How Obese is America? Is it a Real Problem?
February 13, 2022
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The video in this blog is from the documentary Obesity In America:
It redefines obesity
INSATIABLE identifies the obesity epidemic more as a symptom of a much deeper social malaise than an organic disease. In its continued devastating sweep across our nation, this malaise is spawning epidemics, such as depression, diabetes, cardiovascular disease, sexually transmitted infections (STIs), and substance abuse.
It explores deeper causes
It is simply no longer tenable to argue that obesity is a diversity issue. It is a medical problem of colossal proportions, that just simply will not go away, unless the deep-rooted origins of this epidemic are exposed—something INSATIABLE successfully does. The book uncovers the historical record confirming that the obesity crisis grew during the 16th, 17th and 18th centuries, when the cultural celebration of gluttony began among the aristocracies of Europe; it was a celebration of vice that carried over to the 19th century right up until our present times.
It convincingly discourages calorie-restrictive diets
U.S. society, since the 1970s, has had a high interest in weight loss as evidenced by the sale of millions of diet books, yet despite this, obesity trends continued to increase. Overall efficacy of caloric-restrictive diets varies between 1-3% when measured over 5 to 7 years after completing the diet. Weight loss diets have clearly failed Americans. Could it be that caloric restrictive diets are actually driving the growth of the obesity epidemic?
It explores the Public Health Solution for Obesity
The public health solution begins with ensuring the integrity and stability of the family unit in society….but there is more. INSATIABLE draws the reader into understanding the degree to which family turbulence, its loss of stability, and breakdown are fuelling many epidemics. This unique analysis of what has been until now primarily a medical condition, redraws the obesity epidemic as a mere symptom of a more profound social malaise bathed in depression.
It Presents Spiritual Solutions for Obesity
INSATIABLE dares to delve deep into the subject matter of obesity by introducing the importance of psychological and spiritual health. The author discusses the acedia that poisons the people and foments the crisis. Acedia, according to Aquinas, is a weariness to working, and a weariness and a wariness for all things spiritual.” INSATIABLE examines how to overcome this acedia at a societal level.
It deepens your Spiritual Life
The theme of a great hunger remains an underlying cause in the study of obesity and of depression. INSATIABLE posits—using many writings as support—that the human soul loves beauty and desires it, seeking the appeasing fragrances of nature’s beauty (Younghusband, 1921), to quiet the turbulence, at least in a first step. The book’s unique exploration of monasteries and the silence that dwells in them offers a remarkably simple remedy to the reader’s hunger in a rather frenetic world.
