Sharing the Secret - Part 1

This made for TV movie can be viewed in 10 parts on youtube. Each part is approximately 9 minutes. I thought it was interesting and would appeal to high school students. It could be viewed over several class periods. Here is a synopsis:

Sharing the Secret [TV] (from IMDb) By rights, child psychologist Dr. Nina Moss should be pleased and proud that her daughter Beth is a slim, eternally upbeat overachiever. But Nina suspects that all is not well with Beth–and she’s right. Desperate to be accepted by her family and friends, and determined to be fully in control of her own destiny, Beth has become bulimic, “binging” and “purging” whenever things threaten to get out of hand in her life–or whenever she gains a single pound beyond her “ideal” weight. The winner of a 2001 Peabody Award.

Slim Hopes: Advertising & the Obsession With Thinness

Diet Wars

Frontline: Diet Wars

» About the film:

Americans spend $40 billion a year on books, products, and programs designed to do one thing: help us lose weight. From Atkins to Ornish and Weight Watchers to the South Beach Diet, today's dieters have a dizzying array of weight loss programs from which to choose -- yet the underlying principles of these diets are often contradictory. Is low fat better than low carb? Is Atkins the answer? And has the USDA food pyramid done more harm than good? FRONTLINE examines the great diet debate

Frontline: Diet Wars. Companion website and teaching guide. Lots of lesson plans, activities, and discussion ideas for teachers.

Video can be accessed in entirety at http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/diet/ in Windows Media and RealPlayer. It is also listed on the UEN Emedia page, but I was unable to download it (maybe because it isn't compatible with Quicktime). The DVD can be purchased on the Diet Wars website for $30. Looks worth it to me.

Dying to Be Thin

Dying to be Thin

Originally broadcast on December 12, 2000. The film examines a disturbing increase in the prevalence of debilitating and sometimes life-threatening eating disorders, particularly anorexia and bulimia. Available through emedia at uen.org.

Companion website: http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/thin/