 34.6% of the population is obese.
d. Why is obesity mentioned as the number 2 cause of preventable death i...
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...y is not used to this food, minutes after I eat it my stomach begins to feel sick. As a result, a feeling of regret starts to take over and that is why I don’t even bother to eat at fast food restaurants. It has never and will never bring anything constructive to my body.
b. After watching this documentary, do you think this number will change? Why or why not?
I remember seeing this documentary back in 2004 when I was 14 years old. Honestly, it did not impact my life in any way. My family and I have always maintained good eating habit. The documentary just reconfirmed what I was already awarded of.
Seeing it now that I am 24 years old it still has the same reaction as it did before. In my opinion, people should keep in mind the phrase “eat to live, not live to eat”. If every individual lived by this saying maybe we could begin to see changes in their eating habits.
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.
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.
Stevenson, G., & Matich, R. (2004). Fact sheet: obesity among Mississippi's children. Mississippi RN, 66(1), 12-13.
... 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.
In 1990, obese adults made up less than 15 percent of the population in most U.S. states. By 2010, 36 states had obesity rates of 25 percent or higher, and 12 of those had obesity rates of 30 percent or higher. (CDC) Today, nationwide, roughly two out of three U.S. ...
Flegal, K. M., Carroll, M. D., Ogden, C. L., & Curtin, L. R. (2010). Prevalence and trends in obesity among U.S. adults, 1999-2008. Journal of Medical Association. 303, 235-241.
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.
Attention Getter: Did you know that 68.8 percent of adult Americans are considered to be either overweight or obese? That’s more than two thirds. And 35.7 percent of adults are considered to be obese. That’s more than one third.
According to the Center for Disease Control (CDC) about “17% (or 12.5 million) of children and adolescents aged 2-19 years are obese” (Moreno et al., 2013 P.157). “Surveys administered in 1976-1980 and 2007-2008 show that the prevalence of obesity has changed from 6.5% to 19.6% among children 6-11 years old age and from 5.0% to 18.1% for those aged 12-19 years (Moreno et al., 2013 P.157).
Obesity is on the rise, and it is becoming more and more of a national health concern. It effects more than 1/3 of the population, and an additional 1/3 is overweight. With obesity becoming more and more of a problem each year, the American population is going to suffer from a catastrophic health emergency.
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 follows Spurlock for 31 days as he follows certain rules set by a series of physicians. He was only allowed to eat 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.
That’s 34.9 percent or 78.6 million people. There are so many health risks of being obesity and the estimated annual medical cost of being obese in the U.S. is 147 billion dollars in 2008. People who are obese on average were 1,429 dollars higher than people who were not. “Non-Hispanic blacks have the highest age adjusted reats of obesity at 47.8 percent followed by Hispanic 42.5 percent, non-Hispanic whites at 32.6 percent, and non-Hispanic Asians at 10.8 percent.” “Obesity is higher among middle age adults, 40-59 year olds at 39.5 percent than among younger adults, age 20-39 at 30.3 percent, or adults over 60 or above at 35.4 percent.” Other things like if the non-Hispanic black and Mexican American men have higher incomes are more likely to be obese then those of lower income. Higher income women are less likely to be obese then low income women. When it comes to education among men there are not any relationship between being obese and not. When women have college degrees they are less likely to be obese compared to the women who are less
“More than one third of America’s population is obese, which is about 35.4% including: men, women, and children” (www.cdc.gov). Unfortunately, this statistic is 100% true. America is hungry, constantly. This definitely shows that the land of liberty is growing in the midsection; no, not the Midwest, on the bellies of the people who live throughout the nation. America has a typical hierarchy of factors who rule the over the obese population. Junk food, lack of mobility, and undereducated knowledge of a healthy lifestyle, often contradict the fate of an obese person.
Over the course of the last few decades, the U.S. has seen a drastic rise in the spread of obesity. Through the rise of large-scale fast food corporations, the blame has shifted toward the mass consumerism of these global industries. It is, however, due to poor lifestyle choices that the U.S. population has seen a significant increase in the percentage of people afflicted with obesity. In 1990 the percentage of obese people in the United States was approximated at around 15%. In 2010, however, it is said that “36 states had obesity rates of 25 percent or higher”(Millar). These rates have stayed consistent since 2003. The obesity problem in America is