Allyson Hoggard

Nutrition 1020
Jacqueline Spoon
April 16, 2020
Nutrition Perspectives

Food has become a staple in the American culture. It is a way to celebrate,

comfort, binge and even suppress unwanted feelings. People don’t know how to

function in America without constant access to food. Most people are getting that

comfort through the food that is easiest to come by… Fast food. However, most of the

time, people don’t think about the impact that it can have on their bodies and what it can

do to their vital organs. It’s pretty scary once you actually start to look into it and care

about what you are putting into your body.

In a documentary called ​Supersize Me​, a man named Morgan Spurlock decided

to live off a strict McDonald’s diet for an entire month. “​Morgan Spurlock is an

award-winning and Academy Award-nominated writer, director and producer and

president and founder of full-service New York-based production studio Warrior Poets”

(Spurlock, 2016). While Morgan didn’t have much of a nutritional background, it shows

him conducting research and interviewing many people to get a good idea of what kinds

of foods will affect his body in what ways. He met with cardiologists, gastroenterologists,

general practice doctors, and registered dieticians/nutritionists in order to ensure a safe

experimentation of his diet.

Supersize Me​ follows Morgan around for a month, showing him eating

McDonald’s for every meal and interviewing several people regarding their views of fast

food. Many people had no idea the effect that it can have on their bodies. Before
starting this experiment, Morgan met with many doctors to ensure that he would be safe

through the experiment. All of the doctors that he met with didn’t think it would make

that big of a difference in his overall health in just a month of following this diet. To their

surprise, this diet turned his liver into a fatty liver, sky-rocketed his cholesterol, caused

him to have severe mood swings and depression, diminished his sex life, caused heart

palpitations and significantly increased his weight (Spurlock, 2004). Just one month of

eating fast food turned a very healthy middle aged man into someone who was seconds

away from a heart attack or liver failure.

I chose to watch this documentary because I think it is fascinating to learn about.

Americans are so obsessed with food and it is so convenient in our culture to find food

just about anywhere. I am no exception. I love fast food and I think it is great every once

in a while for special occasions. However, it is easy to be complacent about the effects

that it has on our bodies because we don’t see the effects immediately. I think this

documentary is so fascinating especially because you are able to see the effects of it so

quickly and accurately. It is presented with cold hard facts, numbers and test results.

This film was produced back in 2004, nearly 16 years ago. I still think the

information that was presented in the documentary is still very applicable to all of us

today. Being overweight is still considered one of the leading causes of preventable

deaths in America. While fast food chains are starting to offer healthier options, even

those aren’t great. The documentary mentioned how even a salad at McDonald’s

contains more calories than a Big Mac and the dressing has more sugar in it than most

of their menu items (Spurlock, 2004). I feel like this is always going to be a relevant
topic, especially in America. People need to be more aware of what they are putting into

their bodies and the long-term effects that it is going to have on them.

There were some things mentioned in the documentary which related to topics

discussed in our class textbook. In the film, Morgan interviewed people on the street

regarding how many times a week they ate out at fast food restaurants. There were two

teenagers that he asked and they said they ate out at least twice a day and they always

went to McDonald’s. They were pretty thin boys and said that they thought the “myths”

about gaining weight through eating fast food were completely ridiculous. They said that

since they were able to keep a slim figure and eat out everyday that it must not be true.

Our textbook says that “nutrition and physical activity complement each other when it

comes to improving health outcomes” (Smith, 2018). This just proves that our society is

not aware that their overall health is more in-depth than just what the scale says.

Also, in the documentary, Morgan’s girlfriend is introduced as a vegan chef. It

shows her making very organic food for Morgan the night before he started this

experiment and orchestrating a cleansing diet for him for the day after his experiment

was over. She was making sure Morgan was getting the nutrients he needed from

natural and organic foods. He wasn’t getting any nutrients from the food he was

ordering from McDonald’s and his health was suffering because of it. “Nutrients are the

substances obtained from food that are vital for growth and maintenance of a healthy

body throughout life” (Smith, 2018). My mom is very into health and she always

compares our bodies to cars. She says that if we want our bodies to function the way

they should, we need to put good food into it. If we wanted our car to run the way it’s
supposed to, we are going to put the gas it requires into it. We wouldn’t put sludge and

mud into it because that would ruin it and cause it not to run properly. We need to make

sure we aren’t putting ‘sludge’ into our bodies.

In the documentary, Morgan talked about how the percentage of overweight

Americans has increased over the years leading up to the making of the documentary.

According to our class textbook, it is continuing to increase quite dramatically. The

leading cause of this is the food we are choosing to eat along with the amount of

exercise we are doing in order to balance out the amount of calories we intake. Too

many Americans have the habit of eating a lot of food or a high calorie meal and sitting

around. This is causing a positive energy balance because the person is gaining weight

(Smith, 2018). The documentary said that most Americans are taking less than 5,000

steps per day which isn’t burning even a fraction of what they are consuming through

their food. While Morgan was conducting his experiment, he stuck to that pattern of

behavior and tracked his steps to make sure he didn’t take more than 5,000 steps in a

day. He ended up gaining over 30 pounds in 30 days (Spurlock, 2004). So, it is quite

easy to see how steep the positive energy balance can be if we aren’t careful about

what we are eating and how intense our energy output is.

I felt like this assignment was a great reminder of needing healthy and nutritious

foods. I learned just how harmful certain foods can be for our bodies and what the effect

can be on them if we continue to consume those foods on a regular basis. I didn’t

realize how harmful these foods can be for our liver. The foods that Morgan was eating

had the same effects on his liver that alcoholics experience after years of alcohol abuse.
I am definitely going to keep this information in mind whenever I am thinking about

eating out. I want to make sure my body is healthy and able to function properly. After

all, we only get one and we need to protect it the best we can. This documentary was a

great reminder for me to limit the amount of times I eat out. The nutritionists in this

documentary said that people should never eat out and if they do, they shouldn’t eat out

more than a couple times per month. I will be implementing that into my own life. I want

to make sure my body is as healthy as it can be for as long as possible. It all comes

down to my diet and the exercise that I engage in.

References

Smith, Anne M., et al. ​Wardlaws Contemporary Nutrition.​ McGraw-Hill Education, 2018​.

Spurlock, Morgan. “Morgan Spurlock ' About.” ​Morgan Spurlock,​ 2016,

Spurlock, Morgan, director. ​Supersize Me​. 2004, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=