by Can Tran

Created on: June 14, 2009

"Super Size Me" by Morgan Spurlock pretty much uprooted the entire fast food industry by storm. At the same time, "Fast Food Nation: The Dark Side of the All-American Meal" exposes the negative side of the American fast food industry. Then again, America is known as a fast food nation for good reason. It is pretty much the Mecca of fast food. One could go as far as to say that America is the cradle of life of fast food.

When you look at it, all those American fast food restaurants have an international presence across the world. In most parts of the world, you will find plenty of fast food restaurants. There are McDonald's in Greece, Great Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Russia, Australia, China, Japan, South Korea, and so forth.

I have a friend working in Shanghai at the moment. She tells me that instead of eating local food, she opts to head out to either McDonald's or Kentucky Fried Chicken.

From a documentary about Russia, McDonald's is perhaps one of the most popular places to eat lunch because of the convenient prices. It explains that it serves at least ten-thousand plus a day for lunch. These are examples of the impact that American fast food has on the world.

Fast Food Nation had pointed out many things about the fast food industry such as the meat, the marketing, the food preparation, and so forth. It pointed out the marketing tactics used to target children. However, it was Super Size Me that made more of an impact.

Super Size Me was released back in 2004. This is the one that impacted the fast food industry let alone McDonald's. This is the catalyst that caused Spurlock to have his own documentary series known as "30 Days." Perhaps this was far more popular than Fast Food Nation.

For thirty days, Spurlock would eat nothing but food from McDonald's. It documents Spurlock's lifestyle during that time. On top of that, Spurlock had all of his meals supersized. As a result, Spurlock had gained so much weight. There was an increase of his body mass. Plus, it took Spurlock a little over a year to lose all of that added weight.

He also had a several doctors, a nutritionist, and a personal trainer to document those thirty days. At the end, it caused his girlfriend at the time to come up with her book called "The Great American Detox Diet."

How do both of these things impact the fast food industry? It has given the fast food industry let alone McDonald's very negative press. For any business, negative

• 1
• 2
• Next Page >>