Measuring Mass: The Last Artefact TV - Bill Buckley TV - The Sopranos TV - Guinness World Records 2005 - The Weight of the Nation TV - Rudolph Leibel - Horizon TV - Jacques Peretti TV - Tonight TV - Morgan Spurlock & Supersize Me 2004 - Penn & Teller TV - Erma Bombeck - Marcus du Sautoy TV - Banksy - Proverbs 11:1&2 - Proverbs 16:11 - Proverbs 20:10&23 - Pumping Iron 1977 - Panorama TV - The UnBelievable with Dan Aykroyd TV -
This is the story of an artefact … an object against which all others can be measured … Secured in an underground vault … There is a problem that metrologists are worried about … The weight of everything on the planet has been changing … The kilogram, a fundamental unit of SI … ‘Everything that humans make as a standard decays … and changes and evolves … Everything is decaying’ … Since it was forged, the IPK and its replicas have deviated from one another by about 50 micrograms, or the mass of a single eyelash. Measuring Mass: The Last Artefact, BBC 2021
It’s very hard to stand up carrying the weight of what I know. Bill Buckley, Best of Enemies ***** 2015, Buckley’s response to panel question about thinking on your feet
He made a crack about Ginny’s weight. Something about having a ninety-pound mole on her ass. The Sopranos s4e4: The Weight starring James Gandolfini & Lorriane Bracco & Edie Falco & Michael Imperioli & Dominic Chianese & Steven van Zandt & Tony Sirico & Robert Iler et al, Johnny Sack to Tony, re Ralph, HBO 2002
Rosalie Bradford (USA) is claimed to have registered a peak weight of 544 kg (85 st) in January 1987. Guinness World Records 2005 (50th edition)
The heaviest person in medical history was Jon Brower Minnoch (USA) who had suffered from obesity since childhood ... He must have weighted more than 635 kg (100 st) much of which was water accumulation due to his congestive heart failure. ibid.
Anna Bates (Canada) who measured 2.27 m (7 ft 5.5 in) gave birth to a boy weighing 10.8 kg (23 lb 12.8 oz) and 76 cm (30 in) in length at her home in Seville Ohio USA on 19 January 1879, but the baby died 11 hours later. ibid.
A premature baby girl weighing 280g (9.87 oz) was reported to have been born on 27 June 1989 at the Loyola University Medical Centre. ibid.
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, fatty
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.
More than 50% of Philadelphian school children shop at corner stores every day before and after school. The Weight of the Nation IV
Less than 3% of US farmland is planted with fruits and vegetables. ibid.
One of the remarkable aspects of body weight actually is how stable it is over relatively long periods of time. Rudolph Leibel
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. 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 prefect 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.
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.
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.
The US government adopted the MetLife standard, and mass neurosis spread through the nation. ibid.
Our biology can prevent us keeping the weight off. ibid.
I wanted to find out how Slimfast became so successful. ibid.
Their shame is the industry’s guarantee of profits. ibid.
Atkins was the first international diet guru. ibid.
They started selling Weight Watchers franchises. ibid.
I’ve come to this extreme slimming class to find out just how much effort is required to lose weight through exercise. Jacques Peretti, The Men Who Made Us Thin II
The meteoric growth of the fitness industry worth nearly £4 billion a year. ibid.
The calorie-burning effects are limited by your metabolism. ibid.
How did we get sold the idea that exercise would make us thin? ibid.
Jane Fonda’s Workout: it revolutionized fitness. ibid.
A number of the headline Olympic sponsors were food giants. ibid.
Obesity has become increasingly medicalised. ibid.
The dream of a pill that makes us thin has been with us for years. ibid.
Fenfluramines were sold in America … Potentially a nightmare. ibid.
GlaxoSmithKline Health Care Fraud GSK: ‘The US government is calling it the biggest case of health care fraud in American history.’ ibid. tv news
In 2008 Rimonabant was withdrawn from sale. ibid.
Surgery has always been for the obese, but a new ground-breaking operation is now available for overweight people who want to be thin. Jacques Peretti, The Men Who Made Us Thin III
The move had astonishing implications effectively making 29 million Americans fat overnight. ibid.
A magic ingredient that food industries seized upon – the Artificial Sweetener. ibid.
The brains of people who use sweeteners show a weaker response to sugar. ibid.
There’s still no definitive answer about the risks of being mildly overweight. ibid.