Today I re-watched one of my favorite documentary movies all about the fast food industry: Super Size Me by Morgan Spulock. Morgan does his best to learn about the fast food system and expose its hypocritical nature.
In America, we have the biggest cars, the biggest homes, the biggest food, and the biggest people. In fact, about 60% of Americans are obese. Obesity today is the second highest preventable cause of death, second only to smoking. According to Morgan, one out of every four Americans eat at a fast food restaurant and over 46 million people are feed by McDonalds everyday. Morgan was inspired to make this documentary after customers began suing fast food companies for making them obese. He begins by asking where does personal responsibility stop, and corporate responsibility take effect? If the customer can show that the food served at fast food restaurants is unreasonably dangerous, then the individuals suing the companies for their bad health may have some kind of real legal claim. Unfortunately, at the time, no proof had been shown of the bad effects of fast food. Therefore, Morgan decided to go on a McDonald's eating binge for thirty days to see what would happen.
Before starting on his McDonald's journey, Morgan enlisted the help of a cardiologist, a general practitioner, and a gastroenterologist for medical advice on the diet and to monitor his progress. The doctors did all kinds of tests on Morgan and found that everything was normal. His cholesterol levels started at the exceptionally good level of 168 and his triglycerides were also very low. The doctors believed the worst that could happen was for his triglycerides to increase but that would really be it. His cholesterol may also go up, putting his heart at a greater risk as well if there was any history of heart problems in his family. In addition to seeing doctors throughout his experiment, he also met with a registered dietitian and nutritionist who would keep track of his nutrition progress as he went on the diet.
At his initial weight in, Morgan weighed a total of 185.5 lbs and was 11% body fat. Fitness wise, Morgan was above average. Since about 60% of Americans do not get any exercise throughout their day, Morgan decided to go without exercise for 30 days in addition to eating only McDonald's. However, he still would walk a similar number of steps as the average American: about 3,000 to 5,000 steps a day.
The Last Supper
In his first day of his McDonald's journey, Morgan decided on the Egg McMuffin for breakfast while letting us know the rules of his binge. Rule Number 1: Morgan can only super size his meal if he is asked by the cashier. Rule Number 2: Morgan can only eat food served at McDonald's, including water. Rule Number 3: Morgan has to eat every item on the menu at least once over the thirty days. And finally, Rule Number 4: Morgan has to eat three solid meals a day; breakfast, lunch, and dinner.
When Morgan later went to ask individuals from the general public about their thoughts with the people suing the fast food industry, the majority agreed that they found it ridiculous, especially since those suing were responsible for buying the food in the first place. In America, the average family eats out for about 40% of their meals. Rather than blame the fast food companies for the food items, the people thought that we should take a look at who they are marketing to: children. One doctor, MD Satcher was the first to draw attention to the obesity epidemic. To point out the epidemic may be because the fast food industry has increased the sizes of their portions and offers them at lower and lower prices. The original sizes of the food and drinks are now "kiddie" sized, having about 200 calories and the super sized size has over 600.
The Toxic Environment
According to the movie, we live in an environment that almost guarantees that we will become sick. People today depend on their cars for transportation and on machines for walking. Someday very soon, obesity will overtake smoking as the leading preventable cause of death. Especially when many of the fast food companies work so hard to make their customers lifetime customers; bringing the up on certain foods and linking the food with feelings of warmth and comfort and fun that they had as children. These individuals will then come back when they are adults when they desire to have those feelings again.
The Impact
In the last twenty to twenty-five years, we have seen the numbers of obese people in the U.S. double. Today, there are over twenty health issues that can be linked with over eating and obesity. According to the movie, if the eating trends of today continue, 1 out of every 3 children born in the year 2000 will develop diabetes in their lifetime. For all the children who are born develop diabetes before the child is fifteen, they can loose between 17 and 25 years off their lives. As adults, if people's eating and exercise habits do not change, they will end up with liver failure and other terrible health issues.
After spending five days on the McDonald's diet, Morgan went from eating about 2500 calories a day to more about 5000 calories a day. He further discovered during his weigh in that he had gained about ten pounds in one week, gaining about 5% of his body weight! According to an interview with McDonald's about the unhealthy nature of their foods, McDonald's said that it should be common knowledge that any food that undergoes processing make it more harmful. Yet McDonald's continues to market their products to innocent children, who see over 10,000 food commercial per year. In fact, we are told that while parents can have some influence over what kids eat, that to every 1,000 influences parents get in with children, the media gets 10,000 influences in. Children are almost forced to prefer and desire fast food because of the major influences the industry has over them. In fact, in a test where children were asked to identify pictures of famous figures, the kids recognized pictures of Ronald McDonald almost immediately but did not recognize the photo of Jesus Christ.
Nutrition
When asked about the nutrition information on their products, many fast food chains will direct you to their websites. But Morgan asks the question about the homes that don't have internet access… how do they get the information? When visiting the McDonald's in Manhattan, Morgan found that only 1/2 of the stores had a nutrition sheet posted, and 1 in 4 stores did not have any information at all!
After taking his first blood test and second weigh in, Morgan weighed a total of 203 lbs and found out he was eating over 200% of his bodily needs. His nutritionist highly recommended that he stop drinking his calories through the sodas sold at the restaurants.
In addition to lacking the correct information to make healthy choices with our food products, children also face the difficult choice of turning away from the sodas, candy, fries, and junk food found in their school cafeterias. They are almost encouraged to make the wrong choices. In the school system, the most vital tool of the cafeteria chefs are their box cutters. Only six out of the 36 meals cooked in the school were actually handmade. Everything else came from some processing company. However, when Morgan visited another school where at-risk kids were served good, healthy, natural foods, he found that many of the behavioral problems were solved! Processed food enthusiasts claimed that their behavioral changes were due to the school being their last chance, Morgan believed that the food really had a lot to do with it. Why do schools have so much junk food in them? Many of the companies, like the soda companies, provide some funding for school education. However, the soda companies are really getting their money from the local communities, taking a cut of it, and using a portion on funding some of the education.
According to Morgan, Texas has five of the top fifteen fattest cities, with Houston being number one! While the Grocery Manufacturers of America (GMA) is quick to redirect the finger that is pointing at foods as to why they are gaining weight to point instead at the lack of education, many elementary schools only have 45 minutes of gym a week and recess is being lowered, so physical activity is majorly lowered.
Addiction
The movie tells us that it is in fact a drug effect on the brain that keeps us going back to the food. After eating McDonald's for so long, Morgan started to have intense headaches; however, they would go away when he ate the McDonald's food again. These were signs of addiction to the food products. There are a few classifications of fast food eaters. 22% of McDonald's eaters are considered heavy users, eating the food three times a week or more! According to McDonald's, most nutritionists think that eating fast food could be part of a healthy diet. However, when Morgan actually went and asked nutritionists around the nation, 45% said that we should never eat it and 95% said that eating fast food does contribute to the obesity epidemic.
In America, we spend 2.5 times the amount of money on diet products than we do on medical or fitness products. Instead of making a decision earlier on to increase fitness levels or change eating habits, people would rather wait until the problem has gone to drastic levels and naturally make a drastic decision like gastric bypass operations.
After just 2/3 of the time had gone by on the McDonald's Diet, the doctors were astounded that a diet so high in fat would do so many horrible things to the liver. They strongly advised Morgan to stop his diet, for his life's sake. Before the completion of his McDonald's journey, Morgan really tried to schedule an interview with the CEO but was never granted one. After thirty days of eating McDonald's, the nutritionist said that Morgan had eaten as much McDonald's as you should eat in eight years.
The Last McSupper
After his final blood tests and final weigh in, Morgan had gained a total of 25 lbs in thirty days. From this data, the doctors all agreed that if fast food is eaten at all, it needs to be severely restricted and balanced with tons of healthy food and tons of exercise. They all agreed that they would never have guessed fast food to cause so much damage to the liver. But unfortunately, the fast food industry is not concerned with our health. They are not loyal to the customer, but rather to the stockholders. If they make millions by selling terrible foods, why would they stop? So the solution has to be to cut back or cut fast food out of the diet completely. To stand against the food being advertised and sold to millions of people all over the world. After all, who would you rater see go first; you or the fast food companies?
After the completion of the film, it took Morgan 13 months to lose the weight he had gained completely. In March of 2004, the government passed a law so individuals could not sew fast food companies for making them fat. And six weeks after the premiere of this movie, McDonalds got rid of their super size option.
Exercise: Today is RESTING DAY! So enjoy the day off and spend the extra time relaxing a bit more.
Eat: In honor of today being a movie discussion day, I wanted to tell you all how to make some healthier popcorn to enjoy along with your film. Rather than grabbing the packaged popcorn bags that come in a box at the grocery store, pick up a bag of un-popped cornels. Then, in a large pot, put a tablespoon or so of light cooking oil. I recommend Extra Virgin Olive Oil. Heat this over medium heat and put a few hand fulls of popcorn cornels into the pot with the oil. Put the lid on (I usually leave just a bit of room for air) and wait for the popping to begin. After your batch is done, put just a pinch of salt on it, and perhaps some light butter if you so desire. Then just enjoy!
Relax: Relax today by enjoying a movie with a friend, boyfriend, or family. My movie of choice: Super Size Me :)
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