This Advocate reporter has been learning about health and eating habits in my health class taught by physical education teacher, Mr. Mike Fortier. Students had an opportunity to watch the highly popular movie Super-Size Me. After the movie students recorded everything they ate for the next three days. Before we started to record our food intake, we learned about all of the food groups and how much of each group we need based on our age, weight, height, and physical activity. Students also learned the recommended calorie and fat intake by visiting www.mypyramid.gov. I recorded every crumb I ate for three days and analyzed the information. I personally met four of the six food groups’ recommendations. No one’s perfect and I thought I did well.

Okay, I’ll admit it, I sometimes love fast food. Most of us do. It is everywhere we go. The media constantly bombards us with advertisements of restaurants. Have you ever thought, maybe just maybe, a lot of the fast food restaurants don’t provide enough healthy choices? Well, you are right. Foods are being processed more and more. According Super-Size Me, in 2001 McDonalds spent 1.4 billion dollars on advertising.

Have you ever thought about what processed foods do to you and your body? Obesity has just become an epidemic. Logic tells us that it can’t possibly be home cooking because that has happened for thousands of years. The little diners across the street have been around forever too. What has changed in the past few years? Fast Food restaurants. Some fast food restaurants can be beneficial however. Subway, for example, helped Jared Fogle loss weight and keep it off. In the movie, Super-Size Me, a restaurant Morgan Spurlock dined at produced gruesome results. In just five days of eating three meals a day he gained 10 pounds. A team of doctors monitored his every move and recorded data. Spurlock was an exceptionally healthy man, in the end… well I’ll let you watch the movie to find out.

If you think fast foods are risky, so are some of the school lunches around the country. At some schools healthy choices aren’t even an option. At other schools meals are fresh, not prepackaged meals providing great nutrients. I am proud to say that at Philip W. Sugg Middle School sodas aren’t an option nor are snacks that are packed with sugar.

The movie Super- Size Me has been an inspiration to me. It made me realize how awful fast food can be. Also it made me realize how hard it is to avoid it. This movie made such an impact on me I made my family watch it. I’d suggest this for anyone interested in learning more about fast food restaurants. Keep in mind this study was very drastic. Though, when you think about it, some people eat at fast food places quite often, sometimes even more than once a day.