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Irelan Bailey

Professor Andrus

NUTR 1020

April 24, 2020

Nutrition Perspectives Research Paper - Supersize Me

For my Research Report, I chose to analyze the documentary Supersize Me. I chose this

documentary because topics about eating experiments interest me, such as thirty days or a week

of food challenges on YouTube. I’ve also heard of this documentary before in middle school,

however, I never got the chance to watch it the day it was shown in class. This documentary was

directed and written by Morgan Spurlock who is mostly known for being a documentary

filmmaker and screenwriter. He doesn’t have an expertise in nutrition, but he does have

somewhat of a basic understanding of healthy eating since he mostly ate homemade food

growing up and rarely ate fast food. Produced in 2004, this documentary follows Morgan

Spurlock’s journey as he conducts a food experiment by only eating McDonald’s three meals a

day for thirty days. Throughout the thirty days, he observes and records the changes that occur to

his body and health with the help of a few medical professionals. Along with the experiment,

Spurlock tackles the impact the food industries have on the world, with most emphasis on the

obesity epidemic.

The themes that are presented in this documentary are still applicable today. From the

time this documentary was published to now, the obesity rates in the United States have

increased along with fast food and its improved advertising strategies. According to the webpage

for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on obesity, it states, “From 1999-2000
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through 2017-2018, the prevalence of obesity increased from 30.5% to 42.4%, and the severe

obesity increased from 4.7% to 9.2%”. The topic covered in the documentary about food

industries’ advertisements targeting the younger population has now become worse as companies

today have the advantage of the technological advancements of our time now and have made

advertising almost inevitable. Advertisements at the beginning of the 2000s were mostly

encountered in commercials, magazines, newspapers, and in public places such as billboards and

signs. However, in current times with technological advancements, the younger population is

immersed in technology such as smartphones and computers which contain the world of social

media. The world of technology, the internet, phone apps, and social media is littered with ads

around every corner that is, the majority of the time, made up of food advertisements. The

internet takes a massive role in the younger population’s lives since it’s used for entertainment

purposes and it's mostly required for school now. Food delivery services have improved

drastically and become widely popular with companies like DoorDash, Grubhub, and many Fast

Food restaurants’ delivery services making it easier for people to buy food without leaving the

house.

There were some differences and similarities with some topics presented in this

documentary and the information in our textbook. This documentary portrays the food industries

as pure evil and only trying to jeopardize the health of everyone in America. While the textbook

does acknowledge that there is unhealthy food that exists and that is sold, it does not try to

persuade its audience to stand on the side of hating food industries or corporate giants. The

textbook does its best to help its audience learn how to make healthy nutritional food choices,

like avoiding getting addicted to ingredients like salt, sugar, fats, and eating out. The guidelines
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for daily physical activity for children was presented in the documentary to be only 45 minutes a

day. The textbook states, “Children and adolescents should do 60 minutes or more of physical

activity daily”. The last topic this documentary mentions is that the brain can get addicted to

certain ingredients in the food that can cause an individual to feel comfortable. In the

documentary, Spurlock mentions that he gets this feeling of comfort when he eats the food. This

is a real effect that occurs in the brain. The textbook states, “eating can stimulate the release of

certain neurotransmitters and natural opioids, which produce a sense of calm and euphoria in the

human body”.

From researching this documentary, I learned that many sources that cover nutrition can

vary, whether with facts or a motive to persuade an audience. I was also able to see how nutrition

guidelines and public school systems’ lunches and physical activity programs were in the past

compared to today. I feel that this documentary only reminded me of the dangers of living an

unhealthy sedentary lifestyle. The theme about food industries being evil and that they should be

“confronted” is something that I won’t be incorporating into my life. Businesses are businesses.

They need to advertise and make money in many different ways like any other product sold in

the world. It’s just making the right nutritional decisions and practicing or developing healthy

habits to keep our bodies healthy. We hold our responsibility for the state of our health and

pointing fingers is not going to create a huge impact in the world today. Overall, it was

interesting to see the different views and personal opinions on what is causing the worldwide

obesity epidemic. I’m glad that I took this class and studied the textbook before viewing this

documentary so I could make my thorough comparisons to the information both sources hold.
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Works Cited

“Adult Obesity Facts.” ​Centers for Disease Control and Prevention​, Centers for Disease Control

and Prevention, 27 Feb. 2020, www.cdc.gov/obesity/data/adult.html.

Smith, Anne M., et al. ​Wardlaw's Contemporary Nutrition.​ McGraw-Hill Education, 2018.

Spurlock, Morgan, director. ​Super Size Me​. The Con, 2004,

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zKQGAv8gtBA.