'Fed Up': Documentary details the dangers of sugar

( PG ) ( Monitor Movie Guide )

'Fed Up' is alarmist to an almost apocalyptic degree, but the facts and figures presented will give anyone pause.

|
RADIUS-TWC
A scene from FED UP.

I am generally not a big fan of documentaries about food since they either make you very hungry or else make you never want to eat anything ever again. That’s because so many of the latter are movies about the dangers in the food we eat. What’s safe? All bean sprouts all the time? And even then, who knows? I’m waiting for the movie about how bean sprouts are actually genetically modified poison.

All of which brings me to “Fed Up,” which no doubt will be called, with some justice, the “Inconvenient Truth” of food movies. (It even shares one of the executive producers of that film, Laurie David.) Alarmist to an almost apocalyptic degree, the film is nevertheless packed with enough basic facts and figures to give any eater serious pause. Or at least any eater who indulges in sugar.

Directed by Stephanie Soechtig and narrated by Katie Couric, “Fed Up” discounts the dietary mantra that people are obese because they lack self-control and eat too much. The real culprit is sugar, which is described as being as addictive as cocaine. The statistics roll out: Since 1995 the government has provided $8 billion in subsidies for corn-based sweeteners. Half of all US school districts serve fast food. Type 2 diabetes diagnosed among adolescents has gone from zero cases in 1980 to 57,638 as of 2010. Even so-called thin people have to worry. According to this film, about 40 percent of normal weight people have the same metabolic dysfunction as those who are obese. You don’t want to be downing Raisinets while watching this film. Grade: B+ (Rated PG for thematic elements (smoking) and mild language.)

You've read  of  free articles. Subscribe to continue.
Real news can be honest, hopeful, credible, constructive.
What is the Monitor difference? Tackling the tough headlines – with humanity. Listening to sources – with respect. Seeing the story that others are missing by reporting what so often gets overlooked: the values that connect us. That’s Monitor reporting – news that changes how you see the world.

Dear Reader,

About a year ago, I happened upon this statement about the Monitor in the Harvard Business Review – under the charming heading of “do things that don’t interest you”:

“Many things that end up” being meaningful, writes social scientist Joseph Grenny, “have come from conference workshops, articles, or online videos that began as a chore and ended with an insight. My work in Kenya, for example, was heavily influenced by a Christian Science Monitor article I had forced myself to read 10 years earlier. Sometimes, we call things ‘boring’ simply because they lie outside the box we are currently in.”

If you were to come up with a punchline to a joke about the Monitor, that would probably be it. We’re seen as being global, fair, insightful, and perhaps a bit too earnest. We’re the bran muffin of journalism.

But you know what? We change lives. And I’m going to argue that we change lives precisely because we force open that too-small box that most human beings think they live in.

The Monitor is a peculiar little publication that’s hard for the world to figure out. We’re run by a church, but we’re not only for church members and we’re not about converting people. We’re known as being fair even as the world becomes as polarized as at any time since the newspaper’s founding in 1908.

We have a mission beyond circulation, we want to bridge divides. We’re about kicking down the door of thought everywhere and saying, “You are bigger and more capable than you realize. And we can prove it.”

If you’re looking for bran muffin journalism, you can subscribe to the Monitor for $15. You’ll get the Monitor Weekly magazine, the Monitor Daily email, and unlimited access to CSMonitor.com.

QR Code to 'Fed Up': Documentary details the dangers of sugar
Read this article in
https://www.csmonitor.com/The-Culture/Movies/2014/0509/Fed-Up-Documentary-details-the-dangers-of-sugar
QR Code to Subscription page
Start your subscription today
https://www.csmonitor.com/subscribe