Supersizing American Waistlines Analysis

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Professor Rachael Jordan
English 105-06
Fall 2013
Super-Sizing American Waistlines
According to the latest obesity statistics, the United States is rapidly losing the battle of expanding waistlines, with every one in three Americans being obese. It is no wonder why people are filing lawsuits against McDonalds and other companies for their increase in weight. However, due to a number of reasons, such as portion distribution and advertisement, the eating habits of Americans become worse each year. It seems fast food is taking over our lives, “when McDonalds prides itself to be everywhere, operating over 13, 602 restaurants and making it nearly impossible to avoid” (Barboza 2). The problem of obesity is staggering so out of control
But we all need to grow up sometime and as we grew up, the portion sizes increased with us. Over the decade, our portion sizes have more than doubled since McDonalds introduced the new Super-Size me option. “Our small bag of french-fries, plain burger and twelve-ounce Coke just isn’t enough to satisfy our Americans anymore” (Brownlee 5). We now think a gigantic portion size is the new normal. Today our oversized appetites come from how low the fast food corporation’s prices are. The cheaper the food, the more it induces people to eat. Today dollar menus can be found at most fast food restaurants making it more appealing to buy when the prices are cheap. Often times you will find the cashier asking if you would like to increase the size for only a small extra fee. In Spurlock’s documentary, he was in his hometown of Manhattan when he was first asked if he wanted to supersize his meal. At first he was surprised because he never asked to super-size his meal. One of the rules of his McDonald’s challenge was he only got his order supersized when he was asked "would you like to supersize that". He observed that in his thirty day McDonald’s challenge he was asked to Super-size nine times. Each menu item is increased slightly so you would think you get a lot more for your buck. Getting anything smaller would just be a waste of money. However, “Fast food’s marketing strategies succeed only when they
Television commercials, cartoons and even schools are just some of the many ways they get their products out there. “Today, over twenty percent of schools offer brand- named fast foods” (Barboza 21). You would think sending your child to school would be one of the safest places to be. Sadly, many parents are clueless to the fact that schools have contacts to sell fast food products. The company often makes a deal with the school to sell their product in exchange for a small fee. Spurlock goes to Madison Junior High School in Worcester, Massachusetts and shows how fast food is so easily impacted in children’s lives. Many may argue that children would know better when choosing something to eat but “the increase in food marketing to children has closely tacked their increase in weight and the number of obese children has more than doubled to sixteen percent, since 1980” (Barboza 9). The tactic of using schools to help market their products has normalized the eating of fast food as “everyday food to eat”. In addition, an average child is exposed to the food brands at an early age. Using a cartoon such as SpongeBob Square Pants may seem harmless but children can’t often differentiate between a cartoon and advertisement. In the film, Spurlock interviews children between the ages of four and seven and asks them to name the picture on the card. Many