Essay about Supersize Me

Submitted By queenkeezy
Words: 960
Pages: 4

Supersize Me

Directed by: Morgan Spurlock
I believe the targeted audience is all citizens across the United States who enjoy eating at fast food restaurants, specifically; McDonalds.
The message given in the film is that eating McDonalds much too often will surely result in bad health. Another key message is that we must take the personal responsibility to watch and maintain our eating habits to make sure our body’s can maintain good health.
Interrelation: Morgan Spurlock is an average United States citizen who enjoys eating fast food. He also cared about his health and the health of others, and intended for his movie to help citizens become more aware about the food that they eat.
Ethos: “Super Size Me” is mainly based on Morgan Spurlock’s personal experience. He experiences what it is like to eat nothing but McDonald’s everyday for thirty days, and throughout his fast food journey, he experience the negatives sides of eating such unhealthy foods. Also, there are three different experts Spurlock often visits to check his health progress; a cardiologist, a gastroenterologist, and a general practitioner.
Logos: Spurlock observed the nutrition facts of McDonald’s food whenever he could, he consumed an average of 5,000 calories per day while walking about 5,000 steps per day, a 13 percent body mass increase, a severely high cholesterol level, and he gained a total of 24 and half pounds. While one watches this film, they can logically see that the excess amount of food the Morgan ate caused him to gain weight and greatly affected his overall health.
Pathos: About half way into Morgan’s thirty day McDonald’s challenge, he experienced a significant lack of energy, often had mood swings, sexual dysfunction and even had slight symptoms of depression. Morgan often felt so physically and even mentally ill that he believed that he could no longer complete his challenge. Morgan Spurlock had been healthy all of his life, and this challenged gave him the chance to mentally and physically endure the struggles of what an unhealthy person would typically go through.
Context for Creation: Like most United States citizens, Morgan Spurlock noticed dangerously increasing spread of obesity throughout the United States society. There was a lawsuit brought against McDonald’s by two overweight, teenage girls who allegedly became obese by eating McDonald’s. The lawsuit failed, but Spurlock was determined to discover whether the two girl’s accusations could possibly correct.
Evidence: Spurlock’s three physicians, also including a nutritionist and personal trainer, predicted that Spurlock’s challenge will have very unpleasant effects on his body. They described the human body as being extremely adaptable to substances, so nothing too drastic was expected to occur. For thirty days straight, Morgan ate three McDonalds meals everyday and ate nothing outside of that restaurant. He walks a suggested 5,000 steps per day, like an average American citizen. After five days, Morgan had already gained nine and a half pounds and twelve days later, he gained another eight pounds. On day 21 of the challenge, Morgan has heart palpitations and is advised to end his challenge before any serious problems occur, but he still continues.
Facts stated in the film included, 1 out of 4 Americans visit fast food restaurants every day, McDonald’s feeds more than 46 million people per day, most nutritionists recommend eating fast food no more than once a month, and sixty percent of all Americans are overweight or obese.
I believe that Spurlock’s good humor and lively personality also made the film even more interesting to watch. His relaxed style of educating his audience also clearly allowed the facts to speak for themselves.
Exigency: Most people would agree that McDonald’s doesn’t serve the