Discussion Assignment (\"Fat, Sick and Nearly Dead\" documentary) PDF

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Discussion of the the "Fat, Sick and Nearly Dead" documentary ...

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RUNNING HEAD: Discussion Assignment

A) Upon watching the "Fat, Sick and Nearly Dead" documentary, I have found out a lot of new information about nutrition. The movie made me realize that juice fasting can be an amazing strategy for weight loss for some people. I used to think such a diet is only healthy if it lasts for a maximum of a week, but this movie provided me with a scientific explanation of why long-term juice fasting is a great way to improve your health and well-being. Only drinking juices for 60 days not only helped Joe Cross, the main character, to get off his medications and lose huge amounts of weight but also made Joe undergo a mental transformation. He completely changed his way of thinking and, evidently, became way more positive in general. Taking into account everything stated above, the documentary made me understand that sometimes a different approach to dieting is a great strategy for improving one's health.

B) The movie made me feel inspired to alter some of my eating habits. I do not feel the need to drink juices for such a long period of time, but a week of juice fasting would definitely be good for me. As for my exercise habits, they need to be changed as well. I used to exercise a lot throughout the summer, but now I do not have any time for it due to a huge amount of assignments and tests. However, I strongly believe that if you really want to do something, you will manage to find time for it, so I decided to start with at least 30 minutes of exercise tomorrow.

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RUNNING HEAD: Discussion Assignment C) I would recommend this movie to some of my friends who want to improve their eating habits and health in general by drinking juices for a short-term period. Juice fasting would be a perfect diet for those people because there are almost zero chances of this diet negatively affecting their physical and emotional well-being. However, I would not recommend this documentary to friends who wish to lose a huge amount of weight. Losing a lot of weight is always challenging, and if people do not see the amazing results shown in the movie, they may get disappointed, lose faith in themselves. I am not a dietitian, so I believe I should not interfere with people's weight loss process, as it might harm them.

If I were to recommend the movie to older people or people with health issues, I would strongly advise them to consult a specialist prior to trying juice fasting. Some diets can be beneficial for one person while deteriorating the other's health, so every diet, including the one advertised in the documentary, needs to be approached individually. Also, I would refrain from recommending this movie to people with eating disorders. Juice fasting involves a drastic change in eating habits and is hard to go through for a majority of people. Those who suffer from eating disorders should not be advised with any diets by people unqualified in the subject, such as myself, because those diets are a potential hazard to their mental health.

D) I spent a lot of time thinking how documentaries like "Fat, Sick and Nearly Dead" would influence the overall health of the population and concluded that those kinds of movies could be

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RUNNING HEAD: Discussion Assignment helpful, but not for everyone. To make those movies more beneficial for their audience, certain things should be mentioned.

I am glad that Joe Cross and Phil Staples managed to go through with this diet and improve their health and eating habits, and, sure, juice fasting would be beneficial for some people, but it can cause serious harm to the mental and physical health of others.

For instance, the movie we were to watch did not thoroughly explain that the diet it promotes is not suitable for certain categories of people. Some people are influenced very easily, and such documentaries may cause them to start dieting without doing enough research or consulting a specialist, which could worsen those people's health. Before making major changes to your eating habits and lifestyle, you have to determine whether the diet shown in the movie is suitable for you, specifically by getting tested by a doctor. Unfortunately, most people would consider this as too much work.

Also, as I mentioned before, people with eating disorders should not be exposed to movies advertising diets as their mental health is too fragile for them to be objective about the way they look and about the amount of weight it would be safe for them to lose. The movie failed to explain that not every person that does not fit in with the toxic beauty standards of modern society is obliged to lose weight to feel appreciated, beautiful, and happy. Being overweight does not always equal being unhealthy, and if movies promoting diets never mention this, and all the other things stated above, they are way more harmful than helpful .

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RUNNING HEAD: Discussion Assignment

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