Super Size Me
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Super Size Me
The movie Super Size Me directed by Morgan Spurlock was meant to bring to light the reality of American fast food industry and its effect on people’s health. Spurlock used McDonald’s foods for his thirty-day experiment. During this time, he ate nothing but foods from the restaurant three times a day. This affected his health, physical appearance, and psychological wellbeing. Spurlock is entertaining as he looks at diverse aspects of the fast food industry. He conducts interviews with many people and he gets their opinions about fast foods and the fast food industry in the country. Although the movie does offer some awareness in terms of making people aware about the fast food industry, it has focused on the obvious and it has evaded the question of personal responsibility when choosing ones diet.
The movie focused on an important topic. The fast food industry is prevalent in America. Many people are obese in the country because they eat unhealthy diets and they do not exercise. They opt to eat out at different restaurants instead of cooking at home. This saves them time and money because fast foods are cheap. I supported Spurlock for deciding to highlight what fast food consumption can do to a person’s health. The diet had serious health effects on Spurlock’s health and it made him increase his weight significantly over a short period. This shows the effects of consuming too much fats, salts, and sugars that are present in most fast foods. Many people do not consider the psychological consequences of being unhealthy. Spurlock might have experienced those mental effects because he was not used to the drastic changes in his body.
Despite the positive criticism, I felt that the movie lacked in some aspect because it did not represent the reality. Although many people consume fast foods, most of them do not do so three times in a day. This would be too much for most people. They tend to vary their diets in different ways. Some opt to eat home cooked meals while others opt to change the variety of foods they consume even though they may eat at restaurants. Because of this, I felt that many people would not identify with the movie. I mostly failed to identify with the movie because of this aspect.
I also felt that the movie declined to highlight the importance of personal responsibility and accountability. People should be responsible for their diets. Children do not have much control over what they eat since they depend on their parents. However, adults have, or should have more information concerning the foods they choose to eat. Therefore, they should not make the excuse that a restaurant chain made them unhealthy. This aspect was missing in the movie. Spurlock failed to exercise personal responsibility, which was expected of him. by showing the documentary as it is, he seems to suggest that many people are irresponsible and they are not keen on matters regarding their health.
I felt that the movie did not reveal anything much. Whatever was revealed was obvious, since it is clear that any person who decides to live off fast foods will ultimately add on weight. Such a person will also have health problems because he does not take in the required nutrients and he consumes a lot of fat, sugar, and salt. It is a wonder that Spurlock did not experience severe health problems considering the amount of sugar he was consuming in a day. The movie was informative and entertaining but Spurlock could have made it more real by choosing to eat at different restaurants.