Over the past two days, I watched the documentary “Fat, Sick, and Nearly Dead”. It starts out with Joe Cross, a man who is 100 pounds overweight and struggling with an autoimmune disease. He notices how dependent he has become on medications and how poorly he eats, and realizes that a healthier diet could aid him with both his weight and disease. This jumpstarts his sixty day fast, whee he consumes nothing but juice made from natural fruits and vegetables. Not only does he lose over eighty pounds in that time, but he feels more energy and does not need to take his medications. This inspires him to spread the word of juicing, which leads into the story of Phil Staples.
Cross is traveling around the country sharing his success when he runs into Phil Staples. Staples is a 429 pound truck driver who has been living on fast food and living with the same rare disease as Cross. After years of knowing no one with this condition, it was incredible how the paths of these two men met. Staples tries some of Cross’s juice, and the two men exchange numbers with Cross offering to help Staples at any time. Months later, Cross is home in Australia when he receives a terrifying phone call from Staples, who is “one cheeseburger away from death”. Cross shows Staples the way in terms of regaining his health, and for the first time in years Staples is able to enjoy time with his son and have a regulated healthy diet.
This documentary was striking to me for several reasons. On a personal note, I have also used fruits and vegetables in order to “cure” a disease typically cared for by medications. For the last few years, I have suffered from asthma-like symptoms, which has made my athletic career rather difficult. After going on an inhaler and seeing improvement in my breathing, I wasn’t paticularlly worried about my health. Then my dad happened to hear over the radio that many people are misdiagnosed with asthma when truly they are suffering from too much acid in their diet. This forced me to reevaluate what I was eating and gave me the opportunity to cut out processed food and focus more on fruits and vegetables with some grains mixed in. This plus exercise led me to lose 15 pounds and feel healthier than I have in years. I also had mild stomach problems when I was very young, and I noticed that the foods I was supposed to eat were the same regardless of what health issue I was dealing with. This just shows how important fruits and vegetables are to the human diet and how much healthier and better off the human race would be if we all cut out the bad stuff and focused on foods made by the sun.
This documentary was striking to me for several reasons. On a personal note, I have also used fruits and vegetables in order to “cure” a disease typically cared for by medications. For the last few years, I have suffered from asthma-like symptoms, which has made my athletic career rather difficult. After going on an inhaler and seeing improvement in my breathing, I wasn’t particularly worried about my health. Then my dad happened to hear over the radio that many people are misdiagnosed with asthma when truly they are suffering from too much acid in their diet. Nice Article.!!!
I have also watched the documentary “Fat, Sick, and Nearly Dead” and I agree with Danielle–the story is truly inspirational. In our world today, too many people are caught in the food industry’s vicious cycle. Studies have shown that many of the fast, processed foods human beings consume today are actually addictive and thus keep us wanting more. Joe Cross, a man who struggled with health and weight issues, was able to break free of this cycle and improve the quality of his life. It is important to remember that eating a salad once a week or buying a box of non-GMO cereal is not going to “cure” a person fully. Healthy eating is a lifestyle; not a diet. Through the documentary “Fat, Sick, and Nearly Dead”, one can identify how Cross and Staples were able to change their way of life to become happier and healthier people.
I myself have experienced the benefits of a changed lifestyle much like Danielle. My favorite form of exercise is running–whether it be on a trail, on a treadmill, or on a track. This summer, I decided to challenge myself and maintain a vegan diet. I have been running for many years, and throughout my years of running, my speed and endurance has not changed drastically, however, this summer, on my vegan diet, my running times improved immensely. Not only was I able to run faster, but I also had stronger endurance which allowed me to increase my mileage. In today’s world, I think many human beings underestimate the power of raw fruit (raw sugar). In my mind ‘fruit=energy’. The sugars that are found in fruits are simple sugars that the body is able to breakdown very easily, thus allowing for large amounts of energy to be released. A human being does not have to be overweight or ill to reap the benefits of a healthy, organic diet. Every person living in our world today should consider changing their lifestyle in regards to food to see what benefits one may gain through such a transition.