Must See TV- HBO’s The Weight of the Nation
OK I admit it, I am a documentary junkie. I totally love something that entertains and informs. In my opinion the only thing better than a documentary is a documentary about sports. A very close second are documentaries about food.
I will also admit to thoroughly enjoying the first season of True Blood on HBO. Thought it was brilliant! I don’t have an HBO subscription, but thankfully I can catch up on the cool HBO shows via Netflix. What I have noticed about HBO is that they seem to spare no expense to do their shows right.
So, when I heard HBO was teaming up with the Institute of Medicine to do a documentary about obesity in America I was all in. Being a self proclaimed connoisseur of documentaries, this one absolutely does not disappoint. It is four hours in length, and as a diabetes educator, a person with diabetes, or any living, breathing citizen who cares about the future of this country, watching this documentary will be some of the most valuable time you will ever spend.
As we all know the obesity epidemic is not a pretty picture. It is extremely complex and there are no easy answers. It encompasses being educated about the food we eat and provided we have the resources, making personal decisions to eat healthier and be physically active. It involves addressing infrastructure at a local level as well as changing national food policy.
Some not so random facts that I gleaned watching this documentary:
- We are spending less on food and more on healthcare than ever before
- If we were somehow able to magically get everyone in the country consume the recommended intake of vegetables and fruits we couldn’t achieve this goal because less than 3% of US farmland is planted with fruits and vegetables!
- At an intellectual level I know the following to be true, but for whatever reason it simply blew my mind when I watched Dr. Thomas Friedman, director of CDC chillingly state “diabetes follows obesity like day follows night.”
Tackling the obesity epidemic is definitely easier said than done, but I believe there is hope for a brighter future if we get folks up-to-speed on what is going on. A good starting place is to have everyone you know tune in and watch this documentary!
The good news is that you don’t have fire up a subscription to HBO or wait until it comes out on Netflix. The entire series and more can be accessed on demand at no cost by going to: http://theweightofthenation.hbo.com/films/main-films/Consequences
Enjoy!
Don Kain