Ben Hawthorne
Period 2
“Supersize Me” Essay
Morgan Spurlock is right; America is the fattest nation and is still getting fatter. I
also agree with him that fast food and junk food are major contributors to this problem,
but I believe it is not the only problem. In his documentary film Supersize Me, Morgan
goes on a diet of only McDonald’s for thirty days nonstop for breakfast, lunch, and
dinner. He also limits his walking to 5,000 steps a day, so along with eating a lot of food
he is not exercising. He is trying to persuade to mainly the United States, but also the rest
of the world, that you should never go to a fast food restaurant, and if you do, go rarely.
Through all the persuasion with ethos, pathos and logos he has even changed my mind
slightly about the Big Mac and all other fast food products.
Wow, Morgan Spurlock really gives a lot of persuasive facts in the movie. The
best thing about all of his logos is that all the facts appeal to my logic and reasoning. The
most amazing fact that he presented was that there are 83 McDonald’s in Manhattan
alone and nearly 14,000 restaurants world wide. Also, throughout the movie he brings up
many other different fast food chains like Burger King, Wendy’s, and Dunkin Donuts.
With all of these different fast food stores, you really think of how big of a contributor
the fast food industry is to the obesity of America. At the end of his thirty day diet
Morgan calls 100 nutritionists to get how they feel about the fast food industry. The facts
that he got were that 2 out of the 100 said you can eat fast food, 28 of them said you
could eat it 2-3 times a month, ant the other 70 said that you should never eat it. Also, 95
of the 100 nutritionists said that fast food was a major contributor to the obesity of
America.
On the thirty day McDonald’s diet, Morgan Spurlock’s health is followed along
the way by many different doctors. There are three main doctors that monitor his health
throughout the entire time. Knowing that he has three professionals following right
beside him makes you know that all of the information that you are going to acquire will
be accurate. He also has a registered dietician, who every couple of days gives him
advice as to how much calories and other elements of food he is eating and should be
eating. If it was just Morgan saying all the facts, we wouldn’t believe the information that
much because we would think that he has no proof or evidence, so he is an unreliable
source.
Most of the pathos in this movie are so disgusting that it makes you never want to
eat fast food (mainly McDonald’s) ever again. One of the most disgusting things that
happened in the movie is when he pukes after just finishing his first super sized meal. All
of a sudden, he sticks his head out the window of the car and barfs all over the parking
lot. The camera then closely zooms in on the barf! I don’t know about you, but I
personally hate to barf. Showing this scene makes you so disgusted, that you are afraid
that if you eat McDonald’s it will make you puke. On the other hand, Morgan Spurlock
also added a little comedy into the movie that made fun of McDonald’s. One of the little
jokes that he did the entire movie was putting “Mc” in front of everything that he said.
So, right before he puked he was saying “I’m starting to get the McStomach ache, the
McBurps, and now the McHead ache.” It kind of made you laugh at something stupid
while realizing that you could get sick if you eat too much junk food. Another funny
thing in the movie is when a cartoon comes up of how McDonald’s makes their chicken
nuggets. It disgusts you while making you laugh that the McNuggets are made out of
chickens that have abnormally large breasts. In the cartoon a farmer grabs a chicken with
large breasts and throws it into a machine that cuts off its head, grinds it all up, mashes it
into the shape of a chicken nugget, puts it into a deep fryer, and then comes out as a
“McFrankenstein” creation. Morgan Spurlock really persuades you through emotions a
lot in this documentary.
My dad owns two McDonald’s restaurants and I will admit that I do eat it about
once a week or less. That doesn’t mean that I am fat though, and I am still in very good
shape along with the rest of my family. At the same time though I am amazed by this
film, on how outrageous it is. Just because you eat fast food doesn’t mean you can’t go
right home and exercise. I think that the main problem with our country’s obesity is that
people don’t exercise enough, and then when they become fat they use fast food as an
excuse as to why they are fat. My main point is that it is not fast food that makes you fat,
it is you and the choices that you make which make you fat.
This documentary is very bias and one sided. In the movie Morgan Spurlock only
eats McDonald’s for thirty days which is just unrealistic. He also doesn’t do any exercise
at all besides walking up and down his stairs. Also, the movie is really stating that if you
eat any fast food at all that it is bad for you, which is not true. As I said before I eat some
fast food, but I still stay healthy and strong. What obese people fail to understand is that
your meals need to be balanced with everything on the food pyramid. All they have to do
is say “NO.”