Monty Python’s The Meaning of Life The Weight of the Nation TV - Isaac Asimov - Theodore Vanltaillie - Horizon TV - Jacques Peretti TV - Tom Colicchio - Lady Gaga - Sadaf Farooqi - Robert Atkins - Chris O’Brien - Mehmet Oz - Morgan Spurlock TV - Penn & Teller TV - David Allison - Saleyha Ahsan TV - Paul Campos - BBC News TV - Jonathan Sacks - Jo Brand - Banksy - Fiona Phillips TV - Dispatches TV - Obesity: How Prejudiced is the NHS? TV - The Truth About Obesity TV - Tonight TV - What the Health 2017 - Reggie in China TV - Michael Mosley: Who Made Britain Fat? TV - Panorama TV - Saleyha Ahsan TV - Why the United States Can't Handle Crisis 2021 - Fault Lines 2010 -
Maitre d’: Good evening, sir, and how are we today?
Mr Creosote: Better.
Maitre d’: Better?
Mr Creosote: Better get a bucket. I’m gonna throw up. Monty Python’s The Meaning of Life 1983 starring Graham Chapman & John Cleese & Terry Gilliam & Eric Idle & Terry Jones & Michael Palin & Carol Cleveland & Patricia Quinn & Judy Loe & Simon Jones & Matt Frewer & Jane Leeves et al, director Terry Jones
Obesity is driving the epidemic of diabetes. The Weight of the Nation I, Sky Atlantic 2014
‘I love cheeseburgers’. The Weight of the Nation II: Choices, fatties, HBO 2014
Is there a right way to lose weight? ibid.
How can I save myself from diabetes? ibid.
The health impacts of obesity are screaming inside. The Weight of the Nation III, expert
Only 10% of parents seek medical help for their obese children. ibid.
The first law of dietetics seems to be if it tastes good it’s bad for you. Isaac Asimov, 1920-1992
In Science you’re not supposed to get angry, but why is someone recommending something that most of us know to be potentially harmful? The problem with the Atkins Diet is that it doesn’t grow out of scientific research. Atkins was out of his speciality. Dr Theodore Vanltallie, Columbia University
In 1967 a detailed investigation among five hundred patients from two general practices showed that half the population was more than 15% overweight. Horizon: Inside Every Fat Man, BBC 1969
The other important change that’s made us fat is lack of physical exercise. ibid.
People say to me I’ve got a slow metabolism ... We could show that rather than having a slow metabolic rate in fact it was even higher than the lean subjects ... This idea that overweight people have a slow metabolism is in fact a complete myth. Dr Susan Jebb, Horizon: Fat Cats, Thin Mice, BBC 1997
Phenfen took America by storm. Over six million prescriptions were issued in 1996. But by then something had already started to go wrong. ibid.
Unlike her twin sister she exercises regularly and is very health conscious. Sharon and Debbie are the perfect experiment. Carbon copies of each other they are living proof of the power of genes. Their separate environments have hardly influenced their weight. It seems they were born to be thin. Horizon: Born to be Fat, BBC 1999
28-year-old Sven’s life is dominated by the drive to eat. He could literally eat himself to death. It’s not a question of willpower or choice no matter how much food he consumes he always feels hungry. For doctors Sven demonstrates that there is some sort of hardwire switch that turns hunger on or off. ibid.
This top-secret research facility is where the war against obesity is being waged. Here millions of pounds are being poured into the hunt for a magic bullet. Horizon: Fatbusters, BBC 2002
Appetite is now at the centre of modern obesity research. Horizon: The Atkins Diet, BBC 2004
When we start eating, we can’t stop. ibid.
Ten people are about to find out just how fat they can get. Thanks to Horizon they’re going to spend four weeks eating more than they’ve ever done before of all the foods we’re always being told to avoid. This month of gluttony is all to answer a question that Science has struggled with for forty years – Why are thin people not fat? Horizon: Why Are Thin People Not Fat? BBC 2009
Could it be true that some people can eat as much as they want without becoming obese? And if so, how do they do it? ibid.
Our fat is our body’s built-in emergency rations. And the more fat we have the longer we can keep going without eating. ibid.
According to this theory at times of famine it was literally a case of survival of the fattest. ibid.
Our eating behaviours are fixed from a very young age. ibid.
Different groups of scientists have different theories to explain how people’s bodies use up excess calories if they are not storing them as fat. ibid.
Humanity’s most fundamental relationship is with what we eat. But nowadays in wealthy countries we’re eating far too much of the wrong things. And we pay the consequences of our expanding waistlines with an epidemic of diseases that kill. Dr Susan Jebb: Horizon: A Diet Guide, BBC 2010
The developing tide of obesity was to have serious consequences affecting the way we live and how we die. ibid.
It would be another twenty years before the connection between heart disease and increased levels of saturated fat in our diet could be graphically demonstrated. ibid.
We now know that the best way to lose weight other than a healthy diet is to exercise. ibid.
Scientists suddenly clocked that maybe what they should be looking at was what was driving us to eat so much – our appetites. Proving its importance was a different matter. ibid.
Researchers then looked at humans and discovered that the hormone leptin was a messenger molecule for us too. ibid.
We still don’t have a medical solution to obesity. ibid.
As a nation we are slowly but surely getting fatter. We’re all eating well, maybe too well. Gabriel Weston, Horizon: The Truth About Fat, BBC 2012
What is it about this epidemic that operates so randomly? ibid.
It’s the fatty calorie-rich foods we love the most. ibid.
Nearly a quarter of the adult population is clinically obese. ibid.
They discovered two new hormones – Ghrelin and PYY – that together seem to control appetite and weight. ibid.
I’m pretty shocked to discover that my assumption of a lifetime which is that I’m the size I am because of my character is nonsense. ibid.
What was making these twins so different in weight? ibid.
Professor Spector: Stress can create parallel but different strategies. ibid.
The biggest single factor causing a child to be fat was the nine months it spent in its mother’s womb. ibid.
A new set of answers is emerging which could help us to defeat what to me is one of the defining epidemics of our age. ibid.
Which is worse for us? Fat or sugar? Horizon: Sugar v Fat, BBC 2014
Over in America it’s sugar that’s under attack. ibid.
It’s known as the hormone hypothesis. ibid.
High protein diets make you feel fuller. ibid.
‘Eating lots of fat makes my body insulin defective.’ ibid.
Professor Susan Jebb’s long-term study ... ‘You can cut calories ... it's about the overall balance of diet.’ ibid.
The world is getting fatter – processed food. ibid.
Fat and sugar together ... the real problem. ibid.
Britain is in the grip of an obesity epidemic. We can’t seem to stop eating and we are getting fatter. Dr Giles Yeo, Horizon: Who Are We Getting So Fat? BBC 2016
Obesity is conceived as quite a simple problem … ‘Our urge to eat … is a product of hundreds of thousands of years of evolution.’ ibid.
These high sugar levels flow across the placenta. ibid.
Everyone wants to be thin … and yet 60% of us are overweight. In the middle of an obesity crisis, the multi-billion-pound weight-loss business is bigger than ever … The men who have made their fortunes by selling us the dream of being thin through diet, and left us fatter than ever. Jacques Peretti, The Men Who Made Us Thin I, BBC 2013
27 million of us in the UK have tried to diet in the last year. ibid.
The more diets we undertake, the fatter we’re getting. ibid.
Minnesota 1944: [Ancel] Keys showed that trying to lose weight long-term by dieting wouldn’t work. ibid.