If you have the least interest in why our health is so compromised, Katie Couric’s new film FED UP is definitely worth watching.
The film focuses on the link between sugar consumption and the growing obesity epidemic. Over 70% of Americans are now considered obese – and the epidemic is spreading around the world.
Sugar – 36 varieties of it – is an important ingredient in most processed foods. Nutritionists now call the consumption of sugar a ‘toxic exposure’. And thin Americans are not immune from the epidemic either. Thinness can belie a dangerous concentration of visceral fat inside the body surrounding the vital organs and a fatty liver. It’s such a common condition, there’s even an acronym for it: TOFI – thin outside, fat inside.
And, as we all know from personal experience, sugar is highly addicting.
FED UP shines a bright light on how it came to be that, after decades of concentrating on fitness and healthy eating, obesity and the serious problems resulting from it continue to get worse.
From Katie Couric, Laurie David (Oscar winning producer of AN INCONVENIENT TRUTH) and director Stephanie Soechtig, FED UP will change the way you eat forever. This is the FED UP website.
Here’s the film’s trailer.
From the FED UP website:
A 20-ounce bottle of soda contains the equivalent of approximately 17 teaspoons of sugar. (Source: Kick the Can)
Individuals who drink one to two sugar-sweetened beverages per day have a 26 percent higher risk for developing type II diabetes. This includes any type of orange juice except fresh squeezed. (Source: Kick the Can)
Consuming one soda a day increases a child’s chance of obesity by 60%. (Source: Lasater, G., Piernas C., Popkin, B.M. Beverage patterns and trends among school-aged children in the US, 1989-2008. Nutrition Journal, 2011;10:103)
Latino children who watch Spanish-language television see 49 percent more ads for sugary and energy drinks compared with their white counterparts. (Source: Lasater et al, 2011)
Kids watch an average of 4000 food-related ads every year – about 10 per day. (Source: Archives of Pediatric Adolescent Medicine: Trends in the nutritional content of television food advertisements seen by children in the United States)
98% of food-related ads that children view (about 3920/year) are for products high in fat, sugar and sodium. (Source: Archives of Pediatric Medicine: Trends in the nutritional content of television food advertisements seen by children in the United States)
It will take a 110-pound child 75 minutes of bike riding to burn off the calories in one 20-ounce bottle of soda. (Source: American Academy of Pediatrics)
In the United States it is estimated that 93 Million Americans are affected by obesity. (Source: Obesity Action Coalition)
One in five black children ages 2 to 19 is obese, compared with approximately one in seven white Children. (Source: Robert Wood Johnson Foundation: Food and beverage marketing to children and adolescents research brief)
Almost 45 percent of overweight or obese children ages 10 to 17 are poor. (Source: Robert Wood Johnson Foundation: Food and beverage marketing to children and adolescents research brief)
Some visuals from the film:
Some of the most moving parts of FED UP come near the end when two of the families with seriously obese children the film has been following get the message and switch from consuming diets based on processed foods to diets consisting largely of fresh foods. The health saving changes they experience are revelatory to them.
I hope Katie Couric and Laurie Davis will now turn their considerable talents and resources to making another film – one about the systematic assault of GMOs on the health of humans, animals and the soil.
REFERENCES American Academy of Pediatrics Archives of Pediatric Adolescent Medicine: Trends in the nutritional content of television food advertisements seen by children in the United States. See: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3674770/ FED UP trailer: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aCUbvOwwfWM FED UP website: http://fedupmovie.com/#/page/about-the-issue Kick the Can: http://www.kickthecan.info/ Lasater, G., Piernas C., Popkin, B.M. Beverage patterns and trends among school-aged children in the US, 1989-2008. Nutrition Journal, 2011;10:103. See: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/21962086 Obesity Action Coalition. See: http://www.obesityaction.org/ © Copyright 2014 Joan Rothchild Hardin. All Rights Reserved.
DISCLAIMER: Nothing on this site or blog is intended to provide medical advice, diagnosis or treatment.
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