''Fat, Sick and Nearly Dead'' is a 2010 American documentary film which follows the 60-day journey of Australian Joe Cross across the United States as he follows a juice fast to regain his health under the care of

Joel Fuhrman Joel Fuhrman (born December 2, 1953) is an American celebrity doctor who advocates what he calls a "micronutrient-rich diet". His practice is based on his nutrition-based approach to obesity and chronic disease, also referred to as a nutritarian ...

, Nutrition Research Foundation's Director of Research.

Summary

The feature-length film follows Cross, who was depressed, weighed 310 lbs, suffered from a serious autoimmune disease, and was on steroids at the start of the film, as he embarks on a juice fast. Cross and Robert Mac, co-creators of the film, both serve on the Nutrition Research Foundation's Advisory Board. Following his fast and the adoption of a

plant-based diet A plant-based diet is a diet consisting mostly or entirely of plant-based foods. Plant-based diets encompass a wide range of dietary patterns that contain low amounts of animal products and high amounts of plant products such as vegetables, fru ...

, Cross states in a press release that he lost 100 pounds and discontinued all medications. During his road-trip Cross meets Phil Staples, a morbidly obese truck driver from

Sheldon, Iowa Sheldon is a city in O'Brien and Sioux counties in the U.S. state of Iowa, along the Floyd River. The population was 5,512 at the time of the 2020 census; it is the largest city in O'Brien County. History and culture Sheldon got its start i ...

, in a truck stop in Arizona and inspires him to try juice fasting. A sequel to the first film, ''Fat, Sick and Nearly Dead 2'', was released in 2014.

Awards

''Fat, Sick, and Nearly Dead'' won the Turning Point Award and shared the Audience Choice Award – Documentary Film at the 2010

Sonoma International Film Festival Sonoma International Film Festival (SIFF) is a 501 (c)(3) non-profit arts organization dedicated to promoting the best in independent film and filmmakers from around the world, inspiring savvy film lovers and introducing the power of film to stude ...

Critical reception

The film has received mixed reviews with review aggregation website

Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes is an American review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee, and Stephen Wang ...

giving it a rating of 67% "fresh" and

Metacritic Metacritic is a website that aggregates reviews of films, TV shows, music albums, video games and formerly, books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted average). Metacritic was created by Jason Dietz, Marc ...

having an average score of 45 out of 100, based on 5 reviews. ''The Hollywood Reporter'' called it an "infomercial passing itself off a documentary". ''The New York Times'' stated that the film is "no great shakes as a movie, but as an ad for Mr. Cross's wellness program its now-healthy heart is in the right place". Journalist Avery Yale Kamila reviewed the film in 2011, reporting Cross planned to continue avoiding junk food and "eating a diet centered around whole food." She reported Cross had created an online community called Reboot Your Life.

References

External links

*
''Fat, Sick and Nearly Dead 2'' – official website
{{Portal bar, Food, Film, United States 2010 films 2010 documentary films American documentary films Criticism of fast food Works about raw foodism Documentary films about obesity Vegetarianism in the United States Alternative medicine 2010s English-language films 2010s American films Documentary films about plant-food diets Juice

Summary

Awards

Critical reception

See also

References

External links