PE13 Fast Food/Supersize Me Project
For this project you are going to examine the role of fast food companies in the obesity epidemic. You are going to watch the movie “Supersize Me”, a 2004 American documentary film directed by and starring Morgan Spurlock, an American independent filmmaker. Spurlock's film follows a 28-day period (February 2003) during which he eats only McDonald's food. The film documents this lifestyle's drastic effects on Spurlock's physical and psychological well-being, and explores the fast food industry's corporate influence, including how it encourages poor nutrition for its own profit.
Once you have watched the documentary you are required to answer the following questions (click here for a link to the word document of the questions).
SUPERSIZE ME VIDEO QUESTIONS
1. How many Americans eat a meal in a fast food restaurant daily?
2. If we consider this project an experiment, why did Morgan make several doctors’ visits
before he started this project?
3. In general what is Morgan’s health status at the beginning of this project?
4. What effects do the doctors think this diet will have on Morgan?
5. What is Morgan’s starting weight and body fat percentage?
weight:
body fat
6. How many calories should Morgan eat each day to maintain his weight?
7. How many calories does Morgan eat each day on his McDonald’s diet?
8. Roughly how many steps in a mile of walking?
How many steps does an average office worker take in a day?
How many steps does Morgan limit himself to?
9. How many McDonald’s are in Manhattan alone?
Is that a lot?
10. What does Morgan’s girlfriend do?
11. What are Morgan’s rules for this project?
1.
2.
3.
4.
12. List 4 ways that McDonald’s markets directly to children?
1.
2.
3.
4.
Why is McDonald’s marketing to children an issue at all?
13. The portions of food that we consider normal servings have become distorted in recent
years. Consider these numbers from the film:
a. How many slices of bread does one (1) bagel equal?
b. How many calories in a SuperSize fries?
c. How many calories in a small McDonald’s fries?
d. How many ounces in a SuperSize soda?
e. How many ounces in a DoubleGulp soda from 7-11?
f. How much sugar is in that DoubleGulp soda?
14. What has happened to the rate of obesity in children and teens in the U.S. in recent years?
15. With their current diet, 1 in 4 American children will develop what disease (2000 stats)?
Why is this a serious health issue? What are the long term impacts if a child develops
diabetes before age 15 (especially due to obesity or poor diet)?
16. How does Morgan feel after his first Supersize meal?
Why do you think this happened?
17. One of the scientists interviewed refers to us eating and living in a “toxic environment”.
What does he mean?
18. Why are they repeatedly comparing cigarette smokers and overweight people?
19. Why is the processing of Chicken McNuggets a health issue?
20. Who did the first graders recognize the best?
How can this be so?
21. What is the main issue regarding the comparative advertising budgets of the fast food
industry, the candy companies, and the “5 A Day Fresh Fruit & Vegetable Campaign”?
22. What is the “fattest” state? Which city?
23. How much weight does Morgan gain in 5 days?
How much weight does he gain at his 2nd weigh-in?
24. What are the results of Morgan’s first blood tests?
25. What is the general health of Morgan’s liver after this project?
Why is it the health of Morgan’s liver that declines the most during this project?
26. Explain what a gastric-bypass is
27. On day 21, what do Morgan’s doctors tell him to do?
Why?
28. Morgan experiences withdrawal-like symptoms between meals and addictive type euphoria
after a meal. What’s physiologically going on inside his body at these different times?
29. What are the results of Morgan’s final weigh in?
30. What was the result of the McDonald’s lawsuit court case? Do you agree or disagree with
the ruling? Explain.
31. How long does it take Morgan to lose all the weight he gained in this 30-day project?
QUESTIONS FOR YOU TO PONDER (for each question write a paragraph response)…
32. What can be done to reduce the obesity problem in the US?
33. How often do you eat fast food? Do you feel you could stop? Why or why not?
34. Did this movie change your view of fast food? Did this movie change your view of your own
eating habits?
35. Should fast food companies be held responsible for the obesity problem in the US?
36. What do you think McDonald’s has done in response to this film?
Fast Food… A Healthy Option?
Now you have learned more about fast food, you are going to visit the websites for three of the biggest fast food restaurants to see if you can design a lunch and a dinner that each fit federal guidelines. Let’s assume that a child has eaten breakfast at home.They had 1 cup of cheerios, 1 cup of Orange juice, anda glass of milk. This breakfast has a total of 300 calories.
Here is a chart from the American Academy of Pediatrics, Pediatric Nutrition Handbook with calorie ranges for children. We will assume the child is a 10 year old girl. We want her calories to be between 1400 and 2500 for the day. In addition, no more than 30% of the calories can be from fat, and there must be less than 10% saturated fat.
Age in years / Average cal/day / Range of cal/day1-2 / 1200 / 900-1600
2-4 / 1400 / 1100-1900
4-6 / 1700 / 1300-2300
6-8 / 1800 / 1400-2400
8-10 / 1900 / 1400-2500
10-12, males / 2200 / 1700-2900
12-18, males / 2700 / 2000-3600
10-15 females / 2200 / 1700-2900
15-18 females / 2300 / 1700-3000
See if you can come up with:
A. A lunch and dinner from McDonalds that meets the guidelines
B.A lunch and dinner from Burger King that meets the guidelines
C. A lunch and dinner from KFC that meets the guidelines
For each restaurant, give the food items, total calories, total fat, percent fat from calories and the percent saturated fat.