My Big Fat Diet: CBC documentary
 

http://www.cbc.ca/thelens/bigfatdiet/

Airs tomorrow at 10pm eastern time.

Also check out...

http://www.drjaywortman.com/blog/wordpress/
http://hoe.kgnu.net/hoeradioshow.php?show_id=184

Thanks, will look into it.

My Big, Fat Diet (First Nation Community Goes Low Carb)
 

There have been some posts about this CBC documentary today, but I thought it belonged in this forum as well. Dr. Jay Wortman, the physician who is behind this, has a blog at http://www.drjaywortman.com/blog/wordpress/. If you follow the link at the bottom of the page, there is more information about the diet and Dr. Wortman, and an excerpt from the documentary.

My Big, Fat Diet

Supersize Me meets Northern Exposure in My Big Fat Diet when the Namgis First Nation of Alert Bay gives up sugar and junk food, returning to a traditional style of eating for a year to fight obesity and diabetes.

If you visit Alert Bay off the coast of Vancouver Island, you'll find a picturesque fishing village inhabited by two cultures, the Namgis First Nation and their non-native neighbours. Here an epidemic is undermining the health and vitality of community. Like most aboriginal communities across North America, the rates of obesity, metabolic syndrome, and diabetes here are up to five times the national average.

No one's life is untouched by this problem, everyone is related to someone who is either at risk, or coping with one of these health issues. Mainstream medical professionals cite sedentary lifestyles and a diet rich in fat as the underlying reason for the growing epidemic.

But after two decades of service in public health and a distinguished career, Métis physician, Dr. Jay Wortman, believes that the western diet which replaced the traditional diet is the primary cause of the epidemic. "Obesity, diabetes and heart disease were unknown in these populations until very recently. No aboriginal language has a word for diabetes."

Wortman's conviction comes from personal experience. Four years ago, he discovered that he had type 2 diabetes. "My immediate instinctive response was to stop eating any food that caused my blood sugar to rise. So I eliminated carbohydrates from my diet. Within four weeks, my blood sugar and blood pressure had normalized and I began to feel much better."

Directed by Mary Bissell, My Big Fat Diet chronicles how the Namgis First Nation goes cold turkey and gives up sugar and junk food for a year in a diet study sponsored by Health Canada and the University of British Columbia. Through the stories of six people, it documents a medical and cultural experiment that may be the first of its kind in North America.

My Big Fat Diet, like Super Size Me, looks at the problem of obesity, through the eyes of a man who straddles two cultures, Western and First Nations. It also looks at the history and present-day status of traditional food gathering, and the link between individual health and that of the immediate environment.

Bare Bones Productions is a collaboration between award-winning, First Nations film-maker, Barb Cranmer of Alert Bay and Mary Bissell and Christian Bruyere of Vancouver. My Big Fat Diet was produced by Bare Bones Productions in association with CBC Newsworld.

PLEASE NOTE: The research in this study is still being evaluated. Anyone taking medication for diabetes or high blood pressure should consult their doctor before starting a low-carb diet. Read more about the diet.

http://www.cbc.ca/thelens/bigfatdiet/index.html

heard a CBC radio thing on this last night. They said it over and over, 'basically, we put them on Atkins'

I expect some good things! Health Canada paid for the study, so things can't be all that bleak for low carbing!

Or for native communities!

A direct link to the PDF poster summarizing the program:

http://www.cbc.ca/thelens/bigfatdiet/Poster.pdf

think some people who know what they're talking about need to comment here:

http://www.cbc.ca/documentaries/dis...g_fat_diet.html

Here it is also on 3 & 5 hrs later if you happen to miss the first airing.

Will this documentary be released as a movie, like "Supersize Me" was? I'm wondering if and when I might be able to see it in the US?

Sometimes NOVA works with CBC. I wonder, however, if too many interest groups would not like it airing.

maybe someone has a digital recorder they can send it to US people. (no, we don't have TiVO here... think it's coming though)

The health problems and obesity that happened among that group sounds just like what has happened on indian reservations here. It would be wonderful if some doctor could lead and document such an experiment here.

Health Canada probably only paid for the study because they thought it was a "natural diet" and not Atkins. :)

As it is, they described my diet almost exactly, except I have some nuts in my diet and I don't eat the fat they do. I prefer butter. :)

Hopefully they will archive it on the CBC website, where they do have controversial topics like fluoridization.

I suspect that this will be out there for anyone to grab if they wish too. Be it on the cbc web site or by other means.

We have PVRs (different brand name) available usually through your cable or satellite provider ;) ... meanwhile, there's always low tech, CD or DVD or even VHS...though I hope to see a You-Tube posting soon.

Yes, indeed. At last.