Better

My experience is that at least 99% of the population

has been indoctrinated with a belief

that they are fundamentally flawed,

that their body is fundamentally bad, broken, and stupid,

and that they must do things

to be deserving of anything good,

and this absolutely includes me.

I don't have enough imagination in my body

to understand how someone would feel

to know that every time they walk into a room,

they are either ridiculed or pitied.

I have felt very bad for my mom

for not being able to have the body she wants

no matter how hard she tries.

I always felt that it was my fault,

that I was doing something wrong,

and then I would start eating,

and I would gain weight.

I've lost probably the weight

of one or two men in my lifetime

and I gained it all back.

If I got upset,

I'd go through a drive-through and sit in the car,

eat my double cheeseburger and cry the whole time I did it.

There's that guilt as well,

it's sort of like, this is your fault, your problem,

so on top of all the physical part that's going on,

you have these emotional things also.

There's a lot of prejudice that people have,

the stereotypes that you're lazy,

you're undisciplined, you're stupid or whatever,

and it hurts, and it's wrong.

Tell me about 15-year-old Jonathan

and how he viewed obese people.

Let's go from here, what had society told him

was the way to view obese people?

I am embarrassed to say this,

at that time in my life,

if I saw a obese person

knock over a glass of milk in a restaurant,

I would be like, "See?

"See how stupid and bad and sub-human that thing is?"

Whereas if a non-obese human knocked over a glass of milk,

the reaction would be totally different,

and that is obviously

a repugnant mindset

that exists in humanity,

it's the mindset that a Homo sapien is less than human

because of a characteristic.

Fat shaming stigma that is linked with being overweight

is very, very present,

you know, it's linked with many things,

particularly the sense that it's

an individual's responsibility and it's their fault.

And you don't go out as much,

you're not proud of yourself,

you look in the mirror and you're ashamed of what you see.

You can't hide from the world

because you've got things you gotta do,

but you want to.

I'm gonna tell you something, being fat sucks.

There's not one good thing about it.

My husband of 41 years,

he passed away July the 15th in 2016

from a diabetes complication.

And my husband died because I didn't have,

we didn't have the truth.

An uncle, from diabetes, he had a heart attack.

I never knew he was that sick.

Diabetes is not a new disease,

but we sometimes lose amidst the current epidemic

is an awareness of how rare it used to be.

Very few people would have gotten diabetes

100 years ago or before.

And when I was in medical school,

which was a long time ago,

when we had a patient who came in with diabetes type 2,

we wanted to follow them

because there weren't that many of them.

You know, when I came over from New Zealand

20 or so years ago,

well, I really had not seen a very overweight child

prior to coming here.

In fact, in the last two years,

life expectancy in the United States has decreased,

basically for the first time since the Civil War,

primarily owing to obesity-related complications.

I have never seen such a catastrophic health epidemic

get so little attention,

and we have to get the word out, period.

Diabesity, it is a problem that is getting worse

at an exponential rate,

and it's cultural, and it's what we eat

and it's how our lifestyle is,

and those are things that need to be changed,

understanding that we have

more capabilities in us than we ever imagine

when we are put in the right position

to be able to utilize those capabilities,

like, that's what I wanna talk about.

So why am I doing this?

Well, I wanna know what to eat and why.

I wanna know how to stop diabetes,

I want to know the science behind the optimal diet.

I wanna understand everything that is holding us back,

I need to know about the shame that drives us,

because I need to know about my mom's struggle,

we need to know how to make our bodies want better food,

we need to know how to break the diet industry,

we need to know how to escape that which seems inescapable,

we need to understand how to turn the tide,

we need to know how to feel better,

how to live better, how to eat better,

how to love better,

we need to be better.

While I was growing up,

I was obsessed with Superman,

and apparently, I had no shame.

While I was growing up,

there was a real superman who changed my life.

This is my grandpa, Ben.

Grandpa was a second-generation American

without even a high school education

who worked in a factory his whole life

so that all four of his kids

could go on to get master's degrees.

He was a real superman,

at least until he was faced with a super villain, diabetes.

As one of the leading causes of amputations,

Grandpa's superpowers could only take him so far

against this super villain.

I remember sitting out in the hall.

Your grandpa needs you to be strong right now,

okay, sweetheart?

Can I go in after the doctor's done?

I want to show him my new Superman comic book.

Yes, he would like that, but for now,

No, don't let them do it.

I love you, please stay put.

Don't let them do it,

don't let them take my leg,

don't let them take my leg.

There was my superman,

pale, still, and lifeless,

defeated by diabetes.

And while Grandpa's light went out,

his death lit a fire inside of me,

because I came to quickly find out

Grandpa is not alone.

Did you know, one in four of us

are afflicted with diabetes or prediabetes?

The day I got the death sentence,

the diagnosis I had diabetes.

I have side pains.

Thyroid problems.

I kept getting foot ulcers.

I went home that night and I cried like a baby.

Alzheimer's.

Bone-chilling cold.

You stand up, you dizzy.

Fatty liver.

And I kept getting bone infections.

I had stage 2 hypertension.

My left foot amputated almost completely.

Of the chronic diseases that are common

in the United States and throughout the world,

type 2 diabetes is one of the very most preventable,

and it appears to be the one that,

unfortunately, is becoming pandemic,

and there's no signal that this trend is going to abate.

You know, diabetes reflects

the ultimate metabolic meltdown,

it's basically the fundamental systems

that control blood sugar,

this critical fuel for the body,

break down.

What is the biggest thing

that you think is different about this project

than other lifestyle-related films out there?

For one, it's focused,

two, it's actionable,

you can take things off a list and go do those,

I think it's incredible to be able to

have the information to reach an audience,

and really, truly care that they get that information.

Hello, my name is Jonathan Bailor,

and today I would like to share a personal story with you

about a journey that changed my life

and my family's life.

I want to show you how the world's greatest researchers,

scientists, and doctors

have conclusively proven

that we can end the diabesity epidemic,

and I want to how you how you can permanently

increase the quality of your life and prevent diabesity,

but let's wind the clock back a little bit.

See, I started off as a personal trainer.

I saw you out there in the gym,

that was quite the good workout today, Tim.

Oh, it was okay, I guess.