Everything is bigger in America

Super Size Me attempts to give an insight to the dangers of fast food industry, with an special focus on McDonalds, being the largest fast food company in the world. Oddly enough, the health risks associated with fast food are not breaking news. The dangers of fast food are widespread and commonly known, they are choose to be ignored or overlooked. The underlying truth I see is: consumerism. While we see the transformation of Spurlock in his journey of 30 days of McDonalds diet, we cannot overlook his main outtake, which is the nature of fast food companies, and the basis of the United States culture which is consumerism. Spurlock understand this, and in a very clever way portraits this message grabbing the audience's attention by impressing them with the tremendous effects consumerism of fast food has on the person's physically, emotionally, and psychologically health, while giving insight of the deep of the rabbit hole. a a a a a a a a a a a a a a a a a a a1 a

In Plato's The Allegory of the cave,  Plato reasons that we our blind of truth, we see and believe through shadows the reality of the world. We do not understand that it is merely the product of our imagination what he speak to be real or truth, for we do not have the ability to turn our heads and see that that of what we had spoken is not it, but its shadow. In the same way, we are bombed with advertisement, at every moment, we are told how things are, we do not seem them, we only see it's shadow. We have been conditioned to consume. Every time more and more, and bigger and bigger, one of the many examples in Super Size Me was the change in size of the fries or sodas or meals, going from a unique size (that is now consider small or kids) to large, even super size. This change is motivated by monetary revenue, to increase consumerism. But consumerism conveys a higher price than just monetary. What I found scary is that fast food industries in order to increase consumerism, can go to make their food addictive. Spurlock became addicted to McDonalds, Spurlock said "i eat some, and the after a little while latter I will be hungry again and wanting to eat more" he feel depressed and tired unless he was eating McDonalds, but the effect was only temporary.

We can choose to keep believing the shadows, or we can try to set us free, so that we can turn and see the light that creates the shadows, so that we can understand reality, or we can always go super size.

Can I make that a large?

Imagine people sitting at a table in your local Chick-fil-a or Burger King truly enjoying the their food. Ideally, it’s healthy right? Doesn’t the menu show how many calories are in each item on the menu and offer “healthier” options such as diet coke or salad? Do people honestly take that into consideration? People believe the ideals and images these companies give their food or they choose to ignore them altogether.

These images and ideals are similar to those shown to the slaves in Plato’s Allegory of the Cave. In Plato’s Allegory of the Cave, Plato attempts to describe the mindset of the masses and how it would be if they were to uncover the truth. The slaves(the masses) believe that the images are true to life. They did not challenge or think anything different from what they were shown or told, and that applies to the fast food customers of today.

In the film, Super Size Me, director Morgan Spurlock embarks on a 30-day journey of eating only McDonald’s menu items as his sole source of nourishment. Over this time period, he gains more baggage than weight. He becomes challenged with occasional vomiting, psychological health problems, and physical health problems ranging from headaches to heart palpitations. But why even do this? While Morgan did shed light on the controversial tactics used in the creation and disbursement of fast foods, he is only one of the trillions of slaves that should challenge or release themselves from the bonadge of fast food. But to me, the challenge not only lies in the consumer, but the employee too.

I work at Chick-Fil-a, and its seems absurd for me to agree with anything that goes completely left of the status quo of my workplace, but how can I not? I go to work with intention. The intention of selling food that is unhealthy, making the drive-thru move as fast as possible to get food to the people faster, but also recommend more than what was asked for. I mean I literally sell the food that can lead to high blood pressure, heart failure, even massive weight gain.

The text and the film challenged me more significantly because I embark on both paths. How can I choose a healthy lifestyle for myself when I sell unhealthy food? How can I choose to say no to unhealthy food when I eat it myself? While I can not change my lifestyle in the flip of a burger, I can acknowledge it.