Morgan Spurlock's Supersize Me

Morgan Spurlock, an American Independent Filmmaker embarked on an experiment of eating only McDonalds for thirty days. He documented his findings in a documentary titled “Supersize Me” As a result, Spurlock gained nearly twenty-five pounds, and his body mass increased almost fifteen percent. The reason behind Spurlock’s investigation was to identify the problem with our countries rise in obesity, largely contributed to a lack of fresh and healthy food being available. Obesity is an epidemic plaguing our country ever so quickly and one of the biggest reasons for it is many communities don’t have access to fresh food, and in many times that food if available exceeds the families budget. The United States Department of Agriculture (1) defines

So what exactly is the problem? Well, the USDA food desert locator (3) shows that ten percent of America is classified as a food desert. Households all across the country don’t have access to fresh and healthy food causing them to resort to unhealthy cheaper food like fast food or food someone could get from a convenience store. Food deserts can impact the health of our nation. Especially when it comes to obesity, because studies have shown that having greater number of convenience stores are linked to having higher obesity. While having access to fresh foods such as a grocery store or a farmers market has shown to lower obesity rates. Studies done by The Harvard school of Public health (4) asserts that our surroundings impact what we eat. Not having access to healthy foods, can corrode healthy lifestyles and promote obesity in areas affected the most by a food desert. Many times in these food deserts, fast food options are plentiful, convenient and cheap. People living in food deserts often see more advertising for junk food, or fast food, where in non-food desert areas you’ll see more advertising for a farmers market, or sales on produce at local grocery stores. Food deserts exist from New York, to Chicago to even our own

Now before we identify the causes, we need to identify the skepticism regarding this topic. It doesn’t affect everyone, and it only effects certain communities. What is important to understand is that with the rapid rise of fast food, and the increase in the price of fresh food, we will see these food deserts arise at a quicker rate than ever before. That leads to the first cause, opening more fast food restaurants. That action leads to a clear and present danger in our communities. Now don’t get me a wrong, a good juicy cheeseburger is good every once in a while. Through the opening of these fast food restaurants, kids, adults, and students alike will be more tempted than ever to spend the money on a quick and easy meal. I can’t count the number of times my parents have gotten take out simply because they didn’t want to cook. Secondly, the prices of fresh food are at an all-time high. Currently, the prices of fresh eggs are higher than recent years because of a bird flu. In turn that means that farmers producing our eggs don’t have the chickens to produce the eggs. And in result jacking up the prices of a dozen eggs. As a cashier at a grocery store, I know firsthand the anger this causes consumers. Produce prices are also at a new high as we look outside of the United States to get our fresh produce. Finally, our nation is faced with a big problem: Inadequate