Fat Sick and Nearly Dead - A Movie Review

I have read many reviews about the movie Fat Sick and Nearly Dead.  Some positive reviews, some negative reviews.  Comments in negative reviews include bias towards one kind of diet, cherry-picking doctors that support juice fasting, and a tone that is similar to a late-night commercial pitch.  The movie is a documentary that follows two men, Joe Cross and Phil Staples, through a 60-day juice fast.  Joe Cross is well-to-do, and is the brainchild of this film. Phil Staples is a truck driver from Iowa.

Yes, the movie is biased, being that it is a documentary about the experiences of two individual men.  It is not a survey of a cross section of a population.  It is the following of two men trying a specific diet to remedy a specific problem - obesity.  On the matter of doctor interviews in the film, the doctors appearing are the ones tasked with following the two men on the fast.  Of course they would be choosing doctors who are on the same page with the drastic diet they have chosen to attempt.  I too would seek out the doctors I know will support me on my chosen course of treatment.  I think while watching the film, it is important to remember that it documents (hence documentary) the experiences of two men.  It is not a documentary in the spirit of a neutral news program.

I do however, have trouble with the fact that the film does slant towards commercial pitch at times.  The ever present high-speed Breville juicer becomes distracting from the critical message of the film and I felt a subtle bit of mistrust in Cross.  Was the man more interested in helping others, or in pitching the Breville juicer?  At no time did Mr. Cross actually pitch the Breville, or even mention the make and model of the juicer.  I did find it distracting however, knowing there is a better technology (slow-juicing) available.  I was looking for a mailing address or website at the end of the film for the Breville company, but there was none, and I was glad for that.   Unfortunately, on the Fat Sick and Nearly Dead website, prominent on that page, is a pitch to purchase Breville juicers.  Well, I guess one can't fault Cross - who is a businessman, after all, from monetizing his website beyond simply marketing the film.

My general opinion of the film is this:  It documents one kind of treatment (or diet) that works.  It works miracles.  The juice fast is nothing new.  Cross did not invent it.  I'm sure many of you remember the "Juiceman" infomercial - the juicer was pitched by addictively hyperactive Juiceman Jay Kordich back in the early 1990s.  Regardless of the pitchmen and the innate distrust we feel regarding their sincerity, the reality is this:  to aggressively tackle obesity, a juice fast works.  The issue is not if subsisting on a diet consisting solely of fresh vegetable and fruit juices will result in loss of excessive weight and help to get obesity related diseases under control.  It does do that. The issue is with the ability of the individual.  Can you stick with the program?  Are you likely to fall back into a food addiction?  Are you able to do the work associated with juicing? And when it is time to go back to a diet of solid foods, can you keep from sliding back into bad eating habits?  But these issues remain regardless of the methods we use to get a handle on a weight problem.  These are not reasons to condemn any single treatment method. 

There are other diets that work as well, if simply losing weight is the goal without regard to further damage to health.  But to retrain your tastebuds, break food addictions, and build up your vitality and health rather than compromise it further in the process, the juice fast works.  More than Cross, Staples is a testament to that.