So, perhaps it’s a version of confirmation bias, but I approached last night’s debut of HBO’s Weight of the Nation skeptical and I’m afraid my skepticism was rewarded.
The shows are slickly produced and they’ve assembled quite a plethora of experts to weigh in (pun intended). And there’s so much packed into each episode that I think it’s easy for people to pick out bits and pieces they like and don’t like.
Marsha Hudnall, who spent the night live-tweeting the show, summed it up this way:
my take overall: #weightofthenation had some good moments but #weightstigma was fostered. too bad
Word.
Re weight stigma, I found what Ragen Chastain of Dances With Fat said today to really resonate:
Let’s be clear - they are pathologizing a body size. It doesn’t matter if they say that we need to seek solutions environmentally instead of at the individual level, or if they say that we should have “compassion” for fat people – they are still telling people that is is not ok to exist in fat bodies and that they should see fat bodies as a threat to America. There are tons of thin people who eat unhealthy foods and are sedentary (which is completely their right), but as far as the government is concerned, as long as you are thin you’re part of the “solution,” feel free to do whatever you want. They want people to look at me (and you, if you’re fat) and think “She is part of a catastrophe. She is threatening almost every aspect of our lives. The first step toward ending the damage is learning how to fight back against her.”
Yes, I am attempting to lose weight. But that does NOT mean I think it’s okay to use obesity as a proxy for sickness OR thinness for health. I think that’s a mistake (big mistake … huge).
The saddest moment for me? The part in the first 15 minutes of the first episode when Cindy Roach, the older, morbidly obese Bogalusa bus driver says to the camera:
I’ve got to learn to eat the right things at the right times. And I’m gonna try. I’m gonna give it a shot. And come back and y’all will see maybe a new me. (laughs)
I recognize that laugh.
The second episode — strangely named “Choices” — likewise irritated me. While the personal stories were compelling, the pablum offered up for weight loss was depressing.
All of this money and all of these experts and “make realistic goals” and “keep portions under control” is what HBO has to offer? Yikes. Like I didn’t read that in Seventeen magazine back in the 1970s. Yeesh.
I get that Weight of the Nation is well-meaning. But that’s not really enough. At the end of the day it’s definitely agenda-driven … and it’s likely destined for the fate of previous public health campaigns. Read: one big, epic FAIL.
Ultimately, I remain concerned that Weight of the Nation is more likely to fan the flames of obesity hysteria than drive any meaningful change towards a more healthy nation.
Update, 5/15: Yoni Freedhoff says what Weight of the Nation should have said (emphasis mine):
[W]e need to change the world. Because really it’s the world that’s the problem, not the kids. Kids are kids. There hasn’t been a pandemic loss of willpower in 6 year olds these days. Instead these days 6 year olds are growing up in an environment that is by its very nature obesogenic. Focusing on the kids treats the symptom. We need to treat the cause.
Whether it’s banning advertising targeting kids, ending the provision of no-name junk food at schools, bringing back home economics, launching public health campaigns to promote the home cooked around the table meal, changes to crop subsidies to make junk food less inexpensive to sell – there are no shortages of initiatives we could take.
Though it’s important to note, no one initiative is going to fix this problem and so folks who whinge about how, “soda taxes aren’t going to fix this problem”, are simultaneously both right, and ill informed. …
Clever marketing and misleading food / nutritional labels usually come down to corporate profits. Companies will always want to make money, so where does the fight against obesity go from here?
We need to create a world that nudges us in the right direction, and it’s going to take a huge amount of time and effort. It will require abandoning the notion that the food industry is a “partner” and accepting the fact that their sole job, by the very definition of industry, is to increase profits.
We’re not going to solve this problem with “food products”, but we might solve it with actual food. The sooner governments appreciate that fact, the sooner we’ll see actually evidence based food guides, true school food reforms, and public health campaigns that are actually helpful.
Making the kinds of changes Yoni lists ARE hard. And accusations of “nanny statism” and the deep pockets of food lobbyists lead me to believe that things are going to get worse before they get better.
Update, 5/16: Here’s my take on episodes 3 & 4.
Weight Maven is written by Beth Mazur. Beth believes that obesity is more symptom than cause and that the real problem is our Western diet -- especially sugar, refined grains, and industrial oils. Beth writes about nutrition, ancestral health & food policy. And cats! 
I don’t have cable or satellite, so I didn’t see it on TV, but a friend sent me a link, and I saw most of “Choices” (with much buffering and computer stuttering). I was, of course, interested in how they would portray maintenance.
My conclusion: The series is schizzo. This is what happens when all scientists are deemed equal, all theories are accepted as facts, all opinions carry equal weight. For example, they allow fat people to sit, one by one, and blame themselves for yo-yo weight cycling. Then they gIve Rudy Leibel all of 30 seconds — he’s the scientist who did Leptin trials and reached the conclusion that weight-reduced people are different hormonally and metabolically from people who are naturally at the same weight. There are sound reasons that people experience yo-yo cycling beyond their having a weak will. This seems hopeful, but then the series virtually ignores Leibel and bounces back to more personal responsibility, willpower crap and shows a work environment where all the people are supporting one another, presumably to improve health, but it’s all measured in terms of weight loss (and no one even thinks about maintenance). Near the end of the episode, they profile a pair of weight-loss maintainers who, as far as I could tell, have been doing maintenance for a little over a year (arguably still in the honeymoon phase). Moreover, they have a rare supportive friendship. Most of us cannot share our maintenance with anyone because it’s tedious to outsiders. This pair is unusual on many grounds, but is presented as archetypal.
I was just disgusted with the program, mostly. More same-old-same-old.
Choices was (IMO) the worst of their four episodes. I just finished watching episodes 3 and 4 online and was far less aggravated. Unfortunately, that doesn’t help, since your summary (the series is “schizo”) is pretty much spot on.
Hard to say for sure, but I’m wondering if the primary benefit of the series will be that it helps mobilize folks who find it ultimately disappointing.
BTW, hope all is well with you!!! Thanks for checking in.
Found your blog by looking for info on ‘Cindy Ranch Bogalusa LA’. North american european-descended folks are not inherently different than european ones, and obesity is less of a problem on europe. People /do/ walk more, true, and possibly other things that contribute to lower weight. The number one factor I find though is north american water is intentionally contaminated at 1ml/l with smoke-stack scrubber waste liquid. Because the fluoride and other content is so toxic to life, and binds to fat well, the body creates more fat cells to have somewhere to store the toxins. ‘Flame retardants’ are also in heavy use on north america, in building material treatments and clothes. It has a nearly identical effect to the previous toxin. Free chlorine is also widely used, at swimming pools, and again, in the city water ‘treatment’ facility.
It’s necessary to increase the dosage of natural iodine to a level high enough to flush out the other competing, toxic, heavier halides. Otherwise, no matter what you do (almost), the body will continue to compulsively put on more fat cells (and some muscle) to have a storage location for the fluoride, etc.
Other aggravating factors:
nutrient-free food. There’s no doubt the food grown on european soils, tastes miles better by comparison. North american food is equivalent to balsa wood. No flavour, and equally, no nutrition. Hence one reason to use MSG: although MSG additionally damages the body.
It’s got to start with the soil used to grow the food your family eats from. The soil has no nutrients. A starving body will keep firing the ‘eat’ indicators, because for all the calories, proteins and fats, there are no nutrients.
grains:
any kind of grain today, (almost without exception), is toxic according to the way it is improperly prepared and will produce, among other things, swelling and weight gain in a sizeable number of people. In those which do not ‘get fat’, they will and do, have other symptoms. Both of these types of affected people also can and do, have neurological problems. Grains are not meant to be ground-up and eaten. They are intended to be sprouted, then fermented for 7 days. Gentiles do not realize, they are in effect, eating the same ‘unleavened’ bread (regardless of quick yeasts and other methods) which, was so derided by common knowledge to be toxic, required priests to write an entry in their scripture as further compelling ‘evidence’ that such a thing was correct. It is not, never has been, never will be. Now everyone, from the ghetto or not, if they have any kind of western background, eats ‘crazy bread’ and other forms of grains (pastas, etc).
Getting back to natural iodine, it is not expensive. At a 10% concentration in water, the last retail north american price was 60USD/liter. Do not get preparations online, these are overpriced. I won’t go into the particulars here, visit the Yahoo group ‘IODINE’. People can help you there.
This is NOT AN ACADEMIC POST. I have actually been through weight gain, and permanent loss, and increased vitality and health, and have directly helped other people do the same with themselves. I speak from experience, not from a book!