Everywhere in the world, the richest people build the biggest homes, but as the world’s wealthiest nation, the United States is also building the biggest bodies.
That is a quote written by Craig Lambert in his article published in the Harvard Magazine “The Way We Eat Now.” Lambert discusses Spurlock’s documentary and many of the reasons we are such an overweight nation. Lambert writes the following about “Super Size Me.”
Spurlock’s total immersion in fast food was a one-subject research study, and his body’s response a warning about the way we eat now. “Super Size Me” could be a credo for the United States, where people, like their automobiles, have because gargantuan. SUVs, big homes, penis enlargement, breast enlargement, bulking up with steroids-it’s a context of everything getting bigger.
Not only are we never satisfied, but we have become a nation of instant gratification. Credit cards give us immediate access to just about anything our hearts desire. When we see a Burger King commercial on TV showing a Whopper, our mouths start to water. Most of us just have to hop in the car and drive a short distance and, for just a little money, we have quick gratification. Most don’t stop at the Whopper though; they order the fries and Coke to go along with it. I can sympathize with the mother who works all day and doesn’t have time to cook. It’s many times cheaper, and instant, to run through McDonalds and pick up a couple of Happy Meals and burgers to go, than to buy the ingredients to fix a healthy nutritious dinner. I’m not saying all home made, healthy food needs to be expensive or time-consuming to prepare; however, I’m definitely guilty of running through Little Ceasar’s at least twice a month for a $5 pizza to feed my family. Am I guilty of not exercising personal responsibility?
There are enormous pressures on homes with both the husband and wife in the workforce. One reason things need to be fast is that Mom is not at home preparing meals and waiting for the kids to come home from school any more. She is out there in the office all day, commuting home, and maybe working extra hours at night. This means heating something in the microwave or hitting the drive-through at McDonalds.
I don’t work outside the home, but I’m taking a full class load. I normally have time to prepare dinner at home, but many times it’s easier to grab something cheap and inexpensive through a drive-through when I haven’t planned ahead. I know it’s not good, or healthy for my family, so why do I do it?
Personal responsibility surely does play a role, but we also live in a “toxic environment” that in many ways discourages healthy eating . . . There’s the incessant advertising and marketing of the poorest quality foods imaginable. To address this epidemic, you’d want to make healthful foods widely available, inexpensive, and convenient, and unhealthful foods relatively less so. Instead, we’ve done the opposite.
When we look around, it isn’t neccessarily the wealthier, more educated people who are the most overweight. It seems to be more of an epidemic among the lower classes and minority groups.
The highly educated have only half the level of obesity of those with lower education . . . the poor tend toward greater obesity because eating energy-dense, highly palatable, refined foods is cheaper per calorie consumed than buying fish and fresh fruits and vegetables . . . The last to fatten will be rich white women.
Hamburger with 20 percent fat content is much cheaper than hamburger with 4 percent fat. When macaroni and cheese is 3 for $1 that makes a pretty inexpensive meal for someone on a very limited budget. Little Debbies are $1 a box……who thinks that’s not a great deal? I don’t buy them anymore because, for me, that stuff is very addicting. Something is wrong, not only when healthy food is so much more expensive than highly processed hot dogs and bologna, but also with a country whose media glorifies size 0 models on one hand, and on the next commercial, as Lambert points out:
In beer and corn chips ads, you see beautiful, thin people playing volleyball on the beach. Even people who are grossly unfit, sitting on the couch eating those chips and drinking that beer, see this as a positive thing. They’re having a good time on the beach, and that gets associated with chips and beer.
I think Spurlock’s documentary is very eye-opening. From someone who has always had issues with food, I believe that it makes it much more difficult to refrain from eating the junk when it’s so easily available. I don’t believe it is just McDonalds that is making us fat, it’s also the lack of activity, lack of time, increased availablility of junk food, television adds, and so much more.
Films and documentaries are a great way to spark ideas that can make the writing process interesting for students. I don’t know anyone who wouldn’t have an opinion one way or the other after watching “Super Size Me.” Further, there are so many different avenues one could write from. I believe it is much easier for students to find their voices, or write to a particular audience, when they have a strong opinion or feeling about something and understand that opinion counts. After viewing a film like Spurlocks, discussion should come easily in a “safe environment.”
It has always bothered me how expensive healthy food is! As a college student it makes me think of the dreaded “Freshmen fifteen.” This is my first year away from my home so I was terrified of gaining 15 lbs. but I just said to myself “Don’t party a lot or eat pizza!” So many people think that the “Freshmen fifteen” comes from just that; beer and pizza. This article really made me question that, however. I’ve seen so many people who don’t party a lot and don’t eat pizza a lot, but still gain a ton of weight when they go to college. I think it is because inexpensive food has so much more fat and calories, and as college students we can’t afford anything else, but at home it was no problem. My parents can afford whatever food we want, so we have a choice! I would go broke if I bought fresh fruits and veggies, and organic food all the time! Certainly many college students gain weight from a beer gut, but I wonder how much of it has to do with the change in our economic status. That would be interesting to find out! I personally think we have a personal choice whether to go to fast food places or not, however. It is just as quick to pack a sandwich as it is to drive through a drive through, but let’s say we HAVE to stop at a fast food joint. We can make better choices INSIDE the restaurant. We don’t have to get a whopper, we can get a wrap or a salad. We don’t have to get a coke, we can get a diet coke. We can go to Arby’s and get a market fresh. We make a bad choice going to those restaurants, but we continue the bad choices when we go inside. I mean come on we have to take some sort of responsibility for that.
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