The former production documented Australian Joe Cross’ life.
He was 100 pounds overweight and suffered from a debilitation autoimmune
disease, for which he had been consuming numerous drugs and steroids. Through
the film, Joe changed his lifestyle completely, refraining from all fast-foods
and learning how to enjoy exercising, mainly by walking. By the end of the
film, he maintained a normal weight and no longer suffered from any diseases.
While the juicing served as a jump-start to his lifestyle change, the grand
scheme of the film was to eat healthy foods and for nutritional purposes and
exercise regularly…for the rest of your life.
“The Weight of the Nation” discussed a plethora of issues on
the health of the nation. One particular segment focused on the United States’
food systems and environment that actually encourages overeating and obesity.
For example, we are a profit-driven nation and the U.S. diet industry generates
more than $60 billion in annual sales. Some of those profits come from various
diets for which you purchase their book and/or their food or their gimmicks and
attempt to lose weight. Remember the various diets out there? The Cabbage Soup
Diet, the Popcorn Diet, the 3 Apple a Day Diet, The Atkins Diet, the South
Beach Diet, and so on. Then, there are programs such as Jenny Craig and Nutrisystem
which come with their own pre-packaged foods, which of course you have to buy.
Yes, at some level, these diets may actually help you lose weight. But, in most
cases, once you go off of these diets, you regain the weight. Why? Because you
haven’t changed your lifestyle permanently.
Of course, there is always the extreme weight-loss program
which involves surgery. These surgeries (gastric bypass, lapband insertion,
stomach stapling) are often last-resort options of weight loss, but they are
still drastic means of becoming thinner. The risk of such surgeries may be more
than you bargained for and can include excessive bleeding, infection, blood
clots, and leaks into your gastrointestinal system. Long-term risks and
complications include bowel obstruction, gallstones, hernias, malnutrition,
ulcers, and stomach perforation. It would seem with such risks that the only
ones who benefit would be the hospital and/or physicians performing the surgery.
In some cases, this type of surgery may be the only option for other health
reasons. But for most people, this should not be an option for weight loss.
Besides the multi-billion dollar diet industry, we also have
significant environmental barriers to overcome in order to become healthier as
a nation. The fast-food and pre-packaged foods industries are part of the
problem. Most of these foods utilize high sugar and high fat volumes for
production. These products are cheap and easy to grow … mostly in the form of
soybeans and corn. Because of the sheer volume of foods available and moving on
the market, the need for corn and soybeans has skyrocketed. In one of the
segments of “The Weight of the Nation,” farmers reported that there are federal
incentives to grow these crops instead of other fruits and vegetables. Thus, to
earn a living, these farmers’ fields are covered annually with corn and
soybeans, most of which is turned into high fructose corn syrup and other
fillers for the fast-food industry and pre-packaged foods (such as Little
Debbie snacks, Cheetos, Corn Chips, etc.).
One of the most shocking statistics revealed in the film
stated that if every U.S. citizen actually consumed the USDA’s recommended
daily allowances of fruits and vegetables, our nation could not support it. The
farmlands do not produce enough fruits and vegetables to sustain these daily
recommended allowances for every single person living in the country. According
to film, less than 2% of the nation’s farmland is used to grow fruits and
vegetables while more than 60% is used for corn and soybeans. What’s the point
of pushing the five servings of fruits and vegetables if we can’t serve it up?
Our nation has become so used to its quick, prepared foods
that many people today wouldn’t recognize the tastes of fresh foods. One lady
interviewed for The Weight of the Nation said, “We don’t crave broccoli, we
learn to crave Big Macs.” The point here is ‘learn.’ We can retrain ourselves
to crave healthier options if they are readily available.
While eating Big Macs and Little Debbie snacks may not seem
like a huge concern, the problem with all of this routinely unhealthy eating is
that obesity leads to a plethora of diseases that cost the nation billions of
dollars in the care of diabetes, cardiovascular disease, high blood pressure,
breathing issues, certain cancers, and more. Oftentimes, those with such
diseases do not have adequate coverage and the general public ends up picking
up the tab, which can exceed trillions of dollars. Obesity is an expensive
disease, and one that we cannot afford.
“The Weight of the Nation” film series ended with the
premise of making changes at the government level to provide incentives for
farmers to grow more fruits and vegetables, to provide incentives to maintain
inner-city farmer’s markets and fruit stands, to provide incentives for the
restaurant industry to utilize fresh produce instead of processed foods, and
the list goes on. But, until we have a national paradigm shift in the
nutritional well-being of our country, the trend for obesity may not lessen.
Not only do individuals need to change their lifestyle to reduce obesity, the
nation must change its lifestyle to reverse the obesity epidemic.
This is not an easy undertaking, but know that there are
advocates in Washington pushing for improvements to farm policy, medical
policy, and nutritional policies so that we can become a healthier nation.
To view The Weight of the Nation film series free online, go
to: http://theweightofthenation.hbo.com/films.
To view Fat, Sick and Nearly Dead documentary free online,
go to: http://www.hulu.com/watch/289122/fat-sick-and-nearly-dead
References
Every Day Diets. (2012). Diet index. Retrieved June 1, 2012
from http://www.everydiet.org/diets.htm.
Home Box Office. (2012). The weight of the nation. Retrieved
June 1, 2012 from http://theweightofthenation.hbo.com/films.
Mayo Clinic. (2012). Gastric bypass surgery. Retrieved June
1, 2012 from http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/gastric-bypass/my00825/dsection=risks.
U.S. Department of Agriculture. (2012). Dietary assessment.
Retrieved June 1, 2012 from http://fnic.nal.usda.gov/dietary-guidance/dietary-assessment.
U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.
(2012). What are overweight and obesity? Retrieved June 1, 2012 from http://www.nhlbi.nih.gov/health/health-topics/topics/obe/
