Who's To Blame?

When we think of obese or overweight people our minds tend to wander toward those who continually choose to devour fast food for breakfast, lunch, and dinner, while slurping down a Big Gulp from 7-11. However, most NFL, NBA, NHL, and Olympic athletes would be considered overweight or obese according to their BMI, which is currently the most common way for someone to receive statistical information on the health of their body composition (Hall). Therefore due to these results people cannot automatically assume that fast food is the root of all the obesity in the world. Ultimately, it is people’s choices that determine whether or not things are to be considered healthy or unhealthy.
The first thing that people argue when discussing the healthiness
However, Spurlock’s documentary exaggerates various aspects of daily fast food eating. For example, Spurlock commits to eating approximately 5,500 calories a day at McDonald’s alone. However, an Egg McMuffin, orange juice and coffee for breakfast, a Big Mac, fries, a Coke and a sundae for lunch; and 10 McNuggets, sweet ‘n’ sour sauce, and a parfait for dinner only adds up to approximately 2,730 calories. This entails an entire day’s worth of food at McDonalds and Spurlock would have had to double that in order to reach his goal of 5,500 calories, which demonstrates that Spurlock’s goal of 5,500 calories was over the top even for those who eat McDonalds for breakfast, lunch, and dinner (Hoffman). Furthermore, recommended calorie intake is dependent on factors such as age, size, height, and gender, but the general recommended daily calorie intake in the U.S is 2,700 calories for en and 2,200 for women. So the previously mention 2,730 calorie meal, which consisted of an Egg McMuffin, orange juice and coffee for breakfast, a Big Mac, fries, a Coke and a sundae for lunch; and 10 McNuggets, sweet ‘n’ sour sauce, and a parfait for dinner would adhere to the recommended calories for men (Nordqvist). This demonstrates that McDonald’s does have the ability to be healthy if one chooses not to unnaturally and excessively gorge themselves on McDonald’s
He set out go on a 2,000 calorie daily diet consisting of only McDonald’s food, while also trying not to exceed carbs, proteins, fat calories, and cholesterol. During this experiment the teacher also walked 45 minutes each day. By the end of this science teachers McDonald’s diet, he found that he had lost 37 pounds and had lowered his cholesterol by almost 80 points. This teacher’s breakfast consisted of two egg white delights, a bowl of maple oatmeal and 1 percent milk; for lunch he usually had a salad; and for dinner he’d order items like Big Macs, ice creams, and sundaes. At the end of this experiment this teacher said, “It’s our choices that make us fat, not McDonald’s” (Grossman). This story and quote demonstrates that McDonald’s itself isn’t healthy, but it is instead the customers who make McDonald’s unhealthy with their poor decisions and