Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta’s healthy dieting initiative called Strong4Life has put out a sobering commercial to promote healthy eating. Watch it and see if it makes you think twice about the choices you are making. The video opens up in the first person where a patient is on a hospital ER bed.
He is being intubated at which time the physician asks, “What do we have here?” The nurse answers, “5 foot 9 inches, 300 pounds, age 32”. The doctor asks what condition brought him into the hospital and is told it was cardiac arrest. The doctor looks at the man in shock and asks openly, “How the hell did this happen?”
The video then begins to walk the man back in his life showing the viewer exactly how it happened. Health issues such as heart attacks are rarely brought about by singular events. Rather, they are a malady brought about by an aggregate of smaller decisions. In this man’s case, he was seen making multiple stops at the fast food restaurant even as his big belly was protruding in plain view. He belly was seen as he laid back on the couch resting a soda on his stomach while playing video games.
His early adolescent birthdays were shown with sugar rich birthday cakes. His grade school teacher commends him for earning an “A” and hands him a candy basket to pick from as a reward. Eventually, he is in his baby seat being placated by his mother.
Nothing calms him down except McDonald’s French fries. The last scene is that of a morbidly obese man on the ER table being treated.