Super Size Me
Super Size Me In 2004, documentary filmmaker Morgan Spurlock began an experiment to see how eating only McDonald’s, three meals a day, would effect a person’s health; physical and mental. The fact that our generation eats more fast food than ever before makes this experiment interesting, along with Morgan’s antics and humor. The main claim behind this documentary film is that the abundance of fast food chains, the fatty foods that they serve, and the vast amount of people that eat at these restaurants are all contributing factors in the epidemic of obesity in the United States. The facts and evidence in Morgan’s research is alarming, as well as the results of Morgan’s experiment in this informative, yet entertaining documentary. “Obesity is now second only to smoking as a major cause of preventable death in America, with more than four-hundred thousand deaths per year associated with related illnesses” (Spurlock, 2004). The beginning of the film is a reminder; education on the increasingly vast number of people in the United States living with obesity. As most can imagine, America is the fattest nation in the world, with nearly one-hundred million Americans either overweight or obese; over sixty percent of all adults. (Spurlock, 2004) We then take a look at the massive number of fast food restaurants around the world, but primarily focus in on McDonald’s. With more than thirty thousand restaurants in over one hundred countries on six continents, McDonald’s is by far the largest fast food chain in the world, serving over forty-six million people worldwide every day and accounting for forty-three percent of the fast food market in the United States (Spurlock, 2004). The convenience of eating a meal at a McDonald’s is obvious, and their widespread number of locations make it easy to obtain their products; from highways and plazas to airports and hospitals.
In 2002, two teenage girls attempted to sue the McDonald’s corporation, blaming the food that the
In 2002, two teenage girls attempted to sue the McDonald’s corporation, blaming the food that the