The Weight of the Nation is "HEAVY"

I recently watched two documentaries that focused on obesity, both of which made clear points behind this worldwide crisis. One of the films, “Fat, Sick, and Nearly Dead,” mainly focused on the importance of gaining nutrient-rich vitamins and minerals through juicing but had a simple message that would reverse the obesity trend: change your lifestyle. The other film, a four-part, 4-hour miniseries sponsored through Home Box Office and developed by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, “The Weight of the Nation,” had the same message: change your lifestyle.

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/