The difference between “fit” & “fat” is more than a letter…

If you aren’t a visual learner, and seeing obese people everywhere has become too familiar a sight(mare), perhaps working with numbers will elicit a more appropriately shocked response. Below you will find a slew of verbatim statistics and figures researched by Get America Fit Foundation.

USA Obesity Rates Reach Epidemic Proportions

• 58 Million Overweight; 40 Million Obese; 3 Million morbidly Obese
• Eight out of 10 over 25′s Overweight
• 78% of American’s not meeting basic activity level recommendations
• 25% completely Sedentary
• 76% increase in Type II diabetes in adults 30-40 since 1990

Obesity Related Diseases

• 80% of type II diabetes related to obesity
• 70% of Cardiovascular disease related to obesity
• 42% breast and colon cancer diagnosed among obese individuals
• 30% of gall bladder surgery related to obesity
• 26% of obese people having high blood pressure

Overwhelming the  HealthCare System

• Type II Diabetes ($63.14 Billion)
• Osteoporosis ($17.2 Billion)
• Hypertension ($3.23 Billion)
• Heart Disease ($6.99 Billion)
• Post-menopausal breast cancer ($2.32 Billion)
• Colon Cancer ($2.78 Billion)
• Endometrial Cancer ($790 Million)

Cost of Lost Productivity

• Workdays lost: $39.3 Million
• Physician office visits: $62.7 Million
• Restricted Activity days: $29.9 Million
• Bed-Related days: $89.5 Million

Childhood Obesity

• 4% overweight 1982 | 16% overweight 1994
• 25% of all white children overweight 2001
• 33% African American and Hispanic children overweight 2001
• Hospital costs associated with childhood obesity rising from $35 Million (1979) to $127 Million (1999)

• New study suggests one in four overweight children is already showing early signs of type II diabetes (impaired glucose intolerance)

• 60% already have one risk factor for heart disease

Childhood Diabetes

• Between 8% – 45% of newly diagnosed cases of childhood diabetes are type II, associated with obesity.
•  4% of childhood diabetes was type II in 1990, that number has risen to approximately 20%
• Depending on the age group (Type II most frequent 10-19 group) and the racial/ethnic mix of group stated of children diagnosed with Type II diabetes, 85% are obese.

America: Being Number One is Not Always a Good Thing!

How can America win the battle of the bulge?

Many Americans need look no further than the reflection in the mirror–or a reflection of themselves in their children–to predict the future of the obesity crisis.

An increase in belt sizes will lead to an increase in health care costs in the near future, say experts in an Emory University study last year.

Here are some highlights from the findings:

“•
Obesity is growing faster than any previous public health issue our nation has faced. If current trends continue, 103 million American adults will be considered obese by 2018.
•
The U.S. is expected to spend $344 billion on health care costs attributable to obesity in 2018 … Obesity‐related direct expenditures are expected to account for more than 21 percent of the nation’s direct health care spending in 2018.
•
If obesity levels were held at their current rates, the U.S. could save an estimated $820 per adult in health care costs by 2018 ‐ a savings of almost $200 billion dollars.
•
…  Oklahoma stands to benefit the most if obesity levels remain steady. This would provide a potential savings of $1,200 per adult or a savings of more than $3.2 billion for the state.
•
Oklahoma is expected to have the highest obesity rate in the country by 2018; Colorado is estimated to have the lowest obesity rate.”

The Center for Disease Control described the issue:

“American society has become ‘obesogenic,’ characterized by environments that promote increased food intake, nonhealthful foods, and physical inactivity.”

The Emory study lists three factors that make it more difficult to just slap a band-aid on America’s gaping wound–at this point, some major strides must be taken in order to prevent further damage: more people are growing obese rather than the average remaining level, the cost of medical treatments are rising, and people who were never expected to be prone to obesity (such as older generations) are popping up on the radar of concern.

DID YOU KNOW?

• Americans eat 63% more fats/oils than 30 years ago…
• …43% more refined grains…
• …400% more sugar…
• …523 more calories per day than 30 years ago…
• …and to really slather that icing on the cake (what else?), research in 1994 showed 33% of Americans as overweight and 22.9% as obese. Today, more obese people exist than just run-of-the-mill fat fence-sitters: 32.7% land in the overweight range, but 34% are diagnosed as obese!

Just by keeping a tighter belt around the spread of obesity and maintaining current numbers, $198 billion will be preserved within the American economy. And that’s not even asking for a slash in the numbers–simply leveling off, flat-lining… at least, before more Americans flat-line in the grip of this unshakable epidemic. If the problem is manifesting itself beyond smaller degrees of control, what can America do on a large enough scale to stay ahead of (or at the very least keep up with) this issue?

A few ideas being tossed around like a leafy-green salad (also not a bad idea):

–restaurant menu labels, more detailed packaging for food

–taxing soda and items with little or no nutritional benefit

–limiting poor choices in schools so healthy habits become the norm

This study includes some informative charts (see pages 9 – 13) on the projected and current expenditures on obesity-correlated problems by state, which is revealing in its breakdown of demographic when considering the average income level and ethnic makeup of each region. If you live in a traditionally poor area, the risk of suffering the physical and financial strains of obesity is exponentially increased.

See it to believe it

Obesity in the South:

Hidden costs of obesity to entire nation:

Poor in the wallet could mean poor in health

Though many American adults and children live with the heavy burden of obesity, economic class may play a part in increasing their risk of the life-threatening problem.

Statistics show that lower-income areas tend to be populated by more overweight or obese people. Generally, fresh and nutritionally-dense foods like fruits and vegetables are considerably more expensive than fast food value meals or packaged items in convenience stores; healthy, fresh produce prices have increased 20 percent since 2007. And though preservative-saturated value meals will take less from one’s wallet, they will surely add more to one’s waistline.

Residents of Sunnyside, a southwest Houston neighborhood of 22,000 mostly blacks, have found difficulty in eating healthy.

“It’s a true food desert,” said Toral Sindha, a senior nutritionist with the Houston health department. “Healthy produce in fresh fruits and vegetables is not accessible in Sunnyside.”

The desperate need to introduce nourishing foods to Sunnyside prompted the Community Garden Program, which involves community-planted fruits and vegetables in gardens. The program has been successful enough to warrant the planting of fresh food gardens in other Houston areas like the southwest, Third Ward and West End, with eight more planned.

Here is a list of the locally-grown foods found in the gardens:

• Vegetables: Squash, green onion, bush bean, cucumber, eggplant and peppers including bell, cayenne, jalapeño, habañera

• Fruit: • Lemon, apple, plum, kumquat, mandarin, watermelon, strawberry, raspberry, grape, tomato

• Herbs: Basil, sage, lemon parsley, Italian parsley, oregano, rosemary, mint

• Other: Garlic, lettuce variety

Gardens in low-income areas may help at least level off the shocking trends in the health of minorities. To pinpoint what will resolve the issue, it’s important to understand the links between poverty and obesity. Here is an idea of how average Americans view their personal eating preferences and the results of such on their health:

“Americans are eating more but enjoying it less,” according to Pew Research Center’s study on social trends. “Just 39% of adults…say they enjoy eating ‘a great deal,’ down from the 48% who said the same in a Gallup survey in 1989.”

It also adds that “about six-in-ten Americans say they eat more than they should, either often (17%) or sometimes (42%). More particularly, a majority of Americans report that they eat more junk food than they should, either often (19%) or sometimes (36%). The biggest reason, people say, is convenience.“

“More than eight-in ten people (85%) say Americans are more overweight now than they were five years ago, and two-thirds of the public calls this a ‘major problem.’”

So why are the same folks opting for meals that are ruining their health bite by bite? Quickly-prepared or highly processed foods are like anything else that travels down an assembly line: quick to produce, cheap to purchase, and easy to prepare or consume. Convenience is key, and if you’re a minority or part of a traditionally low-earning demographic, pricey eats are just not an option.

“It is the opposite of choice,” Adam Drewnowski, director of the Center for Public Health Nutrition in the University of Washington School of Public Health and Community Medicine, said. “People are not poor by choice and they become obese primarily because they are poor.”

For what he calls an “overfed but undernourished nation,” here are a few reasons why junk often trumps quality:

“It’s a question of money,” Drenowski said. “The reason healthier diets are beyond the reach of many people is that such diets cost more. On a per calorie basis, diets composed of whole grains, fish, and fresh vegetables and fruit are far more expensive than refined grains, added sugars and added fats. It’s not a question of being sensible or silly when it comes to food choices, it’s about being limited to those foods that you can afford.”

How redeveloped health care will affect developing kids

The sweeping changes to America’s health care plan have left many people biting their nails in worry, or at the very least scratching their heads in confusion, as they wonder how their lives will be affected. Because the changes will be considered more ‘standard issue’ and less revolutionary for the youngest generation of Americans, it also matters a great deal how their lives will be different.

The reform’s $940 billion price tag is common knowledge; the  letters “bill” probably are not in the word “billion” by accident. But what everyone wants to know is, how will this change the weight of their own wallets? And speaking of weight, how will this affect their options when it comes to staying healthy, and what sort of treatments can they access now?

The several-thousand-page long document includes many provisions that will see start-up in the next year, so it makes sense that people need clear information quickly about how they and their families will need to adjust. One of the Acts involved is the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, which underlines possible improvements for children.

Writer Cynthia Ramnarace found six ways in which the Act will benefit kids, including greater access to health insurance, more funding for health programs in schools such as sex ed, instituting new workplace policies, and preventative measures for at-risk young people. Here is a look at the sources of health care access for youth  in 2008:

Ramnarace writes that one of the ways in which the bill will facilitate youths’ care access is  “insurers will no longer be able to deny children coverage based on pre-existing conditions” and those under 26 years old can stay on their parents’ plans if they aren’t provided their own by an employer. The Children’s Health Insurance Program will make sure that children whose parents earn either too much or too little to qualify for certain insurance benefits can still get low-cost health care.

More funding will also require schools to offer certain services, as indicated by the U.S Preventative Services Task Force:  “newborn hearing screening, eye exams, tests for certain genetic disorders and fluoride treatments for children living in areas with untreated water. Coverage for immunizations and well-child visits will be mandatory. Grants for programs to combat childhood obesity will also be available to community organizations, colleges, municipalities, health departments and healthcare providor(sic).”

School-age children aren’t the only ones being looked after by the bill, either. Breastfeeding rooms or stations will be mandatory, as per the bill, at companies with more than 50 employees.

Areas that are considered “high risk for low-birth weight babies, poverty, crime, domestic violence and substance abuse will be eligible for grants through the $1.5-billion Maternal, Infant and Early Childhood Home Visiting Program,” and the mothers of these babies and lower-risk ones are all potential recipients of aid from the Pregnancy Assistance Fund, which will use $250 million toward helping them.

How the health care bill will reform U.S. meals

Just as dining out was a much different experience four, three, even a single decade ago, very soon the grazing grounds will drastically change in America yet again, though this time for the better.

President Obama’s lengthy health care reform, accepted into law in March, mandates that restaurants with more than 20 locations must post the calorie counts of foods on their menus, preferably next to the items’ prices. The requirement also applies to vending machines, which could result in better nutrition choices for kids in schools and cubicle workers whose idea of “eating out” is walking down the hall to grab a single-serving cheap treat.

Click the links to find excerpts from the 2009-2010 Bills, and a list of associations and other big names who have voiced support or campaigned for these bills.

The idea was not fostered from reform mastermind Obama, as an overhaul in nutritional health policy has shadowed the awareness of legislators for years. The restaurant industry has resisted the changes, making only smaller degrees of improvement possible until recently.

“The historic legislation that President Barack Obama will sign will do so much to give more Americans access to health care, but it also does much to help prevent disease in the first place,” said Center for Science in the Public Interest nutrition policy director Margo G. Wootan.

“Menu labeling at restaurants will help make First Lady Michelle Obama’s mission to reduce childhood obesity just a little bit easier.”

This California legislation will be an example for the nation. It does not include the products sold by small businesses, or “daily or temporary specials and customized orders.” Some restaurants have already posted nutrition facts prior to the landmark reform bill due to the public’s increasing hunger for easily accessible information.

Click on the below images from CSPI to view full-size (we like everything bigger in Texas, after all):

Britain’s Naked Chef rates U.S. school lunch

Other countries have long since noticed Americans’ larger-than-life approach to just about everything. We love Hummers big enough to handle the contents of a clown car, IMAX theaters, and Thanksgiving birds that leave 30-pound dents in dinner tables. They have long since shared a snicker or two with each other about American excess.

But now, it seems certain foreigners have made it their duty to attempt to “rehabilitate” American overindulgence.

Britain’s Naked Chef Jamie Oliver premieres his new show “Food Revolution” on ABC Sundays. It’s filmed in Huntington, W. Virginia, what he considers “the unhealthiest city in America.”

Though he really could have chosen any city or neighborhood in America at random and found enough nutritionally-challenged folks to inspire, his production team decided this city should be the poster-child of poor health choices. The townsfolk are largely (I had to) not pleased by the burning microscope on their lives: here are some reactions from locals in Huntington, W.V.

Of course, it’s natural to bristle in defense when an outsider rides in on his big soapbox all frothy with drama. But maybe a third-party perspective is what America needs to start toning down their self-destructive ways. Standing in a group of three American adults, chances are pretty solid that two are medically obese. When the majority becomes a national average, it’s difficult to notice or even believe that this is not normal.

Oliver targets school cafeterias’ standard nutritionally-empty, cheap eats in the first episode, and tries to find the root of the problem.

“Southern Africa is getting better food than American kids,” Oliver said.

Outsiders have taken notice, and it seems perhaps this is the beginning of an “intervention” of sorts. Will America stay in denial, or will it accept that it has been defeated by its problem? Stay tuned to Oliver’s show to keep track of his progress in the guinea pig town of Huntington, and see if other cities reform in response to the example.

Here is where American children stand now:

The prevalence of overweight among children in the United States has been increasing. Between the 1960s and 1988-1994, the prevalence among 6- through 11-year-old children increased from 4% to 11%. During this same period, the prevalence among 12- through 19-year-olds increased from 5% to 11%.¹ Overweight children often become overweight adults,² and overweight in adulthood is a health risk.³ Although childhood overweight may not result in adult health risk,⁴ immediate consequences of overweight in childhood are often psychosocial and also include cardiovascular risk factors such as hypertension, high cholesterol levels, and abnormal glucose tolerance.⁵

Click here for further data and statistics by the Journal of American Medical Statistics.

WATCH IT: “Jamie Oliver’s Food Revolution” will air Fridays on ABC for a run of six episodes. The Herald-Dispatch (Huntington’s local paper) will give weekly recaps.

Plan of Action

The next chapter of this blog will be more finely focused, with articles that relate to a specific topic and don’t stray far from it. I’ll continue sifting through news feeds and Web sources to find the most relevant and fresh information about a huge problem in America today: unsafe and unhealthy food contributing to the deterioration of our health, and the genetics of successor generations.

No pun intended with “huge,” either… It’s too serious: 1 in 3 American adults are obese; the same proportion have diabetes, and that figure is raised to 1 in 2 for minorities.

The six-part guide of “The Art and Craft of Feature Writing” will serve as a layout for my research. I must ask, “How important is each…likely to be in this particular story?”

Part I. HISTORY

The state of the nation’s health in prior decades is quite important to this topic. We need some frame of reference, an image or memory or lifestyle to compare to, something that reminds us, “Hey, this way of life is NOT normal and didn’t used to be acceptable.”

To relate how scary the problem has become, experts (who may be doctors, scientists, government regulators, even advertisers who have gotten quite adept at spinning unsavory products) use history to show that changes have been made, whether we noticed them or not. Cafeteria lunch trays were not always loaded with items better suited to stock a gas station. Diabetes was not always a relatively common diagnosis for a ten-year-old. Corn syrup and other artery-stressing ingredients have not always been the main components in a plethora of grocery store finds.

It was not always like this, and this is where the past comes back to haunt us. Did you know that, since the early 1970s,  the percentage of youth who are classified as overweight has more than doubled?

Americans may have had their share of seemingly indomitable problems decades ago, but this was not always one of them.

Part II. SCOPE

Personal health affects everyone. An individual may not be overweight, have diabetes or high blood pressure, may get regular exercise and eat as if their stomach worked in FDA-approved Food Pyramid compartments. But, this person, like everyone else in America, is not as informed as he should be. What’s lurking in the vending machine at work, on highway billboards as he drives his kids to school, in his kids’ brown-bagged lunches, behind the counter at a restaurant…. they all create more choices and decisions that he needs to make.

You and I and he and everyone else all want the best quality of life. So why are an overwhelming number of Americans failing to walk (waddle, even) the path that will lead them in that direction?

They are not an ambiguous and anonymous crowd, either. They can be measured in figures, and the data to support this truth is not difficult to uncover. In fact, it’s made quite public by organizations affiliated with various medical fields and government branches that understand their role in regulating the spread of this health epidemic.

Some important quantitative numbers to look at:

How many people have weight-related health problems, like diabetes and high cholesterol and high blood pressure, compared to the past? How many children are experiencing these problems now, and is this group getting younger? What was the life expectancy for certain demographics in the past, and has it decreased at all? How much money is made or lost for companies who sell products that contribute to the obesity of our nation?

Another aspect that comes into play includes the location of the most-affected subjects.

Which areas suffer the most, and why? Does poverty or economic standing have a role in a person’s health, or in the options they are surrounded by on a daily basis, or what they can afford to buy? Do certain areas in America receive less information about what they are consuming?

III. REASONS

This issue is burning “hotter” with every passing day, especially as the “going green” front increases its presence in the mainstream and health awareness becomes more trendy. If the staggering statistics don’t frighten the public as they should, it seems people will chase after the bandwagon if that just seems like the thing to do.

And the timing couldn’t be better. For years now, more Americans have seen a decline in their physical health, but not much has been done to force them to see the light…or the lighter side of themselves, really. President Obama’s historic health care bill was recently passed, Michelle Obama is busy rallying for healthier youth lifestyles, and scads of documentaries and other media on food safety are making major waves (see “Food, Inc.” , “Jamie Oliver’s Food Revolution” and “Super Size Me”).

IV. IMPACTS

“Approximately 300,000 adult deaths in the United States each year are attributable to unhealthy dietary habits and physical inactivity or sedentary behavior,” according to CRC Health Group. This statistic alone speaks for itself.

Death may be the worst outcome, but unhealthy behaviors have other effects that increasingly flatten one’s quality of life, too. A recent study found that those with a BMI of more than 40 (an indicator of obesity) died from cancer 52% more often for men and the risk was 62% higher for women, compared to people in normal BMI ranges. And cancer isn’t even considered a weight-related disease, which only proves how widely this problem spans. Mid-range obesity can trim off up to five years of life.

The psychological effects can be disastrous as well, especially for young people.

Financial consequences become reality when Americans learn where $33 billion of their money goes every year…. weight-loss services and products.

Even minor inconveniences–like having to buy two seats on an airplane to accommodate extra girth, or regularly take cholesterol medicine to keep the heart pumping clean–can really burden a person’s daily functions.

V. COUNTERMOVES

**To be continued…

Healthy in Houston (at least survey-takers think so)

Doctors know it… Restaurateurs know it… Advertisers know it… even Michelle Obama knows it:

Americans eat unhealthy food, and lots of it. With too many bad options come too many bad decisions; with a few bad decisions come the start of bad habits. Nothing shocking there, except the problem is new generations are not learning from their parents’ mistakes.  The destructive habits are being passed on to growing youth, who will be the first ever to have a shorter life expectancy than their parents–or so says Britain’s Top Chef Jamie Oliver  (check out my blog on his “Food Revolution”).

Our home Houston has worn the crown of victory as the nation’s fattest city three times in a row (other Texas cities often crowd the top spots). I suspect the crown may very well look like Burger King’s hat, though, since Houston is still largely an unfit city.

Houston, red means STOP.

Men’s Fitness Magazine, the annual survey‘s conductor, reveals the findings that sound most familiar to Houstonians:

–”Donuts are 132 percent more popular here than average, according to a comparison of places where they are sold. Houston has the 6th highest number of donut outlets per capita in our survey.”

– “According to the CDC, 38.5 percent of adults (in Houston) are heavy enough to increase their risk for weight-related health problems”

–”Texas state law limits or prohibits obesity-related lawsuits against food manufacturers and restaurants.”

Even if you don’t like sugary breakfast pastries, are not overweight, or are not expecting any legal mercy from food companies, this issue is still one that looms large, like a fat man’s shadow cast on a sunny day. This time, it may be your kids or friends at stake. In many school districts around Houston and its outlying neighborhoods, health practices have been drawn under the microscope of awareness.

However, it seems that many Houstonians are not that concerned about their personal health. This troubling statistic was posted by Rice University’s annual Houston Area Survey (HAS): more than a quarter of Houston respondents rate their own health as “Excellent” or “Very Good”;  barely 4 percent rated their health as “Poor.”  Now, considering the wash of evidence to the contrary, we know this is just a bunch of bologna–and not the artery-friendly tofu kind.

Other states see us in Houston (how could they miss us?) quite differently than the HAS survey respondents see themselves, if the aforementioned “Fittest & Fattest Cities” ratings are valid measures. Even the new HISD superintendent Terry Grier said fresh, healthy foods are not a priority for his district’s schools, giving the pricier provisions what he calls a “platinum” status–too lofty, we presume, for kids who will eat whatever fits in the little compartments of their tray anyway. But when it comes to your physical health, especially for learning and growing and impressionable youth, is money really the most important thing we can stand to lose?

Here is an example of elementary school menus, which look better, at least on paper, than the middle school and high school equivalents. Still, though they don’t fall short of current federally moderated nutritional standards, improvements can be made.

What is being done about this longstanding problem? What can be done about this problem?

Fortunately, the wheel of change is spinning around as swiftly as a Lazy Susan at the dinner table. It can be seen in the recent actions of companies like Pepsi Co. (who made a statement last week about goals to cut back sugar and sodium in its products); a teacher blogging about her experience; and students themselves who boycotted school lunches; not to mention new government plans for change…

Stay tuned for updates on these developments, but for now, be sure to brown bag it Monday through Friday.

Flipper’s Story is No Flop

Genocide is not only a planet-wide issue, but also a species-wide one, as documented in the true-life dolphin massacre film “The Cove.”  The movie picked up the Best Documentary Oscar at the 82nd annual Academy Awards on March 7.

Recent public focus on human genocides like that in Haiti comes at the heels of last year’s attention to modern pirates, but not until the documentary “The Cove” has a different breed of pirates been spotlighted: the fishermen who plunder the ocean for dolphin flesh and a Japanese government caught blood-red-handed in the conspiracy.

The documentary, visually active enough to keep pace with its cast of captivity-awareness activists, was impressively filmed and produced by people who clearly rode the tide to the end of the Earth to investigate all sides of this long-kept secret.

“The Cove” first reminds us why we love dolphins in the first place: a famous bottlenose named Flipper, family-friendly and hugely intrinsic to global interest in sea creatures as entertainment.

Flipper’s ex-trainer and longtime anti-captivity activist, Ric O’Barry, learned the truth about hush-hush dolphin exploitation on a trip to Taiji, Japan. Here he was introduced to a cove, a pocket inhabited by migratory dolphins that serves as a stage for mass slaughter six months of the year.

A quiet town aside from the death wails contained in the cove, Taiji is home to citizens completely unaware of the disturbing daily genocides. Director Louie Psihoyos focuses tightly on his human subjects, including Richard O’Barry as the film’s overshadowing voice and his “Ocean’s Eleven” undercover team on a mission to tell everyone what no one knows. It is a mortifying way to prove the determination in their faces as they embed hidden cameras in the cove crevices; to show the heartbreak glistening in the corner of O’Barry’s eyes as he mourns a dolphin that “committed suicide in his arms”; to capture the frigid stoicism of Japanese spokespeople as they clutch desperately to their secret.

The story of O’Barry’s tragic sacrifices and the extremes pursued in order to save helpless dolphins–one at a time until the 23,000 killed per year receive acknowledgement—left me swallowing some disbelief at first, choked-up by tears throughout, then coughing up laughter from the surprising comic moments (mostly credited to cruel antagonists like “Private Space,” a hilariously misguided stalker, and a Japanese official who slithers around direct persecution by buying friends in penniless nations).

Some staggering facts of the whaling industry are powerfully displayed as text on emotionally intense scenes, like brave government workers speaking out against internal policy to feed schoolchildren mercury-tainted dolphin meat and spear-wielding fishermen who stomp around as if they are having an unbearable day, the kind can only get worse if they themselves are murdered. The irony is in their ignorance, which invites the obvious question of whether they affect subconscious blinders while wading through crimson waters that should look blue, or if they truly believe that this money-driven activity is somehow acceptable.

Vegetarians, vegans, pet-owners, or any individuals with even a Grinch-sized heart: beware, as this story will make you forget about dinner and leave a heavy feeling of betrayal in the pit of your stomach instead. “The Cove” can make your heart feel truly bruised after a mere 94 minutes of education, which says a lot since it starts from scratch with an oblivious audience and a secret as deceptive as a doomed dolphin’s smile.

**If you want to take part in the action  against dolphin cruelty, sign up for the official letter writing campaign here or check out this organization to help in other ways.