What Is The Fat Head Documentary Essay

Fast food is unhealthy and does not provide the necessary nutrients needed for a daily diet, however Mcdonald's, a fast food empire claimed in a 2004 lawsuit against them that fast food can be a part of a healthy diet. The court ruled that the plaintiffs would have a serious claim if they could prove that eating fast food for every meal is dangerous for the person and their health. Morgan Spurlock, writer, director, producer, and star of 2004 documentary Supersize Me set out to prove that fast food is dangerous for a person's health. The documentary follows Morgan on his 30 day challenge of only eating fast food for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. Through Morgan's challenge his weight skyrockets, his health declines and feels terrible all the time. Many people believe that fast food companies are to blame for America's obesity but the individual must take responsibility for what they put into their bodies instead of blaming fast food companies for their unhealthy eating habits .The documentary explores the idea that people should avoid eating fast food because Fast food, although more convenient and easier is worse for you than making your own meals. Fast food leads to many health risks and is not a good substitution for traditional meals. People should avoid eating

In “Escape from the Western Diet”, the writer Michael Pollan is making points as to why we should avoid the Western Diet. Understanding the problems of the Western Diet and solutions to escape from it is the main idea of this article. He reminds us of many different scientific theories that demonstrations how the Western Diet is behind the large number of diseases that follow to those who eat it. Those theories were the “lipid hypothesis”, the “carbohydrate hypothesis” and the “neolipid hypothesis”. Michael Pollan believed that all the theories and scientific explanations were not going to prevent the chronic diseases from the Western diet. And the only solution

As a culture and as individuals, we no longer seem to know what we should and should not eat. When the old guides of culture and national cuisine and our mothers’ advice no longer seem to operate, the omnivore’s dilemma returns and you find yourself where we do today—utterly bewildered and conflicted about one of the most basic questions of human life: What should I eat? We’re buffeted by contradictory dietary advice: cut down on fats one decade, cut down on carbs the next. Every day’s newspaper brings news of another ideal diet, wonder-nutrient, or poison in the food chain. Hydrogenated vegetable oils go from being the modern alternatives to butter to a public health threat, just like that. Food marketers bombard us with messages that this or that food is “heart healthy” or is “part of a nutritious meal”. Without a stable culture of food to guide us, the omnivore’s dilemma has returned with a vengeance. We listen to scientists, to government guidelines, to package labels—to anything but our common sense and traditions. The most pleasurable of activities—eating—has become heavy with anxiety. The irony is, the more we worry about what we eat, the less healthy and fatter we seem to become.

An analysis of the film Super Size Me, which is a 2004 documentary over Morgan Spurlock who documents the obesity problem we have in this country and how McDonald’s and other fast food chains are the ones that mainly contribute to the increasing problem, and exploring the realist aesthetics of the film goes over the elements of direct address to the camera, handheld camera, on-camera interview and also real people (non actors). This documentary was made to study the influence that the fast food industry, such as McDonald’s, Wendy’s, KFC and others have over the obesity problem in America. Morgan Spurlock makes himself a guinea pig and explores the consequences to his body when only eating McDonald’s three times a day for one whole month and he can only super size it if the cashier asks him. Spurlock consults with a practitioner, cardiologist, gastroenterologist, nutritionist, and trainers to help and track the change in his body during the whole experiment.

Weight is a part of every human beings life. Every one weights something. In society, it is commonly found that people mistakenly judge their health based on their weight. America has thousands of health experts and nutritionist who claim themselves as protectors of health, “helping a nation stricken with heart disease, diabetes, and cancer” (Maxville 443). They believe that eating is simply for fueling the body and you should eat mostly plants, but not too much. Maxville uses the vast theory of health experts to tie in the point that, “each of these maladies is tied to our diet and essentially our weight. As a culture we no longer discuss healthy eating without also discussing unhealthy weights” (Maxville 444). While Maxville believes that the bigger issue is not weight, but linking nutrition and body type. While, Pollan warns readers of eating too much, he never mentions that it is equally as fatal to eat too little. Pollan states in his essay that overeating is the “greatest threat” to our survival. Maxville uses Pollan’s statements on the topic of weight to prove that being unhealthy should not be tied solely to being overweight, because being under weight is equally unhealthy. To further discredit the claims Pollan makes linking weight to health, Maxville states, “A growing group of academics who

Long ago, the ancestors of humans lived in unpredictable times in which meals were not guaranteed. Now in the 21st century, data suggests, as mentioned in Fed Up, that there will be more deaths caused directly or indirectly by obesity than by starvation. The documentary Fed Up focuses on the terrifying issue that plagues the United States and the world: obesity. It delves into the components that contribute to this menacing epidemic that only continues to get worse. The documentary builds on the stories of four young American children from all over the country that are severely obese. One of the kids, at 14 years of age, weighs over 400 pounds. Fed Up tries to answer one simple question with a complex and scary answer. How did the world get here? There are several different issues the documentary tried to address to answer this question. In the documentary, several misconceptions about food were dissected. In addition to debunking myths about food, the documentary discussed how it is possible to eat healthy for less money than eating unhealthy. Those were a few of the aspects that can have an impact on individuals, but the documentary did not stop there. It also attacked the huge food industry for their misleading advertisements and selling techniques, as well as condemning their focus of selling to younger people. Furthermore, the documentary explained how the food industry is so rich and powerful in the country’s capital that it has thwarted the many attempts in trying

Michael Pollan says in his argument that the western diet is chiefly to blame for a majority of health deceases, he says “the scientist who blame our health problems on defiances of these micronutrients are not the same scientist who see sugar-soaked diet leading to metabolic syndrome and from there to diabetes, heart deceases, and cancer” (421) Due to all this negative impact to our health Pollan says that the food industry needs new theories to better redesign processed food and the medical community to make new drugs to beget deceases.

Contrary to the popular belief of the time, Morgan Spurlock’s amateur documentary “Supersize Me” pushed reform in both fast food culture, and eating habits of citizens, being one of the first catalysts in a new movement in America. This 2004 film, being the first of his works to establish Spurlock as a filmmaker, focuses on Spurlock’s 30 day journey in which he vowed to eat solely McDonalds for three meals a day, and track his overall mental, physical, and social changes over this span of time. Throughout the film, Spurlock consults three doctors (a gastroenterologist, a cardiologist, and a general practitioner) as well as a nutritionist to monitor physical change and gather quantitative data supporting his claim. The film often exhibited

We need to say away from foods that are unnatural because they have a negative effect on our bodies. There are two different kinds of fats. Hydrogenated fat, which is the worst for you, which includes such foods as crackers. Natural plant based fats, which is good for you that include such foods as avocadoes. We humans tend to misread the difference. If it has a name for something that is good for you in the title doesn’t mean that it’s good for you. An example of this would be high fruit corn syrup. The writers told us that it is like smoking cocaine because even cocaine or high fruit corn syrup is made from something so pure at one time is now super unhealthy. Sugar is like drugs and alcohol addicting and sometimes very harmful. It comes in all forms such as therefore carbonates like bread. Even though it is not in a crystalized form it still is sugar. Humans become habituated to the effect of sugar. The facts are absolutely true because each individual person tends to consume 150 lbs. of sugar per year. Our mood can change and chronic disease can occur just because of this everyday “comfort food”.

Dietary decisions are frequently impressionable and can sway between generations or cultures frequently. Often these shifts in the popular beliefs about diet are fueled by scientific studies or doctors, you can simply examine the impact of Dr. Oz T.V. program or remember the popularity of the Atkins diet to see how quickly these shifts can happen. One such claim that can be found is that, high levels of dietary cholesterol is the leading cause of heart disease and obesity. Katherine Pett of Nutrition Wonk examines a trend within the scientific community in which over simplification and misrepresentation can skew work that has existed for over half of a decade.

For the previous couple decades, Americans have been misled by the government and health professionals, who were implementing inaccurate dietary standards that led to the promotion of certain items as “healthy”, has actually resulted in a nationwide obesity epidemic of vast proportions. This unprecedented surge in obesity has affected everybody from children in elementary schools, to retired seniors, and has contributed to the single largest rise in diseases, the world has ever known. Obesity has actually reached the number two cause of preventable death in the United States (Healthaliciousness), thus created the first generation of children ever in history which is predicted to have a shorter lifespan than their parents. The documentaries Fed Up and Forks over Knives are both in support of creating a healthier America for all individuals. Although they both share a similar concept on how fast-food is extremely harmful, but both take quite different approaches to support their claim. In the documentary Fed Up, Stephanie Soechtig allows us to follow the lives of four families who are struggling with a childhood obesity problem. Throughout the film she has various “experts” express their opinions to help combat the epidemic, but their selection of “experts” is mainly through politicians, political leaders, and journalist, but not so much on nutritional scientist. On the other hand,

Morgan Spurlock, a filmmaker, created a documentary film called Supersize Me which accentuates the message of what dangers of fast food and consequently their effects on our health. This belief was inspired from a lawsuit case of two girls who, at the time were suing McDonalds for their health issues, such as obesity. However, the girls lost to the lawsuit, the judge ruled that was no evidence of their sufficient health obesity was the cause of eating from McDonalds. Due to this lawsuit, he conducted an experiment only to eat McDonalds for a maximum of 30 days and investigate the impact of fast food on his health. During this documentary film, the following viewers went on the journey with Spurlock to witness the extravagant changes McDonalds

In a recent movie “Super Size Me”, director Morgan Spurlock examines the effects of a steady diet

thinness is now a major desirable and acceptable goal; therefore, it would allow an easier

Through the lens of health psychology it is possible to glean a great deal of important information from the documentary Supersize Me. I have chosen to highlight three specific sections of health psychology that stood out within Spurlock’s film. The first revolves around appeals to certain health behaviours coming from various sources i.e. large food corporations or governmental food agencies. The second aspect of health psychology I have chosen to highlight is managed care and the various information that medical professionals provide in regards to biological and psychological health. The final facet that I will be