This past weekend I passed the time on a flight from the west coast with a documentary that hasn’t been getting a lot of publicity. Unfortunately, because of its low profile, I fear most people won’t see it. But given its content and level of relevance I feel the need to share. “That Sugar Film” (I know, horrible Title but what are you gonna do?) may not be the best nutrition documentary ever made but you would be hard pressed to find one that is more important to the lives of most Americans.
Damon Gameau, who is the films director and chief lab rat, navigates his way through 60 days worth of a high sugar diet and the negative effects it has on a healthy body. The results are staggering. One of the main focus points is how most people are unaware of just how much sugar they actually ingest in a given day. Mind you, this is sugar that one gets while 86ing Ice cream, soda pop and confectioners sugar such as cookies and cakes. He ate none of that during the experiment. “That Sugar Film” forces the viewer to take a closer look at what we are putting in our bodies and how calories truly aren’t all created equal.
While I have loved every nutrition documentary I’ve watched, from “Fed Up” to “Forks Over Knives” to “Food Inc”, my feelings have always been that most people just won’t take the time to eat organic foods or find that it’s too expensive to do so. The unique thing about “That Sugar Film” is that Gameau not only puts himself through the grueling tests of high sugar dieting, he also shows the side effects sugar, particularly sucrose, has on the liver, the brain and the digestive system.
While I already knew much of the research that Gameau uncovers, what I was unaware of is that the average person in this world eats on average 40 teaspoons of sugar a day! What’s worse is that most Americans receive far more. When he started his experiment, Gameau insisted that he thought it would be nearly impossible for a “non-sugar eater” to ingest that much sugar in a day. I think what surprised him, and me for that matter, was just how easy it was for him to get there. His initial breakfast was two servings (or one cup, for those who don’t know) of dry cereal, one low fat packaged yogurt and 8oz of OJ. That alone was over 20 teaspoons of sugar. Think about that number for a second.
Gameau’s final results following the 60 days of hell was 22 pounds of weight gain, a staggering amount of visceral belly fat gain, a fatty liver, depression, severe mood swings as well as pre-diabetic symptoms and an increased lack of motivation to exercise. But by far the scariest moment in this film was the commentary regarding the effect of sugar on lab rats. For years scientists have performed tests on rats to show the side effects that drugs have on the nervous system. What they’ve found in regards to sugar is that it is more addictive than cocaine and heroin. Scared yet?
I’m sure you’ve read a hundred times just how necessary educating yourself regarding nutrition is, but if there is one thing you do this year to help improve your health please watch, “That Sugar Film. “ It may just save your life.
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