You don’t have to go far to hear about, or even see for yourself, the very pressing reality that is childhood obesity. The numbers are staggering – 17 percent of U.S. children, according to the CDC – and the results frightening – as this is the first generation of children not expected to live longer than their parents. Of the millions of children and families facing these daunting health concerns, three of them come forward and speak out in tonight’s “Too Fat for 15: The Obesity Crisis,” a first-ever town hall special on The Style Network.

The “Too Fat for 15″ series is in its second season, following a group of young teens during their time at Wellspring Academy, a weight loss boarding school. From that series, three students (Tanisha, Carysn and Rachel) will join host and co-producer Alison Sweeney, from Biggest Loser, and Ruby Gettinger, from Style’s “Ruby,” for a lively one-hour conversation about how to inform both children and parents about creating healthier lifestyles at home.

“They knew I was passionate about childhood obesity,” Alison Sweeney told us about becoming involved with the show. Saying that she’s a fan of the series, she added that “It’s so inspiring and so important to get this information out there.”
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It’s hard for most of us to fathom stepping on a scale that reflects a number in the 700s, but it was very much reality for James Garrison. This 26-year-old had a high school football injury that he never quite recovered from. He self-medicated with food and was unable to workout, two situations that lead him to the first season of Extreme Makeover: Weight Loss Edition.

His first weigh-in with trainer Chris Powell set the scale at 651 pounds, a weight that classified James as “super obese.” The show’s nutritionist, Paulette Lambert, told us that “super obese” represents those who are more than 200 pounds overweight, which is about 10 percent of the U.S. population. However, 365 days of dietary changes and a dedicated fitness plan helped James lose about 50 percent of his body weight; his final weigh-in (which took place in February 2011) showed him down 313 pounds.

James found his way to Extreme Makeover when a casting representative for Biggest Loser told him he was too heavy for the show, but there might be a chance on EM. He says the entire process started 18 months ago and that “I never thought it would actually end,” giving a sense of relief that his episode had finally aired.
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My favorite part of Jamie Oliver’s Food Revolution this Father’s Day week was Jamie’s visit back to the Barrett family to see if they have stayed away from fast food since his last visit. As Jamie strode up the sidewalk, he noticed that they were growing herbs and vegetables. The father and the teenage son answered the door in aprons, in the midst of preparing dinner for themselves and Jamie. They had even filled the living room with all kinds of produce in jest of Jamie filling their home with fast food on his last visit. The father stated that he had lost 16 pounds already and, most importantly, feels good about himself as a father now that he cooks and has dinner at the family table with his sons.

The episode started with Jamie visiting a convention for school lunch cooks. He let us know that it is not just the LAUSD, but he has also been denied access to 75 other school districts. The comments by the cooks and administrators made it clear that people are afraid of bad press.

I find it sad when we try to pretend that we are perfect and/or do not open ourselves up to improvement through real awareness. I work with people frequently who confess less than functional habits. Just because Jillian Michaels already works out daily, does not mean she is better than the person asking for help to start exercising more often. In fact, I often find that the person trying to make a change has more courage and is working harder than the person who has already developed a healthier habit. My favorite part of the school lunch cook convention was Jamie commenting on the fact that during airing of the Food Revolution, commercials for fast food or convenience food are also being aired.

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There are intense cravings for things like chocolate, French fries, or even bread. And then there is a line that crosses and those cravings consume the individual to a point of addiction. That’s the eating disorder that interventionist Brad Lamm is working to reverse on OWN’s Addicted to Food, a program he co-created. 

The program takes place at Shades of Hope, a treatment facility in Texas that Lamm calls “powerful, special, and unlike any other.” Contrary to any other weight loss show on television, this one doesn’t have participants competing, weighing in, or even get too caught up in calories. Instead, they’re working from the inside out. In fact, they may not even see any weight loss until after they go home.

The individuals you see on Addicted to Food spend hours in therapy each week, about 12-15 hours of mental and emotional work each day! “They are busting down the beliefs of this unhealthy loop they have with food,” Lamm told us.

He says that Shades of Hope is “not a fat farm,” but that it is more like an emotional bootcamp. It’s a safe place for those battling a food addiction to understand themselves, the addiction, and learn how to heal every aspect. It’s then that they’re able to go home and put what they’ve learned in to practice. While some may lose a little weight during their stay, most begin the physical changes and transformations at home. The internal baggage they leave with, while it can’t be weighed or measured, is greatly diminished.
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After the disappointment in the last episode of Jamie Oliver’s Food Revolution, it was a wonderful surprise to see that the administrator of West Adams High had hopefully found a loophole, so that Jamie and his kids could indeed cook for the entire school, at least as an assembly. The administrator said that the school was based on experiential teaching and preparing kids for college, so healthy eating fit right into their principles. In the mean time, Jamie continued his role of instructor, trying out different subjects beyond culinary arts.

In math class, Jamie taught about calories and consequences by allowing students to choose a snack between soda, chocolate bars, pizza, or oranges. He then allowed them to experience weight gain using weight backpacks. Jamie then took his math students out to the track having the students walk around the track enough times to burn the calories of what they had just eaten.

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