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Emma Vance

Professor Elisa Noel

Health 1020

10 April 2017

Supersize That Please. . . Maybe Not

For my paper, I chose the documentary Super Size Me. This

documentary stars Morgan Spurlock who embarks on an experiment to find

out how fast food, specifically McDonalds, affects his body and overall

health. I chose this documentary because I personally enjoy fast food,

especially McDonalds. I already know it is very unhealthy and I dont eat it

often, however I was curious to see how eating McDonalds exclusively for

thirty days would affect Spurlocks health.

This documentary follows Morgan Spurlock for thirty days as he eats

McDonalds for breakfast, lunch, and dinner each day. His goal is to observe

how his health will be affected. There are a few stipulations that Spurlock

sets out for himself during his thirty-day experiment. He must eat everything

on the menu at least once over the thirty days. He can only eat food and

drink beverages that are available on the McDonalds menu. If he is asked if

he would like to supersize his meal, he must agree but he is not able to

supersize his meal on his own. He set a goal to walk an average of 5,000

steps per day throughout the experiment. At the beginning of his

experiment, Spurlock had a healthy body weight and consumed a healthy,

varied diet. Before he begins his McDonalds exclusive diet, he is evaluated

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by a series of health professionals. His personal trainer indicated that

Spurlock was very physically fit. A nutritionist, cardiologist,

gastroenterologist, general practitioner, and his personal trainer warned him

that his body would face negative consequences because of his new diet.

Day one goes smoothly for Spurlock, but things take a turn for the

worst when he vomits in the McDonalds parking lot after his first supersized

meal. After five days of eating McDonalds, he gained nine and a half pounds.

Around this time, he also was experiencing depression. He found that

McDonalds meals would help alleviate his depression, headaches, and

lethargy. After twelve days, a nutritionist stated Spurlock had gained

seventeen pounds. After about twenty days Spurlock had some heart

palpitations and his doctor warns him to stop eating McDonalds, but

Spurlock doesnt. After his experiment was over, he lost twenty pounds in

five months and then four pounds over the next nine months.

I chose this documentary because I saw this documentary when I was

a freshman in high school which was eight years ago, so I hardly

remembered it. I also like to eat McDonalds occasionally, although I know

its awful for my health. Personally, I have very little appetite and sometimes

foods dont sound appetizing and if I attempt to eat something that doesnt

sound good to me, Ill usually vomit. There have been a few times where the

only food I could stomach was McDonalds. Although I did not eat McDonalds

for thirty days straight, I did eat it for dinner two days in a row and didnt

notice any detrimental effects to my overall wellbeing. I also go through

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phases of drinking Diet Coke often and was curious to see how the soda

contributed to Spurlocks health change.

The writer, director, and star of the documentary is Morgan Spurlock.

Spurlock is a filmmaker among other related occupations but has no history

in nutrition or health. His girlfriend at the time of the documentary was a

natural foods and vegan chef. She knew quite a bit about proper nutrition

and witnessed firsthand the effects that McDonalds poor nutrition had on

Spurlocks health. Although Spurlock doesnt have a background in nutrition,

it doesnt take a rocket science to figure out that eating McDonalds for every

meal for thirty days without exercising is going to cause detrimental effects

to ones health.

This documentary was produced in 2004. When I last saw the

documentary, it was 2009 and was very applicable at that time. I still think

the documentary is as applicable today. While there have been a few

modifications and changes to the McDonalds menu the food still isnt

healthy. Since the documentary release the supersize option has been

removed from all McDonalds. The larges size now available is a regular large

combo meal. McDonalds is still one of the most popular food chains, and

they are still deceptive about their nutrition facts. They have nutrition facts

available on their website and on a pamphlet in some restaurants. They have

the calorie content of the entre and meal listed on the menu board in most

restaurants but not the macronutrients where the calories come from.
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Spurlock was thirty-two years old at the time of the documentary and

consumed an average of 5,000 calories per day while eating McDonalds.

According to the textbook, Spurlocks recommended caloric intake for his

active lifestyle would be 3,000 calories per day (Wardlaw, Smith, & Collene,

45). During the experiment Spurlock stopped exercising, as a result his

caloric requirements would be closer to 2,200 calories per day. During his

McDonalds experiment, Spurlock ate well above his recommended caloric

intake for both his active and sedentary lifestyles. In Spurlocks McDonalds

diet, he consumed very high amounts of sugar. The recommended dietary

intake for sugar according to the textbook is 150 grams or about nine

tablespoons (Wardlaw, Smith, & Collene, 130). A twenty-ounce serving of

Coke has 65 grams of sugar. If Spurlock consumed some form of sugary soda

for all three meals he would consume 195 grams of sugar. This doesnt

account for the sugar contained in the food that Spurlock ate for that day.

Consuming more than the RDA of sugar occasionally would be okay, but

consistently consuming far over the recommended 150 grams would lead to

declining health and could even cause a dependency on sugar. Along with

high sugar content, Spurlocks diet also had a high fat content. A Big Mac

contains 33 grams of fat and a medium serving of fries has 18 grams of fat.

There is not a RDA for fat, but it is recommended that the total fat intake

should be 20% to 35% of calories (Wardlaw, Smith, & Collene, 183).

Spurlocks diet was about 5,000 calories per day, so 1,000-1,750 calories

should be derived from fat. Because the 5,000 calories consumed were well
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above Spurlocks recommended caloric intake, this amount of fat would be

too much for Spurlock.

By watching this documentary, I learned that McDonalds really is bad

for you. You shouldnt consume McDonalds for all three meals a day and you

definitely shouldnt consume it without exercising. I was able to see the

health effects that a high fat and high carbohydrate diet has on a person.

There are a few critics of the film that have had different results when they

conducted their own McDonalds experiments. Soso Whaley actually lost ten

pounds on the diet. She maintained her regular exercise and 2,000 caloric

intake habits. She also mentioned that her cholesterol lowered while she was

on the McDonalds diet. John Cisna ate McDonalds exclusively for 180 days

and lost 60 pounds. After reading about these experiences, I realized that

Spurlocks results were probably so severe because he ate roughly double his

recommended caloric intake, quit exercising altogether, and ate high

amounts of fat and carbohydrates. If I were more curious I would conduct my

own McDonalds experiment, but I dont want to jeopardize my health. I

didnt necessarily learn a new point of view, my view of McDonalds and fast

food in general remained unchanged. I viewed it as unhealthy before and still

view it as such. The only thing Ill be incorporating into my life from the

documentary is the need to maintain a well-balanced, healthy diet. Ill only

be incorporating this aspect because it can improve health rather than

deteriorate it.
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I thoroughly enjoyed the documentary and researching and reviewing

it. I found it interesting to compare themes in the movie to themes in the

textbook. Although a few other people had drastically different results on

their own McDonalds diets, I do not think the diet is worth trying for myself,

or for anyone else. It would be better to eat a well-balanced diet and exercise

regularly to effectively lose weight and keep the weight off.

References

Gordon, Wardlaw M., Smith M. Anne, and Collene L.

Angela. Contemporary Nutrition. N.p.: McGraw-Hill, 2015. Print.

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Super Size Me. Dir. Morgan Spurlock. Perf. Morgan Spurlock. Samuel

Goldwyn Films, Roadside Attractions, 2004. Online.

"Super Size Me." Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation, 04 Apr. 2017. Web.

11 Apr. 2017.