Nadya Johnson

Professor Claire Bagley

Nutrition 1020

April 8, 2019

“Super-Size Me”

For my research paper I chose to write about the documentary called: Supersize

Me by Morgan Spurlock because I felt like it outlines how unhealthy fast food is for

people and how much it really affects the human body. Morgan Spurlock is an award

winning and Academy Award nominated writer, director and producer and founder of

full-service New York based production studio warrior poets. His nutritional background

has been very healthy as he said in the documentary that his girlfriend is a vegan and

usually cooks all his meals for him, so he gets all the nutrition he needs through her

cooking. He gets his vitamins, minerals and protein from the plant-based foods from

beans, quinoa or other plant protein resources. Plant substances are very healthy for your

body as long as they are handled and prepared correctly.

Supersize me came out on May 7, 2004 and I think that the themes are still very

much applicable today. After the movie was produced and then viewed by the public

there was an outcry about the amount of food that that was available through the super-

size me option and shortly after McDonalds remove that option from their menu but the

food and what it contains is still available in all other sizes still. What Morgan Spurlock

was simply proving through his documentary was that fast food is not good for the

human body. In the short time that he conducted his experiment where he ate nothing but

McDonalds for 30 days his health met a serious decline from where he started. He gained
nearly 30 pounds of fat in that short amount of time, during the filming and not all the

way through the experiment the many doctors that were included in the film strongly

suggested that he end the experiment early because of his worsening condition due to his

eating at McDonalds every day where he was consuming an average of 5,000 calories per

day. The average male like Morgan Spurlock should be consuming about half that

amount at around 2,500 calories per day. The information learned from this film is

defiantly applicable today. Individuals should be aware of the health risks that come with

eating fast food and more importantly eating fast food on a regular basis, which can be

extremely hazardous for an induvial health as Morgan Spurlock soon found after his

experiment was conducted.

I had never seen “Super-Size Me” until I watched it for this assignment and there

was a great deal of information that was new to me. I had never considered what would

happen to an individual if they consumed nothing but fast food, I believe I had once

heard that America was the fattest nation in the world and in my personal opinion I think

this is largely related to laziness and fast food. Fast food is in essence form of laziness

and individuals often use it as a go to for meals because it is cheaper than eating at nicer

restaurants that serve food that might be better for the body and its easier than making

your own meals hence they call it “fast food”. Morgan Spurlock’s diet of eating nothing

but McDonalds for 30 days straight had consequences to his health, consequences that I

wouldn’t have considered from eating for fast food for under a month. Fast food causes

many health problems such as excess fat build-up in the liver, cardiovascular disease and

many other health problems for not getting the required nutrients an individual needs

each day. A large majority of the population in the United States is obese, and of that
obese population there are those who are what is called extremely obese. According to

The Journal of the American Medical Association, of all adults in the United States 32%

are what is considered obese. I personally try to stay away from fast food as much as I

can because I know how bad fried food is and how little nutrition it has. I also try to stay

away from fast food because most of the restaurants don’t have a calorie or any

nutritional labels for you to see what you are consuming. I now can see why most people

gain a lot of weight when they eat our constantly because they are not paying attention to

the calorie intake and the nutritional labels of each item they eat.

For his experiment, every day he went out to McDonald’s for breakfast, lunch and

dinner, if the cashier asked him if he would like to supersize his meal he would have to

say yes. Now if they didn’t ask, he just ordered the regular sizes. While he was doing this

experiment, He was closely monitored by a nutritionist, general practitioner and a cardiac

specialist to make sure he was okay and take test results in order to fully understand what

the fast food does to your body.

One compare and contrast topics relating to my textbook is that the recommended

amounts of carbohydrates for an adult is 130g per day. Before the documentary went

viral, most Americans got their meals supersize so the number of carbs an adult would

consume would be double the recommended intake. Another compare and contrast to my

textbook is the daily serving of fruits and vegetables. In the textbook, it recommends for

men to have 3 cups of fruits and vegetables and for women to have 2 cups of fruits and

vegetables. In the documentary, he states that salads aren’t even healthy at McDonald’s

because they have sugar and don’t have many vegtables. I have noticed that McDonald’s

for the longest time did not offer any fruits until recently in the kids meal. The last
compare and contrast I would like to make is the MyPlate recommendations for protein

and grain as well all the other nutrients we need. In the textbook, MyPlate recommends 7

grams of protein each day in order to have a healthy body. Some proteins include:

chicken, yogurt, eggs, oats, cottage cheese, milk, broccoli and many more. For grains, it

recommends 1 cup of cereal, cooked pasta or rice for your daily intake for grains.

After completing this assignment, I am more aware of how bad fast food is for

you and how much it really does affect our bodies. Like I said earlier, I have not seen this

documentary before and didn’t think that fast food is all that bad for you if you have it

once a week, but I now know that it doesn’t matter how much fast food you consume, it

is all bad for you. It doesn’t have any nutritional values your body needs in order to fully

function correctly. I am also aware of how much calories really affect our daily life, in

the documentary, he was day 11 and he had a hard time walking up the stairs or even

getting up because he consumes so many calories each day from McDonald’s. I wouldn’t

say that I would incorporate the bad eating, but I think that I would incorporate not eating

out too much and if I do then ask for a nutritional label, so I know exactly what I am

consuming and the calorie intake of each item. I have lately been packing a lunch for

after school on my way to work so I know exactly what I am eating rather than going out

to get fast food.

I personally found it scary to watch him consume all the calories and food each

day because the doctors kept telling him he needs to stop because they’re scared of the

consequences that might happen. Doing this assignment has opened up my eyes to really

focus on what kinds of food I eat on a daily basis because I don’t think I was too aware of

everything I was eating. I know I get a nutritional dinner because my mom makes sure
that she includes all the right foods in order for us to have all the right nutrients for our

bodies because she knows how important they truly are.

 Reference Page

Spurlock, M. (2018, September 26). Super Size Me (2004). Retrieved from

http://watchdocumentaries.com/super-size-me/

Spurlock, M. (2019, April 9). Morgan Spurlock biography and filmography | Morgan
Spurlock movies. Retrieved from https://www.tribute.ca/people/morgan-spurlock/12577/