Documentary Day #3

KILLER AT LARGE: Why Obesity is America's Greatest Threat.

A film by Steven Greenstreet

This documentary starts out with Brooke, a 218 pound, 12 y/o girl that wants lipo suction. Her parents don't want her to be made fun of and she wants to fit in. They end up going through with the lip suction and remove 16 liters of fat from this child. She lost 35 pounds in one treatment of lip suction. Her parents seemed to be very supportive. She got down to a weight of 155lbs on the show. The biggest concern was if Brooke would be able to keep the weight off.  Unfortunately, 7 months after the procedure she gained the weight back. Brooke's mother was interviewed and didn't think that the weight gain was emotional, but genetic. How can she be in such denial over her own child's struggles? It blows my mind and makes me so sad. One of my largest concerns with allowing a 12 y/o to have lipo suction is that it doesn't address the underlying problem, nor does it teach her proper eating habits, nutrition, and exercise. It's allowing her to temporarily run away from a problem that really hasn't been solved. 

Some of statistics that were discussed were mind blowing and proved that the United States is struggling with an "epidemic of being fat". 2/3 of the nation's people are overweight, which leads to so many diseases. Diabetes, high cholesterol, heart disease etc. And even worse is that more than 9 million children are seriously overweight. The diabetes rate is increasing drastically d/t children being overweight. They are predicting that 45% of our children will be insulin dependent in the next 10 years. 

In comparing our current situation with the past, millions of years ago a large amount of time was spent collecting the food supply where as today, there are fast food restaurants and large fat supplies in the food. One doctor explained that he thinks the overeating that people do has an underlying problem besides just self-control. Sometimes more of our decisions in a day are made about food than anything else. There are heavy marketing techniques used to promote unhealthy food and, it's so readily available to us. Everywhere you look there's some sort of food, vending station, advertisement, etc.

Speaking of self-control, people also tend to overeat d/t the portion sizes that are served or bought. We tend to think that if it's served to us, it's the appropriate serving size. 

Barry Glassner, author, says there are many things contributing to obesity. Social factors, genetics, stress patterns, etc. Stress can cause cravings to food and a large portion of humans are under some kind of stress. Your body loses the ability to burn fat efficiently as well, when under stress. We tend to work harder, sleep less, and fill our lives with non-stop activities. Stress can also be caused by the "scare factors" used in the news. There were several clips that were so familiar to hear. 

A Rabbi on the documentary explained that super thin is just as dangerous, which I believe is true. There needs to be a happy medium. Curves used to be so attractive and our culture has gotten away from that. "Thin is in." I think it's more about a healthy lifestyle than about a weight. If you're making healthy choices, you won't need to worry about being overweight.

President Clinton was also interviewed and talked about his upbringing, being overweight, and eating too much. He underweight cardiac bypass surgery and has since learned to choose healthier options. So, just because you've learned something a certain way doesn't mean you have to continue down those unhealthy paths. It's a choice to change your life!

There were also a few interviews with young people that grew up being overweight. They talked about being made fun of as they grew up, the massive amounts of food that they ate, and how their upbringing influenced them. At some point, someone down the line has to decide that they are going to make some changes and, then they can pass those healthier choices on to their families and friends!

So, this is just a portion of the documentary. There's lots more in this one that is worth hearing. I really liked it alot and felt that it kept my attention, so if you have some time to watch it, it's a good one. Watching videos like this can always help to motivate and reinforce the benefits of healthy living!!

Happy watching:)