Fast Food and Obesity Work Hand in Hand Towards a Bigger World

In an effort to prove that the fast food industry is responsible for the growing obesity rate in the United States, independent filmmaker Morgan Spurlock followed a 30-day diet modification program that consisted only consuming only food from the McDonalds menu.

His goal was to showcase the fast food industry?s efforts to promote an unhealthy diet for it?s own financial gain. The movie, Super Size Me, was an Academy Award nominee in 2004 in the documentary film category. This movie focused on proving fast food and obesity worked together to create the epidemic health and weight concerns that are becoming such a global problem.

Fast Food and Obesity Provide Ground Rules for Documentary Style Film

Spurlock consumed 5000 each day whilst on the 30 day McDonald's diet plan and during this time he had to eat three meals daily and every item of the menu had to be indulged in at least once during the duration of the plan. The day before the diet commenced Spurlock weighed in at 185 pounds. He was a six feet two inches tall healthy thirty two year old with a BMI (Body Mass Index) of 23.2. By the end of the plan he had put on 24.5 pounds and his BMI had reached 27.

Considering that a healthy BMI for someone of his age, height and weight is between 19 and 25, it was apparent that he had moved up to the overweight bracket whilst following the McDonald's diet plan for this short period of time. Spurlock's claim that fast food and obesity are related was proven to many by these facts alone. The first five days of the fast food diet plan saw him gain in the region of ten pounds in weight.

Results of Fast Food And Obesity Experiment

Spurlock?s movie made a very big impression on America and other countries that support the McDonalds fast food industry. McDonalds soon phased out the ?supersize? menu option and though they denied that it was due to the impact of the movie, the action was taken shortly after the movie was released. In addition, McDonalds began offering ?healthy? choice menu items such as salads.

It is interesting to note that while the salads are offered as a healthy option, when combined with fried chicken breasts and fat laden salad dressings, many of the salads contain more calories and fat grams than the burgers and fries. McDonalds never agreed that fast food and obesity were related nor did they admit that their menu items were a cause for obesity.

While McDonalds does provide a fast food fat-filled meal for its customers, they do provide healthy alternatives. However, you cannot force a customer to eat healthy just because the option exists. The McDonalds menu can be modified by personal ordering preferences to be lower in fat; most customers do not make these modifications.

This fact would suggest that training the customer about what they eat should take preference over pointing a finger at big business. Whilst McDonald's ignores health guidelines and continues to sell the products that made them famous in the first place, Subway has gone all out to promote their healthy options and practices. The responsibility to make the right choice now clearly lies with the consumer.

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