Of all the messages in “Fed Up,” there are three facts everyone should remember: all calories are not created equal; excessive weight and poor health are directly related to diet; and America cannot exercise its way out of its current obesity epidemic.
These simple truths are what make “Fed Up,” a new documentary about food and childhood obesity, so refreshing. While much of the conversation around health in America talks about the effects of our diet–the risk of heart disease, the increase in childhood obesity, the alarming rate of diabetes–“Fed Up” focuses on the cause. And the cause is the food we’re eating.
Why “Fed Up” is so interesting to Meatless Monday is because, like cutting meat one day a week, a lot of our health problems are preventable. If consumers had better information, if there were curbs on marketing to kids, if students were taught basic nutrition in school, and, as author and food advocate Michael Pollan suggests in the film, if people simply returned to cooking most of their own food, we could begin the process of reversing this epidemic.
Director Stephanie Soechtig, producer Laurie David, and Executive Producer and narrator Katie Couric, backed by the leading names in medicine, research, food advocacy and public health, offer a fast-paced history of the food crisis in America while exposing some of the misguided government policies and business interests that put profit over health. It all leads to one conclusion: our whole approach to the obesity epidemic has been wrong.
The statistics are alarming. For the first time in human history, more people are dying from obesity than starvation. In 20 years, 95% of all Americans will be overweight or obese. By 2050, 1/3 of all Americans will be diabetic. As Dr. David Kessler, former FDA Commissioner, says, “We’re toast as a country.”
According to the filmmakers, the leading cause of our obesity epidemic is sugar. Since the low-fat craze that began in the late 1970s, food manufacturers have been looking for ways to remove fat from their food formulas. And as explained by Dr. Robert Lustig, Professor of Pediatrics, University of California, San Francisco, the problem is when you remove fat, food tastes terrible. The solution is adding sugar. Today, added sugar is everywhere in our food supply. Of the 600,000 food items available in America, added sugar is in 80% of them. All of which means the next time you’re in a grocery store, unless you’re buying kale or carrots, chances are you’re bringing home a lot more fat-causing calories than you know.
But in addition to sugar, there’s another enemy that runs throughout the film, and that is information. Or, more accurately, misinformation. Many in the food industry, government and the media perpetuate the belief that “a calorie is a calorie” and all we need to do is exercise a little more. This line of thinking argues that for every calorie that goes in, all anyone has to do is burn one off. Simple. And wrong. According to Dr. Lustig, if you want to eat a healthier diet, you have to understand that 160 calories of almonds will be absorbed and used by your body in a much better way than 160 calories of soda. One of the films’ featured experts, he wrote in-depth on all this for the Huffington Post last year.
“Fed Up” features some of the leading voices from the fields of medicine, pediatrics, research and public policy, offering better health information in 90-minute movie than many of us have heard in our lifetime. The stream of experts includes Dr. Mark Hyman, author Gary Taubes, Dr. David Allison, Ph.D., Director Nutrition Obesity Research Center, University of Alabama at Birmingham, Michele Simon of Eat, Drink, Politics, Mark Bittman, Margo Wooten, Director of Nutrition Policy Center for Science in the Public Interest, Dr. Risa Lavizzo-Mourey, President & CEO, Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, Dr. David Ludwig, Professor of Pediatrics, Harvard Medical School, and Dr. Deborah Cohen, Senior Natural Scientist, Rand Corporation.
Former President Bill Clinton admits his administration missed the boat on obesity, prioritizing exercise over nutrition, while commenting on the public’s lack of knowledge in general. “I think America is still insufficiently alert to the damage we are doing long term to our collective health by too much sugar intake.” But on a positive note, he also has a suggestion for turning the crisis around. “We can cure literally 80% of the problem for children in school if we went back to school cafeterias where they prepared the food in the school.”
Kelly D. Brownell, Ph.D., Dean of Public Policy, Duke University, also looks at the relationship between school districts and food companies. “The food industry infiltration of schools has become deplorable. Schools have become dependent on the money and it’s a bargain with the devil. Some schools have become like a 7-Eleven with books.” Michael Bloomberg, former Mayor of New York City, connects the dots between information and income. “It’s the people who are least able to know what’s good for their health who are the ones that certain industries cater to, and try to focus their advertising towards. We’re selling these products to the people who are most vulnerable and they’re also the people that society has to provide healthcare for because they don’t have the money to do it themselves.”
At Meatless Monday, we recommend seeing “Fed Up.” We also recommend these steps to help you eat better:
– Replace processed foods with fresh foods whenever possible
– Eat more fruits and vegetables everyday
– Ask a friend to be a ‘food buddy’, someone to discuss these issues with, shop with, and share recipes
– Learn how to read a food label
– Every Meatless Monday, recommit to eating healthy all week
– Get your family into the kitchen and make cooking together a family event
– Follow the experts in “Fed Up” on social media to get regular messaging about food and health
– Think you can go without sugar for 10 days? Take the “Fed Up Challenge”
– Finally, go see “Fed Up” and bring the kids (despite the goofy PG rating)
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the Obesity Epidemic:
Fed Up Takes On
the American Diet appeared first on Meatless Monday.