Food Network Runs Childhood Obesity Documentary
March 30, 2007 by Tracey Thompson
Filed under Recipes
The Food Network is airing a documentary about childhood obesity on Saturday, March 31 at 9pm EST.
The documentary centers around, Rocky Tayeh, (pictured above) a 500 lb. eighteen year-old and his struggles with weight as he works towards a promising radio career.
The show attempts to shed light on why there is an obesity epidemic in the United States and what can be done to make the changes needed to help a generation that is probably one of the unhealthiest we have seen. Good news for Rocky is that he doesn’t weigh 5oo lbs anymore and by the looks of his website he has quite the future ahead of him.
According to Stuart Levine from Variety, the show is ill-conceived, poorly put together and ironic to have on network dedicated to food dripping with butter:
Doc is exec produced by “Today” weatherman Al Roker, who underwent gastric bypass surgery and obviously has a strong connection about the dangers of overeating and poor nutrition. His intent is well-meaning, but whether viewers can digest the message — between episodes of Bobby Flay firing up some BBQ and Paula Deen sharing the secrets of delicious southern fried chicken — remains to be seen.
Personally, I think that any attempt to shedding insight on this issue and keeping it positive with a great story like Rocky’s is worth while. Tune in and see for yourselves. Air times are: March 31 at 9pm, April 1 at Midnight, April 7 at 5:00m and April 8 at 6:00pm. All times are EST and the documentary can be seen on the Food Network.
I highly agree with you about shedding light on this subject. My husband and I struggle a bit with this issue. We are not severely over weight, but we are definitely above our ideal weight. It is more an issue of being healthy. We live in a culture where you’re either thin as bones, or your over weight. Nobody talks about being healthy. Just about being thin and beautiful, or over weight. It’s like they are the only two options in our culture. The people who are thin eat nothing, and those who think they are over weight eat carelessly because they don’t think they can do anything about it. The ideal weight for a girl 5′5″ and between the ages of 14 and 20 is around 140lbs. Most miss this. They are either over this mark, or under it. Its really really sad. My husband and I cut out pop, and started making dinner at home more instead of eating out. We also exercise by either going for a walk, or bike riding. This has helped us tremendously.