Fed Up, Katie Couric’s new documentary about the
impact of sugar on Americans, particularly children, is now playing in
Cleveland. JMac and I checked it out
last weekend. If you can’t get to see it
at a theater near you, I recommend dropping it in the Netflix queue. Unfortunately, it confirmed everything I have
learned over the last six months about sugar.
The movie opens with the premise that short-sighted and incomplete science has led us down a path of low-fat, processed foods. However, when fat is removed from a food, the food tastes bad. So, the manufactured food companies have replaced the fat with sugar and sugar substitutes to make it palatable and encourage consumption. The problem? Sugar (in all of its various, fifty-six forms, including “sugar-free” substitutes) wreaks havoc on your metabolic system and entire digestive process. No fat? No feeling of satiety. You eat even more and the process continues. And through it all, the edible product companies make gazillions of dollars off your downward spiral into sickness. The rise in obesity can be correlated to the introduction and growth of these low-fat, high sugar foods in the 1970’s.
In addition to the general notion of how and why we are becoming metabolically broken, two other points in the movie stood out to me. First, children are deliberately being targeted. (Think of all of those edible product commercials during children’s television programming). Other countries around the world have put limits on what types of “food” commercials can be shown during children’s programs. But there is no such regulation in the United States. The manufactured food industry has managed to stall all attempts by Congress to regulate this. The industry has also managed to interrupt Mrs. Obama’s Let’s Move campaign, which started as diet-focused, and turn it into a campaign for children’s exercise. Also, having graduated in the near Paleolithic era of 1994, I was shocked to see how much school lunches have changed in the last twenty years. Fast food and processed food have taken over our children’s schools. Pizza Hut and McDonald’s are feeding our kids. Does that even seem right? In an effort to save money, cut costs and find alternative sources of revenue, our schools invite them to provide “food.” But while this may solve a short-term funding situation, how much is this costing our society in the end?
Second, the movie discusses the concept of “fat on the inside.” While someone might not look like they are fat, they can be storing a disproportionate amount of fat in their belly and around their organs, where it is most dangerous. This, again, is particularly disconcerting in regards to children who appear to “be able to eat whatever they want” but could be getting set up for a lifetime of bad habits and eventually, disease. Although the movie did not highlight this, I think this can also be applied to endurance athletes, who can easily imbibe on a diet high in processed carbohydrates (bagels, pasta, fruit juice, Gu’s, etc.) in the name of performance. We could be doing more harm than good to ourselves.
In the end, the movie concludes that the most basic thing you can do to promote health and thwart this onslaught of disease is Eat Real Food. Talk with your dollars. Don’t support the companies whose bottom line is more important than your health and the health of your children. The movie likens the edible product companies to the cigarette industry fifty years ago. The industry knew the science proved their products were downright dangerous and deadly but continued to lie, deceive and promote their products anyways to the American public. Do you honestly want to go down this road again? Or, are you fed up now?
For more information, check out http://fedupmovie.com/#/page/home. Sign up for the Fed Up Challenge!