Blog Post 8 - Film Viewing

In 2004 a documentarian by the name of Morgan Spurlock conducted an experiment with himself as the guinea testing as to whether or not eating only McDonalds for 30 days and for every meal is actually dangerous. Over the years, several suits have been made against McDonad's that they are knowingly selling food that is unhealthy. However, the courts stated that the plaintiffs would have a claim if, they cold prove the above point, that eating Mickey D's and only Mickey D's for every meal for 390 days straight is truly dangerous. This is where Morgan steps in. This man is of above average fitness and is used to a vegan lifestyle, however with this experiment he is about to drastically change his lifestyle to fir that f most Americans. Not only will he eat fast food for every meal, but also, if at anytime they ask him if he wants to super size his meal he must. Not only must his diet match that of fast food eaters, by the exercise habits of many as well. He must subjugate himself to less exercise than he is used to, a mere 5000 steps a day. The argument made is that McDonald's is knowlingly selling unhealthy foods to their customers and potentially putting their lives at risk below you can see the aftermath on Morgan's body due to this experiment.

Not only did he gain a massive amount of weight, almost a pound a day, but his cognitive thinking was altered due to this diet. He proved the dangerous things that can occur from only eating fast food. There are things wrong with this argument however. There made a harsh generalization of the fast food population that they do not exercise or if thy do, very little as well as assumed that they will eat it for every meal. There are other variables not considered such as alternate lifestyles, a variable of different levels of exercise as well as maybe gender, race or socioeconomic status can affect this experiment. Though he gave results hat they were looking for, it because it was almost impossible for him to fail with how the results were set up. More needs to be taken into account to make it more credible, even though he did do what the courts asked of him, to see how fast food negatively affects the body if eaten everyday for every meal.

This picture almost seems to sum it up. We are trying to find a scapegoat for our own problems. The restaurants aren't shoving food down our mouths, its our choice. They aren't advertising it to be healthy but we are assuming or doing it because its convenient. Sure, they are adding to the obesity epidemic we are facing here in America, but we aren't doing anything to help besides trying to pass blame.