The Weight of the Nation: Poverty and Obesity (HBO Docs)

this Jojo is heavy as I was a lottery I'm activating 18 plus percent of our children right now are obese if you go with the flow in America today you will end up overweight or obese as 2/3 of Americans do I don't want to be fat for the rest of my life I've got diabetes sleep apnea high blood pressure I get dizzy when I get up everything's hurting now we don't now take this as a really serious urgent national priority we are all of us individually and as a nation gonna pay a really serious price here in the South Bronx this is the lowest income County in New York State we have the highest rates of obesity and this map is showing in the neighborhood wind now more than 30 percent of the people being obese very high prevalence of diabetes just a short distance away here in Manhattan the Upper East Side where it's the highest income neighborhood in the city we have very low prevalence of obesity very low prevalence of diabetes two thirds of adults citywide are overweight or obese but in the darkest areas on this map over close to 90 percent in some cases of adults are overweight or obese and you can see in the areas that are lighter around University City lower rates of obesity and look at all the healthy food sources so all the produce cars the supermarkets the farmers markets and when you go back to these areas that have higher rates of obesity you see many fewer sources of healthy food there has been a recognition of the seriousness of obesity as an issue for the whole country but if you look at the state of Tennessee in Nashville which is where where we're located it is a crisis level here I mean we ranked at the bottom about one out of ten adults is walking around with diabetes if you look at people who have not graduated from high school it's one out of five the red spots in this particular map are the where the highest rates of poverty are we know that in this area almost one out of every three children is considered to be overweight or obese and this is an area she was saying with poverty the average household income is less than $25,000 for a family of four Orange County California is an extremely wealthy County one of the wealthiest counties in the United States Orange County has a very high number of parks and park space in fact per 1000 residents in Orange County there are 41 acres of parks and open space but not in Santa Ana this red circle reflects the proportion of kids that are overweight or obese look at the difference between that circle and this tiny little circle in Irvine and all of this yellow which reflects relatively high rates of wealth right next door to these deep pockets of poverty overweight and obesity so what is happening here is that we have data that can document that not everybody have the same resources to fight diseases and at the end the epidemics are reduced to the pockets of poverty you I want to take the Committee on just a very brief journey from the perspective of a local public health practitioner so the death certificate is actually a pretty good source of data to tell what somebody died of you can tell what age they were when they died you can tell what their race ethnicity is and you can tell where they lived and those four pieces of data can tell you a lot about patterns of death in a community where you live matters and it matters a lot another way of putting this is does your zip code matter more than your genetic code this is Baltimore Maryland where they have a census track down near the Inner Harbor a life expectancy of 62 years and another life expectancy up in northern Baltimore 82 years a 20 year life expectancy difference this is Cuyahoga County Cleveland where we thus far have found the greatest disparity in life expectancy this is Huff an inner-city neighborhood with the average life expectancy of 64 years and 8 miles down the road is Lyndhurst with a life expectancy of close to 90 years understanding what drives that disparity is going to help us understand what is driving the chronic disease epidemic it's going to help us understand the tools and strategies to get underneath the obesity epidemic obesity is the primary driver of chronic disease a big contributor to diabetes cardiovascular disease stroke and some cancers and so with our health care costs at over two trillion dollars our nation's costs are enormous in the low-income neighborhood there's a different food environment not only do people make less money they're surrounded by lower quality food it's difficult to get fresh vegetables and they're more stressed and so it brings up this question of what degree of free will do people really have when they're in a certain controlled environment and until we can understand that there are large social and economic forces that predict obesity we're never going to solve the epidemic there is a design there is an urban design that is making people sick this isn't program design that is making people obese overweight there is a design that is making people develop chronic diseases there's no healthy places at my neighborhood the most that we have is like Chinese McDonald's KFC with all the burger joints and deals and 99-cent this and it's 99 say everywhere if I have three dollars you go buy two burgers for 99 cents each and a soda for us is more accessible to go to the fast-food I got a family have five kids and it's hard to just do it on the cheap food you know there's limited resources I'm gonna pick what I can afford to feed my family you know to get to the grocery store and to find the healthier foods then to have to prepare those foods and and the expense it's almost out of the picture for someone in my situation if you are confined to living in a particular neighborhood because of the amount of money that you make obviously the choices that are in that neighborhood are going to be your only choices so the same populations where people have food insecurity where people worry about where they're going to have the money to get their next meal are the same populations we're seeing the highest obesity rates I may live in community if I'm low-income in this country where there are food deserts where there aren't amenities that give me access to fresh vegetables fruits and other high-quality foods and the streets that I may want to go exercise on may be crime rate there may be cars or freeways or there may not be parks so here I am trying to exercise personal responsibility and I can't be healthy so if they ever tell you you don't have any options for eating what you should you should definitely come to my neighborhood because you have the McDonald's right there you have the subway Fried Chicken then you can go get a coffee or a doughnut Dunkin Donuts if you're still hungry you can go to the Wendy's right there this is junk food heaven when you see food even pictures of food it makes you feel hungry in poor neighborhoods there are many more posters and billboards and you know outdoor advertising for food that you don't see in wealthy neighborhoods people here have two or three jobs to pay the rent to pay for a metro card you know they don't have time to cook home in a low-income neighborhood there are more convenience stores in fact two to four times as many small convenience stores that predominantly sell foods that are high in sugar fat salt hello go into a poor neighborhood anywhere in America in a small store what do you see there chips soda candy these are products that are made from sugar they're made from wheat they're made from corn and they have an enormous shelf life a year or more these are products that have a very large profit margin do you see this is my doubtful right here the honey buns two for a dollar cheap calories are unhealthy calories you can easily in Bodega and South Bronx get 1300 calories for a little more than two dollars you can get more than you need for an entire day for less than three dollars 2-liter soda you might get a special offer of 99 cents and the water why is it more expensive we can't really make a dent in the obesity epidemic if we don't start making a dent in the disparities between the low income and the high income communities we have to understand it in a very low-income community there are much more profound challenges and we have a much greater obligation as a society to create changes in that environment there's a societal not just responsibility but I think investment issue here because everyone benefits from everyone else being healthy more people are unhealthy that it's less economic productivity it's more health care costs a variety of other clustered everyone has to take on what type of nation can live without a workforce that is healthy so what diabetes and obesity is doing to this nation is crippling the workforce but beyond that creeping the families and the individuals and the communities you we are city with a high population density and so there are mobile vendors all over the city and there are more people who want to vend than there are available permits and so we said we could take advantage of that what came out of that was the idea of the green cards what we did was we raised the cap on a total number of mobile vendors in the city but only four vendors who were willing to sell fresh fruits and vegetables according to our specifications and only if they sold them in underserved neighborhoods people are strolling by they're seeing this healthy food here that competes with all the advertising you're seeing for junk food oh my cousin we come every day every day my strawberries number one set of the strawberries everybody loves strawberries not too expensive it's cheap in this race that the best part is very fresh this doesn't last in my house we do that's why thanks Andy the biggest changes in health will happen by us creating a world where people naturally behave in a healthier way thank you okay bye kids I'm responsible for a city of eight point three million people every one of those people I consider to be my patient as a doctor and of all the health problems I deal with this is the one problems getting worse obesity and diabetes we haven't solved it yet there's a lot of things we're working on here each one I think can contribute to the solution but we haven't reversed it yet and so our I'm always trying to understand better the nature of the problem and try to see where is the leverage where can we make changes that can really turn things around you have issues of poverty certainly of crime but also lack of options and so then you get a proliferation of bad options this is a market yeah that's a small market side and see what can I mostly about mobile phones yeah I don't think they have too much food do they sell water sugar sweetened beverages and hot dogs where would you buy a south along here yeah don't think you went so food choices okay Chinese store right right and jump up sticks that would be it yeah to the yellow thing oh yeah it's really hand all the way down to so folks are bombarded and this is all yeah but nothing else bad yeah nothing else if I if you don't have a car yeah and there's no big market right in your neighborhood I mean how many groceries can you carry on the trolley in many neighborhoods our philadelphi unfortunately you literally do have what we refer to as these food deserts and so the the alternative I'll go to the store you know two blocks down the street unhealthy products price is too high limited choices and I'll just deal with it and the outcome is bad health I've got the two bananas in a nap 125 if you're in this area this bag is 25 cents you go to City Line Avenue in a vending machine this bag will be 75 cents thrown up and it won't be marked 25 cents so it starts with the Compton right they charge a little more in the neighborhoods where they can get a cup for the cost and right keep it cheap here and move product is there anything that you're able to sell that's healthier side that competes price-wise with this not at all for 25 cents kids they know no vegetable or fruits you know they may know apples and oranges but I mean I tell you I had a kid the other day I was eating in here and he asked me what that was I was even broccoli fresh broccoli you know raw broccoli dip in it some of the kids are raised on this stuff it's chips candy soda you know this is a big part of these kids diet and you can see it reflects in their waistline every community may not be able to have a supermarket but we want to work with the stores that are already in neighborhoods to help them sell healthy products we've had a great response I'm very excited I wanted to come in on these staples because this is actually this is the traffic light right assemble something really easy for people I can just look the colors go actually easy for kids to remember yeah I got married I moved into this community in 1973 when I moved here I realized that there was no supermarket when you talk to people and say I don't have a supermarket in my area oh my god were witty you go I did not want to move I just wanted to make a difference and I want to make a change they made this happen and they pushed the political community they push their neighbors they pushed the business community and convinced folks that this could not only happen but work all of us on our time volunteering struggling blood sweat and tears to make this happen this used to be barren land we've overgrown concrete debris short dumping all kinds of stuff going on here and over the course of about a year and a half this entire section was transformed into what we see now brand new supermarket damaged supermarket is community in 30 years all righty hello man we are chopping I have to get some broccoli broccoli rabe yes so there we go we are doing collard greens it's like heaven knocking come on here get fresh vegetable is marvelous it's convenient market mean everything for this neighborhood having the tools and resources right here in the community that's when you're making progress exactly what I'm looking for to watch this entire community transform itself was just it really was incredible I've never seen anything like his best project I've ever been involved in in my life there are many small programs at different levels we can use to chip away at the problem over time step by step we'll put in place systems and interventions that'll make it easier for people to be physically active and we'll change our food environment in ways so that people eat healthier we need more people to participate in decisions that are being made about investing in open space and parks investing in grocery stores farmers markets and education of our kids around healthy eating and healthy diets I'm one of those people who believes we can reverse this trend we do that not as individuals we do that together with other people in communities you you

Channel: HBODocs

Views: 1,626,425

Keywords: hbo documentary films, docu, docs, weight of the nation, may 14, may 15, weight, fat, troubles, heart disease, type 2 diabetes, diabetes, high blood pressure, blood pressure, liver disease, infertility, cancer, stroke, overweight

Id: 7MJnm5X9NN0

Length: 24min 6sec (1446 seconds)

Published: Mon May 14 2012