Essay: Supersize Me

I believe Morgan Spurlock, in his documentary SuperSize Me, was trying to educate us as to the dangers of the fast food we are presented with as sustenance in everyday life. The habits of Americans to be on the go has made brands, such as McDonalds, Burger King and Wendy’s, to name just a few, an important though extremely unhealthy substitute to the good old American home cooked meals. The impacts of this replacement to the well balances means that we are the most overweight country in the world with incredibly high rates of heart disease and obesity, which in turn, could impact the higher costs of health care in our country.

Whose responsibility is obesity in America? Are companies, such as McDonalds or Burger King, to be held responsible or should they be pressured into changing the products they offer to be more healthy? In a free enterprise system, the consumer is really what drives the products offered. In other words, it is our lifestyles or choices which keep McDonalds and Burger King in business. If we wanted more healthy offerings, we would demand this. With free enterprise, companies offer products which consumers will consume. If a product doesn’t sell, the company will alter their offerings in order to demand greater dollar expenditure from the consumer. If consumers are still not interested in the products offered by a company, eventually the company will go out of business. As of today, McDonalds is a fortune 500 company with little chance of going out of business. They are also a global company which is continuously expanding into new territory. How can we place the blame for our consuming habits on the company which provides us with the goods and services we prefer?

Morgan’s documentary was a beautiful way to show exactly what happens when we disregard the basic notions of self-discipline and everything in moderation. I believe his visits to the doctor should have been an awakening to anybody who visits McDonalds more than once or twice a month. It should be required viewing from sixth through twelfth grades and at least once in every college throughout our country. The evidence is compelling we should refrain from eating foods which such high fat, high carbohydrate and cholesterol contents. I am not sure anybody with a reasonable degree of intelligence could dispute this notion after viewing the movie.
The tactics employed by McDonalds as far as brand recognition appeared to be catchy jingles, which many of us, to this day, can still rattle off from the top of our heads. “Two all beef patties, special sauce, lettuce, cheese, pickles on a sesame seed bun.” “Have it your way, at Burger King”, “I’d like to teach the world to sing, in perfect harmony” and the all time classic “Where’s the beef!??” are just a few catchy brand recognition jingles I can remember from my childhood. It is the desire of the company for us to become immune and forget thinking about products and what they mean and to simply drive down the road, take note of the golden arches and stop in for a quick meal for the family. Supersize, biggie fries, value menu – all carefully named to make us feel our money goes the distance in nurturing our hungry families.

Solving the problem of obesity in America starts with educating our children at home and at our schools. At home, were we to make healthy snacks available and promote well balanced diets to our children, the levels of child obesity would eventually go down. Can we somehow show that poorer or less educated children are more likely to be overweight and can we make a correlation between this lack of economic opportunity and a lesser quality of education to childhood and adolescent obesity? Once the cycle of obesity starts, I believe that it is not difficult to propagate these tendencies to adults. It must start young and be promoted in both a healthy home and by our educational institutions.