Aussies - Did you catch "The Obesity Myth" on SBS?

(A ham loving ham! - VA6KD) #1

The Obesity Myth is a three part docco and I watched part one expecting the same old eat less exercise more spiel, but was pleasantly surprised when they started talking about ultra-low carb diets and ketosis. There were a couple of points that I shirked at but for the most part it aligned with what we know about the ketogenic state. It’s good to see the mainstream media no longer putting keto on the crazy shelf.

The part involving ketosis is being lead by Professor Joseph Proietto: http://endocrine.net.au/team-member/prof-joseph-proietto/ and https://theconversation.com/profiles/joseph-proietto-3463
(Fast forward to about 37 minutes in episode 1 for the keto part)
You can watch (geo-locked to Australia only) episode one on SBS OnDemand: https://www.sbs.com.au/ondemand/program/the-obesity-myth
If you’re outside of Australia and still want to watch the episode, let me know and I’ll find a way to share it with you.

For the folks outside of Australia, I just uploaded it to my private Vimeo library:
Episode 1: https://vimeo.com/232518268 ( Password to view is: 2keto )
Episode 2: https://vimeo.com/233586389 ( Password to view is: 2keto )
Episode 3: https://vimeo.com/234774208 ( Password to view is: 2keto )

Episode Synopsis:

Battling The Biology
Season 1 Episode 1
A three-part documentary series that follows the struggle of morbidly obese patients and their families as they go through the weight loss program at Melbourne’s Austin Health. The Doctors at Austin Health are taking a different approach by treating obesity as a chronic genetic disease. The treatment regimen, which is a last resort for many patients who are at risk of early death due to their weight, uses a combination of diet, medication and bariatric surgery to transform bodies and lives. Challenging misconceptions about obesity as a lifestyle choice, this episode features patients such as former taxi driver Leanne, boxer Huss and the clinic’s heaviest patient, 248 kilogram Karen, as they battle their biology to reclaim their lives.

Eating Your Feelings
Season 1 Episode 2
Challenging misconceptions about obesity as a lifestyle choice, this episode features patients such as stroke victim Cara, ex-gridiron player Robert, mum Tracey, former taxi driver Leanne and boxer Huss as they battle their biology to reclaim their lives.

A Series Of Complications
Season 1 Episode 3
Challenging misconceptions about obesity as a lifestyle choice, this episode features patients such as 26-year-old Felicity; former gridiron player Robert; and Wayne, whose diabetes means he faces a foot amputation, as they battle their biology to reclaim their lives.

#2

Looks great. Very satisfying to see major media outlets inching toward keto. There’s always a caveat (Danger! Proceed with caution! etc.), but it gets the word out. That’s how I found keto–it crossed my radar screen two years ago and planted its seed in my mind. Took that long before I took the plunge, but still. That’s all it takes.

(Mike Glasbrener) #3

Thanks for sharing. I can’t watch it. I wouldn’t expend too much energy figuring a way around the geolock. It seems Australia is more or less leading the break with standard crappy medical advice.

(Bacon is a many-splendoured thing) #4

Good for the ABC! I don’t expect to see programming like that in the U.S. any time soon, since it’s our fault the dietary guidelines got perpetrated on the human race on the first place . . . [sigh]

(A ham loving ham! - VA6KD) #5

:smiley: That’s easy! I just uploaded it to my private Vimeo library:
https://vimeo.com/232518268 ( Password to view is: 2keto )

(Mike Glasbrener) #6

Cool! I’ll check it out after work tonight. Thanks.

#7

Thank you!

(Lei Walters) #8

Thank you so much for sharing! Do you think you will be posting the other episodes?

(A ham loving ham! - VA6KD) #9

Yes! In the day or two after they air, I’ll upload them to my Vimeo library. They’re currently airing on Monday evenings in Australia and there’s a total of three episodes in this series.

(Mike Glasbrener) #10

Thanks so much for sharing! There’s a couple of shows in the US that are similar, “My 600lb Life” is one. It’s tough to see people in this dire need of weight loss struggle with the dietary change needed to save their lives. In this episode I want to strangle the codependent husband. Since he shops and cooks he is at minimum an enabler and likely unsupportive of the changes she needs.

I really struggle with once someone is informed and starts making changes to not completely follow through. I’ll grant there is a a genetic component, an environment component and a psychological component. It seems that the one very over weight people on these shows struggle the most with is psychological followed closely by environment (codependants).

I also wish they would use shows like this to push for a keto diet. They didn’t seem to share what the recommended diet was and someone seemed to echo the CICO theory somewhere in the episode.

Lastly… They’re using pee sticks! It could be that these people are so overweight that they are producing so much ketones from the immense amount of fat they are burning that they could never consume them thus their spillage into urine is all but guaranteed until their weight drops closer to being over weight rather than obese. Once you get down to a normalish weight the consumption of ketones produced tends to equalize and blood monitoring becomes the more accurate method of monitoring ketones.

(A ham loving ham! - VA6KD) #11

Yep…I noted the same. Go to about minute 37 for the heaviest part about keto. It’s mentioned in several places as “carbohydrate restriction” and not so much as ketosis.

Agreed on the pee sticks too, but considering it’s the public health system, they’re going for the cheapest option even if it’s not the best option.

(Mike Glasbrener) #12

True. I remember that. But stand outside a grocery store and ask the general populace what a carbohydrate is and 9 out of 10 people won’t have a clue.

(A ham loving ham! - VA6KD) #13

Particularly when one donut, or one can of pop can destroy more than a day’s worth of carb restriction. Folks just don’t have a real clue just how pervasive carbs can be.

#14

Thank you for sharing this.

#15

Enjoyed watching this and am looking forward to the next episodes - I agree it’s a shame they don’t go into ketogenic eating a bit more. I’m reading Jason Fung’s book on fasting and just need to stop eating for a bit I think to help push me more quickly into ketosis and also to lose weight a bit quicker.

(A ham loving ham! - VA6KD) #16

…just posed episode 2…
https://vimeo.com/233586389 ( Password to view is: 2keto )

Eating Your Feelings
Season 1 Episode 2
Challenging misconceptions about obesity as a lifestyle choice, this episode features patients such as stroke victim Cara, ex-gridiron player Robert, mum Tracey, former taxi driver Leanne and boxer Huss as they battle their biology to reclaim their lives.

(Stickin' with mammoth) #17

Thanks, keehan, I’m watching it now. Here’s a running commentary with my input in italics.

They immediately say, “And obesity is costing the nation 9 billion dollars a year.” That means someone is making 9 billion dollars off the obesity epidemic. Perspective is everything.

Now, they’re announcing that obesity is merely genetic. That screws you like original sin, leaving you in a pile of shame with no agency to affect change on your own.

Okay, they’re talking about low carbs and ketones now, so I’m hopeful but I’m still waiting for the green light on bacon. Come on, people, come on…

Now, they’re lamenting how society calls fat people greedy. But they just implied fat people are forced to be greedy by their genes, so WTF?

A doctor is being lauded for his recommended diet that doesn’t include substantial fat and people seem to be struggling on it. Duh. Now, those same people are getting bariatric surgery as a last resort. Bacon, people, bacon!

Looks like the good doctor’s diet is only low carb, not ketogenic, and some patients are forced to add prescribed appetite suppressants because they’re not feeling satiated. Bacon, people, bacon! The doc likes them on meds. Has he ever had wonderful, glossy, crispy, salty bacon in his life?

Wow, this documentary spends as much time talking about bariatric surgery as it does dietary adjustment. It’s almost as if they’re saying these people are doomed to be cut open. Still no mention of bacon.

Over halfway through and still no mention of psychological therapy. I thought this was supposed to be about emotional eating? When are they gonna address the emotional component?

People are talking about how hard the diet is and how much they have to employ willpower to stay the course. This doesn’t sound like a ketogenic lifestyle to me at all.

Now the doc is saying that if hormone changes are still there after six years, they’re permanent. Is he high? Has he studied neuroscience at all? The body can shift dramatically on a hormonal level at any time in response to all sorts of stresses, life changes, illnesses, injuries, etc. and he’s got another thing comin’ if he thinks THAT chemical cascade doesn’t impact how much many people’s dopamine regulation is fucked up, especially people who used to self-regulate with food.

The doctor is telling one poor woman that her failures are due to her “genetic drive to eat” and he wants to put her on appetite suppressing meds to help. Come on, she’s eating cheat foods while recovering from a stroke in a wheelchair, did he bother to prescribe a therapist to weed out real hunger from emotional self-soothing and help her discover her own power and self-worth again? Shouldn’t that be the first resort rather than the last?

(sigh) Not one mention of the psychological impacts of sagging skin, sudden attention from the opposite sex, re-entering the outside world after being home bound, losing the physical and psychological buffer zone of fat, learning to self-soothe with things other than food, or the food industry’s complicity in obesity–it’s just one long video of people suffering through deprivation. Ketosis is given lip service but is not properly implemented. It’s just another typical public service announcement for old-school starvation weight loss.

Watchin’ these people suffer when they could be effortlessly succeeding on a true medical ketogenic diet pains me.

(A ham loving ham! - VA6KD) #18

Yeah it’s staggering when you get to whole-country scales. (I haven’t had a chance to watch ep 2 yet…maybe after I get the kiddies off to bed I’ll sit down and watch it).

(Stickin' with mammoth) #19

I’ll update my post as I go.

(Randy) #20

This doctors diet must be agony to try to maintain. 800 calories a day.

We need to take up a collection and send Brenda over there to slap some sense into him. :grin: