The document discusses the health issues facing an overweight boy named Wesley and his family's struggles to improve their diet. Wesley's physician is concerned about his continuing weight gain and notes signs of metabolic syndrome. While Wesley's mother thinks his diet is improving, the doctor says he looks even bigger. Fast food and sugary drinks are cheaper options that the food industry promotes to families. The health risks of childhood obesity mentioned include heart attacks and strokes in young people.
2. Gary Taubes, Author of Why We get Fat and What to Do About It.
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.
3. Mother:
What did you have for lunch? Let’s tell the truth.
Wesley:
Umm, hamburger, fries milk and juice.
Mother:
Milk and Juice?
Wesley:
They give them both.
If you ever go on a diet and you try to eat healthier food, your brain is still telling
you, eat, eat, eat……. It’s not what I want… no, get something else. You’re still use to
that fattening stuff. That’s why it’s hard to go on a diet.
Mother:
You ain’t got but a few more to go …. At this time of night you ain’t (can’t eat) that
many.
Wesley:
Gotta savor the flavor.
Mother:
You gotta savor the flavor, you gotta savor the flavor cause you only got so many
chips.
4. Wesley (selfie):
I’m trying to lose weight… My weight is pretty heavy,
180(pounds / 82 kilos), I’m a pretty heavy dude. That’s why
I’m trying to get some A size in and eat some healthy food
every day.
Mother:
We, ahh, started eating different things, more fruits
and vegetables. We limit are starches, we limit our
breads, we keep healthier snacks. We, ahh, he loves
hot pockets, so they have lean hot pockets, so I make
sure to have the lean ones versus the regular ones.
It cost more to eat healthier. So we slip… I’m not going
to say we don’t, because it’s easier to by the cereals
with sugar in it, it’s easier to buy chips because it’s
cheaper.
5. M.D. Mark Hyman
And that’s what the food industry wants them to think… It’s
cheaper.
Commercial:
Woman/mother:
KFC Family Feast: 9 pieces, any recipe, 3 large sides, six
biscuits, $19.99. Do not give up on dinner. Mmmmmm
M.D. Mark Hyman
You deserve a break to day. You can get a value meal.
These are messages that have kinda 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.
6.
7. Dr.’s office:
Wesley’s Family Physician:
How is the diet control going?
Mother:
The diet control for him is gettin, is better. At first it was rocky but it’s a lot
better.
Wesley’s Family Physician:
I’m happy to hear you think things are going so well but it is a bit concerning
because when I look at Wesley he doesn’t look any thinner. In fact he looks
even bigger than he did a few years ago. And what I see from the data is that
he is continuing to gain weight even faster than the rate he was before. His
weight it is even higher than it was last time.
Wesley:
I’ve eaten less than I usually have. I’ve exercised more and I don’t really know
why I’m getting more weight.
Wesley’s Family Physician:
Mom, have you noticed his skin here is starting to get a little bit dark and a
little bit thick? It is part of what we call Metabolic Syndrome. His body is
already starting to show some of the adult signs of overweight and obesity.
8. Wesley:
I worry about that I’m going to have a heart attack or
seizure or something like that. I’ve seen these things on
the news. I’ve seen that my family have had it too and I’m
worried about myself might have it.
Nurse:
Relax your arm and your leg and take some deep breaths…
and here we go….
M.D. Mark Hyman
We’re seeing strokes in 8 year olds. We’re seeing heart
attacks in 20 year olds. We’re seeing kids at thirty, by their
30th birthday needing renal dialysis for kidney failure
because of these problems.
Minute 22:36
9. Here are some questions and ideas to get you started before you add your own:
Have a first read through (remove the title).
Ask where you think these people live and how old Wesley is and why.
Ask if the doctors and author are for, against or indifferent to the food
industry and why.
Ask the students if fast food is cheaper or more expensive than healthy food
and why.
Debate:
How is it possible that the mother does not know what her overweight, diabetic
son eats at school?
How is the school permitted to let him eat exactly what the rest of the school
population eats?
Where is the coordination between the school and the mother?
Why does the mother let her obese son continue to eat chips?
How is it possible the mother thinks her son’s diet is going well?
If you were Wesely’s mom, what would you do?
Who is responsible for Wesley’s obesity?
