Supersize Vs Superskinny (2008–2014)

Liza Tarbuck: Narrator

Quotes 

• Narrator : This bariatric ambulance or 'jumbolance' is 1 1/2 times bigger than a normal American ambulance, costs a quarter of a million dollars, and can cope with patients weighing up to 100 stone. In the UK, a standard ambulance can only cope with patients who weigh up to 30 stone, but bariatric vehicles are already hitting the streets across the country. The West Midlands have added 4 to their fleet, and in London there's already a privately run service, as well as 2 NHS jumbolances with a 3rd on the way.

• Narrator : In the UK diabetes is already the most common cause of non traumatic amputation, and the annual cost of diabetes related amputation stands at a staggering 120 million pounds. If Britain's waistlines continue to grow and cases of Type 2 diabetes continue to rise, the problem is only going to get worse.

• Superskinny Amy : What would compel you to eat this now then?

  Supersize Amy : Um, it was there.

  Superskinny Amy : I can't believe how much food I've eaten, it's ridiculous.

  Narrator : Amy may be struggling with the amount of food on her plate, but she's already feeling the benefits of swapping a liquid lunch with something more hardy.

  Superskinny Amy : I feel I have quite a lot of energy surprisingly because I usually get all my energy from my cola, and having my cola taken away from me, I did think I was going to be very lethargic and tired, and exhausted, but I'm feeling okay.

• Narrator : Charlene should be eating 2,000 calories a day, but her tiny portions mean she's consuming only 1,400, which is the recommended amount for a 4-6 year old girl.

• Narrator : Over a year, meat maniac Dawn is wolfing down 208 whole chickens, 1716 rashers of bacon, 3800 sausages, 36,000 slices of deli meat, and 36 kilos of minced beef. This meat laden diet means she's consuming 1,000% more than the recommended amount of protein, which could lead to heart disease, kidney damage, osteoporosis, and several kinds of cancer.

• Narrator : Britain's getting bigger, by 2030 it's predicted a fat 40% of us will be obese. But across the pond, one town is almost there. Evansville, Indiana, is America's fattest city. 37.8% of its population are obese. Dr. Christian's been witnessing the devastation it's causing, to make darn sure us Brits don't follow suit.

  Hospital worker : The heaviest patient I've lifted is 765 pounds.

  Himself - Presenter : Wow, well over 50 stone then.

• Himself - Presenter : Josh, we're going to start with you, and we're going to start with your breakfast.

  [cigarettes come down the feeding tube] 

  Himself - Presenter : You are kidding me! Do you always start the morning with a fag, do you?

  Josh : It's one of the best ones of the day.

  Himself - Presenter : Sorry, Louise, I do apologize. Bare in mind I'm not going to make you smoke the fags.

  [to Josh] 

  Himself - Presenter : Let's look at your actual breakfast, what you actually eat.

  [nothing comes down the tube, he taps it] 

  Josh : I don't eat breakfast.

  Himself - Presenter : So by lunchtime you're obviously quite peckish.

  [more cigarettes fall down the tube] 

  Narrator : Or maybe not.

  Himself - Presenter : How often do you tend to eat lunch in a week?

  Josh : Maybe 3 times a week, something like that.

  Himself - Presenter : [a burger falls]  Fast food, a cup of soup, this all says to me 'I don't really want to cook anything'.

• Narrator : We're only at breakfast, and already Louise's tube is level with Josh's entire week worth of food.

• Himself - Presenter : So this is my gallery, gallery that's very specific to you. Come look at this picture here. What's going on there?

  Josh : It looks like alopecia, hair loss.

  Himself - Presenter : Hair is protein. Protein is very important to the body for building muscles, maintaining, regenerating, repairing, if you're not getting enough of it in your diet, what is the point of your body wasting protein to grow hair? Come over look at this picture next. What do we think here?

  Josh : Bad teeth.

  Himself - Presenter : You've heard of scurvy, it's something that sailors got, because they used to live off of very limited diet with very little fresh fruit and vegetables. Gums bleed, they swell, teeth fall out, they get very poor, you get horrible sores on your body, your skin becomes very dry and crusted. Deficiency of vitamin C leads to scurvy, *you're* deficient in vitamin C, but there's an added issue with you. Smokers' requirements of vitamin C are about double nonsmokers' requirements. What's that?

  Josh : A heart I think.

  Himself - Presenter : Can you see these parts here? They're blackened. That heart muscle has been deprived of oxygen and has died. That person died of a heart attack. It's a complete myth that only fat people have cholesterol deposits, blocked arteries and get heart attacks. Super skinny people are *just* as much at risk.

  Narrator : Heart disease is the UK's biggest killer, responsible for a quarter of premature deaths in men. At risk are the 60% who don't eat their 5 a day, and smokers, who are twice as likely to have a heart attack. Guilty of both, Josh could be heading for an early grave.

  Josh : If I keep going the way I'm going, I'm going to lose all my hair, my teeth and eventually my life. Shit.

• Jeff Mitchell : My name is Jeff Mitchell, I'm 50 years old, I weigh 40 stone and 8 pounds. I liken my problem eating disorder to an addiction to heroin. It takes over your mind, it takes over your body, and it takes control of your life.

  Narrator : Years of comfort eating and extreme weight gain mean that until recently, he'd been bedbound for 3 years.

  Jeff Mitchell : I might as well be in a jail cell somewhere that somebody threw away the key because there's so little you can do.

  Narrator : The only journeys he's made in recent years have been in an ambulance. Jeff suffered renal failure, pneumonia, lymphedema, chronic bronchitis and heart problems.

  Jeff Mitchell : I'm not the person I used to be. When my wife met me I could walk these mountains and climb these hills.

  Narrator : Father to Jed, Jeff put on so much weight that his wife, Sherrie, had to give up her job to become a fulltime carer.

• Narrator : At 40 stone, Jeff has a catalogue of severe health problems.

  Jeff Mitchell : My kidneys failed on me about 2 years ago. It was one of the worst nights in my life, and I was told if I wasn't given medicine, and I didn't start pushing some of that fluid out, that I would die, that I was in renal failure. Sepsis took over, and that's when the infection in my leg got into my bloodstream. The surgeons came in and they marked on my leg, they were going to cut my leg off, just to try and save my life. And on the third day, my body responded to the antibiotics.

• Khalilah Morse : [524 pounds]  I am not your typical fat person. I exercise, I play with my kids, I go to school, I can walk, I can drive, I have a social life, I got a MAN! You know, we do what we do.

  [laughs] 

  Narrator : At her heaviest, Khalilah weighed 43 stone, but she's now on a mission to take control of her health.

  Khalilah Morse : I'm tired of the looks that I get. I'm tired of the judgment.

• Narrator : Dr. Christian wants to shock Gary into seeing what his future could become if he keeps eating at his present rate. So he's sending him across the Atlantic to Farmington, Missouri, to meet ex-security guard, Narry.

  Narry Britton : My name is Narry Britton, I'm 36 and a half stone.

  Narrator : After years of binging, Narry's weight had ballooned to 50 stone, when he had an accident that changed his life.

  Narry Britton : I was going to the restroom one morning and I fell, it broke my back, I was in a coma for 3 days. When I come out of it, they told me that I was going to be paralyzed for the rest of my life.

  Narrator : Narry fell because his legs gave way under the weight of his 50 stone body. He spent 4 years recuperating in a nursing home, where he met Debbie.

  Narry Britton : Debbie is my caregiver, she's also my fiancee.

  Narrator : Paralyzed from the waist down, Narry uses a wheelchair, and has a catalog of health problems due to his obesity.

  Narry Britton : I have diabetes, kidney failure, sleep apnea. When I have to go to the bathroom, I have to go on paper towels. She says it doesn't bother her but it has to some.

  Narrator : With Debbie's help, Narry's lost 13 stone.

• Narrator : Narry's health condition requires close supervision by the district nurse. The folds of fat are a breeding ground for bacteria and his skin is riddled with painful sores.

  Debbie : This is a big sore here, that's an infection that went all the way down to the bone and ate his skin away.

  Gary : [turns away]  Oh, shit.

  Narry : That big hole you see.

  Gary : Yeah?

  Narry : It was big enough, it was big enough you could put your feet inside of it.

  Gary : Oh she-it. This is too much.

  Narrator : Seeing first hand where his weight gain could lead has put Gary under pressure. He starts to feel unwell, and complains of a throbbing headache. Concerned, Debbie takes his blood pressure.

  Debbie : This is not good, I got 232 over 115.

  Narrator : It's almost double the healthy level.

  Debbie : Let's call an ambulance.

• Paramedic : You take blood pressure medicine?

  Gary : No.

  Paramedic : No medical problems at all?

  Gary : No, I'm overweight.

  Paramedic : 280 over 120.

  Gary : 280?

  Paramedic : You're really high.

  Narrator : Seriously overweight with high blood pressure, Gary's at risk of having a stroke of heart attack.

  Paramedic : At any time, you could blow a blood vessel in your head.

  Narrator : Fearing the worst, paramedics take him to hospital for specialist care.

• Melissa Bushnell : My name is Melissa Bushnell, I'm 38 and I weigh 32 stones, 4 pounds.

  [452 pounds] 

  Narrator : Melissa lives with Mike, her husband of 16 years. She's been overweight all her adult life and begins her problems began with a difficult childhood.

  Melissa Bushnell : In my home as a child, food wasn't always available so when I was somewhere there was food, I tended to just eat and eat like there was no tomorrow. When there was food it was very much a comfort for me, I'm definitely a food addict.

  Narrator : Melissa has developed weight related health problems which are serious and distressing.

  Melissa Bushnell : My back hurts pretty much constantly and my knees tend to just give out. I literally just cry when I get out of bed, the pain is so great. Some days I just want to give up.

  Mike Bushnell : I mean it's tough watching her being in so much pain, it really is. I mean...

  [gets choked up] 

  Melissa Bushnell : I want to be a mom. My greatest achievement in life would be to be a mother, and obviously at my weight right now I would not even consider becoming pregnant, there's just too many health risks.

  Narrator : Melissa's longing for a child is compounded by a miscarriage she suffered in 2004 and the guilt she feels.

  Melissa Bushnell : I can say that I don't blame myself but I do, you know deep in my heart there's a part of me that still blames myself for it. I was so unhealthy when I got pregnant, I was smoking and I wasn't taking care of my diabetes at all.

  Narrator : Each year, she and Mike mark the anniversary of when their daughter would've been born.

  Melissa Bushnell : [weeping]  Baby girl we know you're in heaven with Mom and Grandma and Grandpa and we love you.

  [releases balloons] 

  Melissa Bushnell : We'll see you again someday.

• Himself - Presenter : Hi Melissa.

  Melissa Bushnell : Nice to meet you.

  Himself - Presenter : I'm Christian, the strange doctor from England.

  [Melissa laughs] 

  Narrator : Dr. Christian wants to understand how Melissa's experience of miscarriage is affecting her.

  Melissa Bushnell : I was not taking care of myself, and I was taking care of my mom, she was dying at the time from liver failure, and so I was taking care of her when I got pregnant, I was taking care of someone else when I should've been taking care of myself. And I was so happy to find out I was pregnant 3 days after Christmas, and then to lose the baby, which was the most awful thing in my life.

  Himself - Presenter : I don't think we can say that your miscarriage was a result of your weight, I don't think that would be fair at all. But there is a very important message here, pregnancies when you're overweight and obese are so much harder, so that's why it's really important you guys are working harder at this.

  Melissa Bushnell : If I can help her to not get where I am when she's my age, then my job is done.

• Himself - Presenter : Oh my goodness me, it looks like a hot tub.

  Keith Davis, Goliath Casket Inc. : This is our largest casket, it's 52 inches wide, it'll hold over 1,000 pounds.

  Himself - Presenter : So we're talking 70, 80+ stone, how many of these are called for?

  Keith Davis, Goliath Casket Inc. : In the 1990s, this casket didn't even *exist*. In 2000, we sold 12, and we're selling about 4 of this type per month.

  Himself - Presenter : Can I look inside? Is that alright?

  Keith Davis, Goliath Casket Inc. : Absolutely.

  Himself - Presenter : Oh, it's heavy. It's, absolutely mind blow-boggling.

  Keith Davis, Goliath Casket Inc. : Well you can actually get three people in this casket. This casket will require probably two grave plots, maybe three, it won't fit in a hearse.

  Himself - Presenter : And I would imagine the person that's going into this size is not very old either.

  Keith Davis, Goliath Casket Inc. : Unfortunately not. The average age for my records is around 45 years old. We've had large caskets, not this size, but large caskets for as young as 11 years old.

  Himself - Presenter : I'm, really distressed.

  Keith Davis, Goliath Casket Inc. : We're going to see the first generation that's *not* going to live as long as their parents lived, because of this.

  Himself - Presenter : When you tell me you've seen 11 year olds, I just... I'm at a loss for words, I'm really upset by that. And I know this happens, but when you see the box that you actually use, it's no exaggeration, this isn't a film set.

  Keith Davis, Goliath Casket Inc. : This is a real casket.

  Narrator : One leading UK manufacturers has quoted 15% of the coffins they supply are now classed as 'outsized', and they've seen a tenfold rise in demand for these in just 10 years.

  Keith Davis, Goliath Casket Inc. : We have it too easy too much, you go to a fast food restaurant, a standard beef patty used to be six ounces, now they're 10, 12, a third of a pound of hamburger, are you kidding me? Who needs a third of a pound of hamburger? No one, no one, we think more is better, more is not better.

  Narrator : It's clear that obesity is a disease that has far reaching effects, in death as well as in life.