By now we’ve all heard about the 2004 documentary “Super Size Me!” by director Morgan Spurlock.
In this documentary, Morgan documents his attempt to eat nothing but McDonald’s for a month, super sized only when offered, to see what effect the “food” will have on his system.
To make a long story short, his health declines dramatically in the short time that he subsists on the fatty fare. Along with gaining weight and super sizing his cholesterol, he also suffers liver damage.
The film interviews many health experts, including a surgeon general, and investigates the horrors of some school lunch programs.
Is this story for real? I enjoy a good burger now and then, just like any red-blooded American. But are we killing ourselves in the name of convenience?
Or is it just a sensationalized journey into the excesses of our “consumer” society?
Here are some facts. You can judge for yourself.
McDonald’s may be the Michael Jordan of fast food restaurants. It is one of the most recognizable capitalist edifices in the world.
McDonald’s operates more than 30,000 restaurants in more than 100 countries on six continents.
McDonald’s feeds more than 46 million people a day-more than the entire population of Spain.
The World Health Organization has declared obesity a global epidemic.
The problem is the worst in the United States. Sixty percent of all Americans are either overweight or obese. Each day, one out of four Americans visits a fast food restaurant.
In 1972, we spent $3 billion a year on fast food-today we spend more than $110 billion a year. French fries are the most eaten vegetable in America.
In the United States we eat more than a million animals an hour. Forty percent of American meals are eaten outside the home.
McDonald’s represents 43 percent of the total U.S. fast food market.
Fast food is a major health concern. Surgeon General David Satcher has said, “Fast food is a major contributor to the obesity epidemic.”
Left unabated, obesity will surpass smoking as the leading cause of preventable death in America. You would have to walk for seven hours straight to burn off a super sized Coke, fry and Big Mac.
Most nutritionists recommend not eating fast food more than once a month.
Obesity has been linked to the following ailments and diseases: hypertension; coronary heart disease; adult onset diabetes; stroke; gall bladder disease; osteoarthritis; sleep apnea; respiratory problems; endometrial; breast, prostate and colon cancers; insulin resistance; breathlessness; asthma; reproductive hormone abnormalities; polycystic ovarian syndrome; impaired fertility and lower back pain. Diabetes will cut 17 to 27 years off your life.
Perhaps the worst thing about the fast food epidemic is that, like cigarette companies once did, most fast food chains target children.
McDonald’s distributes more toys per year than Toys-R-Us. The average child sees 10,000 TV advertisements per year.
One in every three children born in the year 2000 will develop diabetes in their lifetime. Before most children can speak, they can recognize McDonald’s.
McDonald’s has made some changes in response to the growing obesity problem in America, such as removing super sizing from their menu. But it’s not gone. They have said they will bring it back for special promotional offers.
The fact is, it’s not all their fault. We’re the ones that continually eat Big Macs, even though we know it’s bad for us.
According to Morgan Spurlock’s research, McDonald’s refers to people who eat a lot of their food by the ironic title, “Heavy Users.”
McDonald’s has admitted, “Any processing our foods undergo make them more dangerous than unprocessed foods.”
In fact, only seven items on McDonald’s entire menu contain no sugar.
In the end, it is up to us, the consumer, to make changes in our lifestyle and eating habits. The prevalence of fast food in America and throughout the world is causing an obesity epidemic. And with obesity comes a host of other problems that are killing us.
But really, we’re killing ourselves.
Nick Thompson is a senior communication major. He can be reached at [email protected].