Super Size Me Movie Editorial Review

Introduction

Super Size Me is a documentary by Morgan Spurlock, in which he tries to show the effects of consuming processed foods on the body. The documentary maker only has food from McDonalds for the whole month. Spurlock wanted to show the effects that fast food has on the health of people. During the experiment he meets up with nutritionists, and exercise physiologist to get more information. After the 30 day test he comes back to each of the medical consultant to evaluate his health. The documentary tries to show the impact of fast food on the human health. This paper will look at how fast food companies have manipulated people through advertising, and not telling them about the long term consequences of being on a fast food diet (Spurlock, 2004).

Discussion

In the documentary, one of the experts David Satcher states that all the fast food restaurants are taught to ask the customers about getting an upsize on their meals on a certain amount of payment of cents. The strategy is a card stacking technique where only the affirmative side to the proposal is stated, where the customer is told about the cheaper option is stated (Young & Marion, 2007, 238-248). The negative effect of consuming extra calories from increasing the food intake is not told in the proposal. Like cigarette manufacturers are advised to issue a health warning on their packs, these restaurants should also have a label to warn the customers of the consequences of the consumption of fast food. Fast food companies like McDonalds are only focused on making money. Small children are influenced by the happy meals, toys and play place in the dangerous agenda of McDonalds. The parents are not aware of these things just like the kids. It's a scary thought as McDonalds is one of the most popular fast food places around the world with an extensive chain of restaurants. In one of the scenes the kids are shown images of George Washington, Mickey Mouse, Jesus Christ and Ronald McDonald. The majority of them are able to identify Ronald McDonald and not the others. This shows the power of the advertising by McDonalds.

Majority of the Americans do not exercise, and coupled with this the consumption of fast food just adds to their health problems. During the experiment Spurlock only walks only under 5,000 steps a day in order to adjust for the movement that the average American has. There are so many things that are looked after in order to ensure that the society remains safe, but such a big threat is ignored. This is the message that the film maker tries to promote all throughout the movie.

The film also points out that there is barely any dietary value which makes the food so addictive. The sugars and sodium that is consumed by the people tastes good but is almost like poison when taken in large portions. There are only seven items on the complete menu of McDonalds ...