Thank you God I have never been fat! This film starts out telling the story of a 12 year old girl who is getting liposuction, because they claim there is nothing left to do. Now I understand, this girl weighs nearly double what I do, but come on, get her off her ass and walk her around a little, don't let her eat the whole cake.
We learn later what happens to the girl, and by 13 she is starting to look like a cute girl of an average weight, but since she didn't earn that herself she is bound to back peddle, and she does. Don't get me wrong, Ive got compassion, and I understand its not as easy as it might seem, but the responsibility is these peoples alone.
They get scientific in the documentary instead of merely political, which is great, in that way they make themselves have a little more authenticity than someone who just wants to berate America and our eating culture, even if its deserved. They explain that as humans we have thrived based on two things, our want to have sex constantly, and our need to constantly eat. Four million years ago we hunted and gathered for our food, and most of our day was concerned with that. It takes a lot of energy to stalk an animal across the tundra or the fields for sometimes days on end to maybe not even catch it. People were always hungry. As a species we are actually very ill equipped for hunting: No claws, no sharp teeth, we're not fast, we don't blend in with our surroundings, no venom or poison....it just keeps going. So its pretty lucky that our heads contain at least a partially functioning brain.
So as it was hard for us to catch food, when we did we had to eat as much of it as possible because who knows the next time you might eat, and from that also pops up the reason why our bodies turn so much of what we eat into fat. Its stores of energy in case we don't eat for a while. So out of the industrial revolution and the corporatization of agriculture we get a society that can easily and cheaply get food. Throw in the worst foods are the cheapest, thus the poor are the fattest demographic. It is a fact that it costs more to eat healthy, how unnerving is that?
Now that defense for me will only take you so far for me. The film then dives into marketing and the misuse of corn in our diets, and all of the arguments are true and upsetting, but to me it still falls onto the fat parents to stop their fat kids and themselves from eating a whole bucket of fried chicken.
Enough of my opinion on the matter of the obese and more about the movie. It does a really great job giving all the various elements behind why we are fat, and why we continue to be fat, and its all very disgusting really. They even talk about how oil is to blame for some of the food problems, and its actually more than just an idea. Its true that the use of fossil fuels changed how we do everything, and that we are basically consuming the labor of the fossil fuels and not so much the suns energy anymore. Ill explain.
The Sunlight comes to earth = The plants grow from the sunlight = we eat the plants, or animals do and then we eat the animals.
Thank you sun.
Here's how it works now.
The Sunlight comes to earth = the plants wont grow unless they are sprayed with a particular pesticide, and fertilizer, both of which come from petrol. The seeds wont grow because we genetically engineered them not to unless given this enzyme that they put in the fertilizer and pesticide, which they also have patented, so don't even think of adding it yourself because the seed companies will sue you. = Plants grow (once we give them the fertilizer and pesticides) and we drive them on average 1500 miles to where they will be sold.
That's a lot of oil doing the work there.
The documentary does a great job of showing all sides of the subject, from vending machines in schools to running small farmers out of business. Its a strong little doc, and along the same lines as others I've seen on the subject. I think if they had made it longer and really extensive on the subject it could have been like another "The Corporation" except about food, but it was still a good movie. Overall 8/10 stars. Take a jog around the block people.
Director: Steven Greenstreet
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