In this seven part series, lasting approximately one hour, they uncover the truth about obesity and why it’s a national crisis.
The Skinny On Obesity – Synopsis
What are the main factors that contribute to the obesity epidemic? How can we reverse the weight gain before it lowers the average life span of the general population? Dr. Robert Lustig, the author of the viral lecture Sugar: The Bitter Truth, has spent most of his professional career in search of these answers. The Skinny on Obesity provides an eye-opening overview of his considerable efforts in this field of study.
For Dr. Lustig and his colleagues, obesity is our modern plague. “The reason we’re in this epidemic can be summed up in one statement,” Dr. Lustig contends. “That statement is a calorie is a calorie.” In his view, mass-scale weight gain goes beyond this overly simplistic equation. Instead, obesity is more deeply rooted in the cultural and environmental factors that have redefined us in recent decades. Our industrialised diet is designed to provide fast and cheap food on the go. It consists of unfamiliar ingredients and chemicals manufactured in highly profitable food laboratories. These products thrive in the global marketplace because they serve a culture that prides convenience over healthy nourishment.
Beyond all other considerations, however, the one factor most detrimental to our health is sugar. The presence of these sugars is particularly misleading in foods that advertise low calorie content, often used to supplement a deficiency of taste. The high volumes of sugar in the vast majority of processed food proves that a calorie is definitely not just a calorie. “Sugar is 50 times more potent than total calories in explaining diabetes rates worldwide,” Dr. Lustig explains. It is also the main culprit in the development of metabolic syndrome, and the resulting cases of Type 2 diabetes, heart and liver disease, hypertension, dementia, and cancer which accompany it.
The Skinny on Obesity offers a wholly convincing argument on the dangers of sugars. The best solution may be to redefine our relationship with the foods we eat.
Synopsis edited from Top Documentary Films
