February 20, 2015

Watch HBO’s The Weight of the Nation

In this excellent HBO documentary series being offered for free through YouTube, HBO filmmakers focus on the American obesity epidemic. Throughout the documentary health and nutrition experts are interviewed along with everyday people that are overweight or obese. The filmmakers travel the whole country to collect stories about all sorts of topics related to food and obesity. The documentary is in four parts but the episodes are basically all separate documentaries unto themselves so you can choose whichever ones you’re most interested in.

This 4-episode documentary starts out in “Part 1: Consequences” cataloging the massive health consequences of obesity from heart disease to type 2 diabetes. They look at why since the 1980s the amount of overweight and obese individuals in the US has risen to over two-thirds of the population.

In “Part 2: Choices”, the documentary takes a turn in the self-help direction focusing on what individuals can do to combat obesity including reducing caloric intake, eating healthier, and exercising more. Many obese individuals who have significantly lost weight are interviewed and they present the many creative ways in which they have gone about losing weight and keeping it off.

In “Part 3: Children in Crisis”, the documentary turns its eye on the astonishing rise of childhood obesity and the many health dangers posed by this epidemic, including the sobering fact that this younger generation may have shorter life spans than their parents. The episode covers the pernicious and predatory marketing of junk food to children, the sad state of school lunches, and the decline of required physical education in schools. It also looks at how certain parents are getting involved in these matters and taking active roles confronting obesity when it comes to their children.

In “Part 4: Challenges”, the documentary covers the history of the food industry in the United States and the current climate of food production we live in. It looks at the fast food industry and the cheap processed foods that are keeping prices low, but escalating health care costs in the long term. The role of government is addressed as they continue to provide farm subsidies for corn, soy, and the cheap foods that are generally contributing to making the population obese. In the end the nation faces a series of difficult challenges when it comes to addressing obesity, but this documentary does offer some signs of hope.

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