Over the past three decades, obesity rates in the US have more than doubled for children and tripled for adolescents ́ and a startling 70% of adults are now obese or overweight. The result has been a widening epidemic of obesity-related health problems, including coronary heart disease, high blood pressure, stroke, and Type 2 diabetes. While discussions about this spiraling health crisis have tended to focus on the need for more exercise and individual...

"By the time they reach kindergarten, most kids have learned that "fat" is bad. As they get older, kids learn to pursue thinness in order to survive in a world that ties our body size to our value. Multibillion-dollar industries thrive on consumers believing that we don't want to be fat. Our weight-centric medical system pushes "weight loss" as a prescription, while ignoring social determinants of health and reinforcing negative stereotypes about...

"'The Kids Menu' is a feature documentary from the team that brought you 'Fat, Sick & Nearly Dead.' As filmmaker Joe Cross spent time traveling the world with his previous two films, he met thousands of people and one issue that came up again and again was what to do about the growing childhood obesity problem. In 'The Kids Menu,' Joe meets with experts, parents, teachers and kids, coming to the realization that childhood obesity isn't the real issue,...

In an effort to address the obesity epidemic, in the USA 20 states mandate that students their body mass index (BMI) tested in order to gauge the student population's "health," even though BMI does not distinguish between muscle weight and fat weight. Notification letters are being sent to students whose body mass do not fall within a narrow range deemed "acceptable" by the state government, essentially telling children--some as young as kindergarten--that...

Narrated by Katie Couric, the film blows the lid off everything that was known about food and exercise, revealing a 30-year campaign by the food industry, aided by the U.S. government, to mislead and confuse the American public. Exposing the hidden truths contributing to one of the largest health epidemics in history, it follows a group of families battling to lead healthier lives and reveals why the conventional wisdom of 'exercise and eat right'...