Directed by Stephanie Soechtig
Review by Abigail Lewis
Our obesity rate is breaking the scale at 30 percent and everybody’s confused. We’ve been told that if we get enough exercise we’ll lose weight, but obesity rates keep rising at the same rate as fitness rates. How is this possible?
In Fed Up, a new film narrated (and conceived) by Katie Couric, director Stephanie Soechtig (Tapped) shares the ongoing weight-loss travails of several children, and interviews leading experts who explain why these kids can’t seem to fix their problem. To simplify, it’s one word: sugar. Of the some 600,000 food items available in the supermarket, an incredible 80 percent have added sugar, which scientists have determined lights up the brain in the same way as cocaine and heroin. Compounding the problem, when manufacturers come out with a “low-fat” version of a product, they usually compensate for flavor loss by—you guessed it—increasing the sugar.
I was over-simplifying when I said it’s one word. It’s actually three, the other two being government and lobbyists. When the World Health Organization (WHO) came up with guidelines for sugar intake, food industry heavyweights raised such a fuss that the Bush administration threatened to withdraw U.S. support. Can you guess what happened next? Here’s just one tiny result: Look at any processed food product label and see what percentage of the daily recommended sugar is contained. You can’t; it’s not there.
Fed Up is an eye-opener, even for the slender. It’s tempting to dismiss overweight people as fat and lazy, but not only is that often not the case, 40 percent of thinnies are poised to face the same medical battles.
Unlike many food-fact documentaries, there are no graphic images here to make you cringe, but the stories might; these are real kids suffering. And for you closet activists looking for a way to make a difference? Get your PTA to host a screening for your kid’s school, where there’s an alarming 50 percent chance fast-food lunches are being served. It could be a life-changer. (Atlas Films)
Open in Los Angeles May 9
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