Killer at Large: the obesity threat

This week, I’d like to share with you this startling trailer of a documentary called “Killer at Large” by director Steven Greenstreet. While I don't have a connection to the film or the filmmakers, I think the message reflected is an important one, and it's presented in this three-minute video in a very compelling way.

Killer at Large examines the American obesity epidemic and its huge toll on Americans’ mortality and disease burden, as well as obesity’s biological, environmental and public policy causes, and how little is done to combat the problem.

I’m glad to see movies like this are made and I hope they will get a wide audience. Books like Eric Schlosser’s “Fast Food Nation” and Morgan Spurlock’s movie “Super Size Me” have done a lot to raise public awareness to the reality of our obesogenic environment, yet overall there’s little to no public outcry as of yet. It takes talented artists to popularize, entertain (and even shock) viewers and readers sufficiently, so that we lose our resistance to the inconvenient truths they present and we’re so uncomfortable hearing.

I hope that more attention to this growing problem will result in gradual changes that can somehow turn this trend of increasingly large waistlines, inactivity and chronic diseases, and get us all on an easier path to better food and a healthier lifestyle.

Eating well right now is a personal choice that requires investment, commitment and time, rather that being mainstream and available to all. Low-income people face significant challenges when trying to shop for healthy foods, most of our schools serve and sell an unhealthy array of junk foods, and advertising presents such a plethora of confusing messages that many people don’t even know how to eat right.

Most of the people won’t do the right thing for themselves until eating well gets easier than eating badly.

Ayala