Fed Up Page #3

to the obesity problem?

Ingestion of all calories

contributes to the obesity problem.

One question you might ask

is whether sugary beverages

contribute more so

than do other calories.

That's a very

challenging question to ask.

Well, let me ask you that.

Do they?

It's a good question.

There's reasons to believe they might.

But I don't think the evidence

is quite clear. For example...

And what would be

the science behind that?

Well, the ideal study might be

requiring people to, uh, uh...

Excuse me. Let me start again on that.

Let me just get my thoughts together.

Okay.

We know sugared

beverage consumption

is producing diabetes and obesity.

It's just ridiculous

to think otherwise.

And, of course, research shows

it to be the case.

And people are getting wise

to industry-funded studies

that show the opposite.

If you're peddling Coca-Cola,

Pepsi, sugar water, Gatorade,

you don't want your food to be

considered inherently fattening,

just as the tobacco industry

would have preferred

that their product not been considered

inherently capable of causing cancer.

But just like cigarettes

literally cause lung cancer,

certain foods literally

make you fat.

This is a big bag.

What did you have for lunch?

- Let's tell the truth.

- Um...

Hamburger. French fries.

Milk and juice.

- Milk and juice?

- They give them both.

If you ever go on a diet,

and you try to eat healthier food,

your brain's still

telling you "Eat, eat, eat.

It's not what I want.

No, get something else."

You're still used to

that fattening stuff.

That's why it's hard

to go on a diet.

You ain't got

but a few more to go.

This time of night

you don't eat that many.

- Gotta savor the flavor.

- You gotta savor the flavor?

You gotta savor the flavor

'cause you only get so many chips.

I'm trying to lose weight.

My weight is pretty heavy. 180.

I'm a pretty heavy dude.

That's why I try to get exercise in,

eat some healthy food every day.

We, um,

started eating different things,

more fruits and vegetables.

We limit our starches.

We limit our breads.

We keep healthier snacks.

He loves Hot Pockets.

So they have Lean Hot Pockets.

So I make sure to have the lean ones

versus the regular ones.

It costs more to eat healthier.

So we slip. And I'm not

gonna say we don't.

Because it's easier to go in there

and buy the cereals with sugar in it.

It's easier to buy chips,

because it's cheaper.

And that's what the food industry

wants them to think.

They want them to think

it's cheaper.

KFC Family Feast.

Nine pieces, any recipe,

three large sides,

six biscuits, 19.99.

Do not give up on dinner. Mm.

"You deserve a break today."

You can get a "value meal."

These are messages that have

kind of gotten embedded

into our culture,

into their thinking.

But there is well-documented

scientific proof

that you can eat well for less,

and they don't know that.

Okay, we're gonna be

in room number nine.

Just come right in.

And it'll be just a moment, okay?

How is the diet control going?

Diet control for him

is getting... is better.

At first it was rocky,

but it's a lot better.

I'm happy to hear that you think

things are going so well,

but it's a bit concerning,

because when I look at Wesley,

he doesn't look any thinner.

In fact, he actually looks bigger

than he did a few years ago.

And what I see from the data is...

is that he's continued

to gain weight

even faster than the rate

that he was before.

His weight is even higher

than it was last time.

I've eaten less than I usually have.

I've exercised more.

And I don't really know

why I'm getting more weight.

Mom, have you noticed

that his skin here...

is starting to get a little bit dark

and a little bit thick.

It's part of what we call

metabolic syndrome.

Oh. Okay.

His body is already starting to show

some of the adult signs

of overweight and obesity.

I worry about that I might have

a heart attack or a seizure,

or something like that

I've seen these things on the news.

And I've seen my family

have had it too.

And I'm worried

myself might have it.

So relax your arm and your leg.

And take some deep breaths.

And here we go.

It's not just genetics.

We're seeing strokes in eight-year-olds.

We're seeing heart attacks

in 20-year-olds.

We're seeing kids at 30,

by their 30th birthday needing

renal dialysis for kidney failure

because of these problems.

Genetics are a very

important part of this

and certainly

there are people

who are genetically susceptible

and genetically prone.

But genetics is not

what this is about.

When I was young,

the obesity rates

were actually pretty rare

among children.

There's been a stunning increase.

We haven't had this situation

throughout the whole history of mankind

until the past 30, 40 years.

Most experts say the obesity epidemic

really has taken place

in the last 30 years or so.

Looking back, do you think

there's anything

that your administration

or other administrations

could have done to prevent this?

I don't know.

I missed it sort of.

We knew that...

We had an effort to try to increase

the exercise programs in the schools

and improve the cafeteria requirements

but I don't think we appreciated

the magnitude of it.

We've got all these kids, even preteens,

with type 2 diabetes now.

That used to be called

adult-onset diabetes.

It was unheard of

for young people to get it.

And it's becoming a big problem

in other parts of the world.

Second-fastest growing area...

Middle East and North Africa.

It's not only a personal tragedy

for a lot of young people

and interferes with their quality

of life, their mobility,

but it will lead to

enormous complications for us.

As physicians, we know how to take care

of a 50-year-old or 60-year-old

with type 2 diabetes.

What none of us have done is to

take care of that 10-year-old

with type 2 diabetes

for five, six, seven decades.

We don't know

the consequences of that.

And that scares me greatly.

If there's a moment

in time marking the start

of the obesity epidemic,

it's 1977, the McGovern Report.

The Senate Special Committee

on Nutrition

is looking into the connection

between heart disease and diet.

Expert testimony before the

committee on nutrition and human needs

warned Senator George McGovern

that obesity would soon be

the number one form of malnutrition

in the United States.

When we get the kind of

overwhelming consensus

that has developed

before this committee

it seems to me we have some obligation

to share that with the American people.

With predictions

of rising medical cost,

the committee issued the very first

dietary goals for Americans

noting that our diet had become

overly rich in fatty meats,

rich in saturated fats

and cholesterol,

and rich in sugar.

The egg, sugar, dairy

and beef associations

with sales of their products

in danger, united,

and flat-out rejected

the McGovern Report.

They even demanded a rewrite.

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