Supersize Me Review

Supersize Me is a Morgan Spurlock film about how fast food chains such as McDonalds are greatly contributing to the increasing population of obese Americans. In this interactive documentary, Spurlock takes on the “McDiet” in which he must only eat McDonalds for an entire month. There are many other aspects to this diet. For example, he must purchase everything on the menu at least twice and order a “supersize” when offered, hence the name. He also cuts down his workouts to remain constant with the average American’s 5000 steps per day. Before he starts his new diet, he has a weigh-in and overall physical fitness test. Spurlock is above average in his body-fat/muscle ratio and seems to be in excellent general health. He consults with many different doctors as well as a nutritionalist and a personal trainer and asks how much this diet will affect his current health. Most of the doctors say that unhealthy habits will have minor side effects, but nothing particularly harmful. By the end of the first week, Spurlock has already gained a significant amount of weight and he is experiencing symptoms such as depression and lethargy. On the 21st day, Spurlock has heart palpitations after gaining even more weight. When he made it to the 30th day of the challenge, all of the doctors were surprised by the dramatic changes to his body shape and some predicted that his previous heart troubles could have irreversible effects. His girlfriend, Alexandra Jamieson, a vegan chef, helped Spurlock create a special de-tox diet. It took him 14 months to lose all of the weight and regain his health. This film was eye-opening. Since I am a kinesthetic learner, I thought the demonstration of how fast food really affects the body and mind really resonated with my learning style. The facts really stuck with me as I was able to see the changes in Spurlock’s drastically deteriorating health. This film is intercut with many interviews and images that help illustrate Spurlock’s research about obesity. This helps the viewer digest the sometimes incomprehensible statistics. Statistics about obesity and perception of fast food were motifs that helped give the audience a break from Spurlock’s gross objective. The film a little grainy and the filmmaker used mainly natural lighting. I think this made the film seem more personal and homemade, especially the parts in which the camera was wobbly. In some cases, Spurlock was filming himself in his car or outside the restaurant. I felt almost as if I was at the restaurant with him every day, and every day he seemed more and more out of it. I would definitely recommend this film for anyone that doesn’t have a weak stomach (It can get a little gross at times). It definitely gave me a different perspective of the fast food industry and really made me question some of my diet choices. You can watch the entire video on Hulu for free: