That Sugar Film

Even though midway claims of evil capital forcing sugar on people is emotional, not aimed at fixing the issue, psychological aspect of addiction depriving people of their potential, makes it the most valuable propaganda to date. Production quality seems rather the matter of time and budget. Silliness while unnecessary is fairly compensated with accessible factual load. Haters pay a lot of attention to calories being equal and thus think this documentary is nonsense but they ignore facts of psychological reaction specific to sugar. Sugar makes people feel love. It's mostly people raised in communities deprived of love altogether - like south USA, aboriginal reservations or undeveloped societies of post-soviet and Asian states. For anyone who still can't get it how to live without added sugar or flour just do what motivational coach said at the end of the film - try to prove it yourself that living without sugar is good for everyone. No need to fear the change - you can always go back to your previous diet but I'm pretty sure you won't have the desire to do so.

Are we able to stomach another movie about health and the way we are used to eat? That depends on yourself. This movie is not as out there as the one about McDonalds/Fast Food (Supersize me), because it is about everyday food and things you may eat and drink yourself. Actually it is very likely that you consume most of the things, not being aware about the sugar they contain.

If you're made aware of this though, will you be able to eat and drink more healthy? If even smoothies have more sugar than you'd think (or is it just me), what options are there? You get a couple of solutions and answers, but the movie never tells you that you have to do this or that. The ultimate decision lies within yourself ... And if you think about Mary Poppins while watching: The movie acknowledges this too ...

So many things are really important which are trivial. This movie is not one of them. It is important. This movie demonstrates our self-destruction through diet. Tax sugar 1000%.

Greetings again from the darkness. Ever since Morgan Spurlock provided us with a gut check on the evils of McDonalds with his 2004 documentary Super Size Me, movie goers have shown a real appetite for information on food and nutrition. We have since had informative and entertaining documentaries on wheat, corn, fat, organics and gardening. This latest sweet film comes from Australian director Damon Gameau. He takes the Spurlock approach and personally becomes a lab rat to expose the effects of too much sugar. His mission is 60 days of eating "typical" sugar intake through what would ordinarily be considered "healthy" foods. In other words: no ice cream, candy or soda.

Mr. Gameau introduces himself as a healthy guy who exercises regularly and eats a diet of mostly fruits and vegetables. His girlfriend is 6 months pregnant as he begins this 60 day experiment into the world of sugar. There is a quick history lesson on how sugar became a food staple, and fellow Australian Hugh Jackman explains the pivotal event that occurred in 1955 – a Dwight Eisenhauer heart attack. This spurred debate between US doctors who blamed it on high fat, while the British doctors attributed it to an excess of sugar. The low-fat revolution began, and was actually responsible for the increased amount of sugar in our processed foods. We learn that a full 80% of the standard products on grocery store shelves contain added sugar.

A panel of medical experts provides the necessary tests upfront that set the baseline for blood work, enzyme levels, liver function, weight, etc. The comparison 60 days later is frightening, but it's Gameau's daily journey that provides the real insight and biggest eye-openers. He doesn't spend much time focusing on any particular brands, though Pepsi (Mountain Dew), Coca-Cola and Jamba Juice each takes some serious jabs. Instead we witness his mood swings and lack of motivation for exercise.

British actor Stephen Fry explains the Glucose/Fructose make-up of Sucrose and we are given an overview of how our bodies process this – including a briefing on the role of insulin. As the days go on, we witness Gameau's weight gain and he explains his lethargy and most surprisingly, his mental inconsistencies. He has bouts of cloudiness in a mind that was once clear. It's this and the dramatic change in his liver that delivers the real scare.

It seems clear that all calories are not created equally (a calorie from an apple is not processed the same as a calorie from a Snickers), and that food companies have put much effort into hiding, or at least disguising, the amount of sugars added to the massive amount of processed food consumed each year by the average person. Perhaps Diabetes and Obesity and tooth decay are not thought to be immediate enough threats to cause a shift away from the convenience of processed food. Mr. Gameau shows just how dramatic and severe the changes can be in only 60 days. So imagine 5 years. 25 years. Just how much warning do we need?

That Sugar Film is one man's journey into the effect of eating the sugar that is hidden in food marketed as healthy. There is increasingly awareness that we live in the age of sugar with the population of our planet suddenly consuming massively more sugar. There are links between this new diet and obesity and mental illness. Warning bells were sounded in 2009 by childhood obesity expert Prof Robert H. Lustig at the University of California, whose youtube lecture went viral.

Damon Gameau's playful exploration of this crucially important subject is a big wake-up. He packages it in a palatable, family-friendly form, the perfect counter-punch to the food industry's current marketing of sugar. Gameau follows in the footsteps of Morgan Spurlock's gonzo doco, Supersize Me, where Spurlock offered himself as a guinea pig to look at a diet of Maccas. Here, Gameau puts his body on the line to look behind the health claims of fruit juice, flavoured yoghurt, muesli bars, breakfast cereal and more; a diet only of food marketed as healthy and natural but brimming with heaped spoonfuls of unwanted sugar.

Hugh Jackman's sand paintings of the history of sugar is the first of many bite-sized pleasures that make up this rollicking journey of discovery that is guaranteed to disturb your eating habits. With food corporations more in denial than the tobacco industry, tell-tale signs are products marked 'lo-fat' or '100% natural'.

What Gameau reveals about the fructose-laden fare cynically marketed to us at the cost of our health is nothing less than shocking. The film also stirs the pot about obesity, behavioural problems in children, and even rocks the foundations of consumerism. He is the canary in the coalmine and we must give thanks for the warning.

With great songs and great graphics this film is truly sickening, albeit with an upbeat ending. Suitable for all the family, That Sugar Film is compulsory viewing for anyone who has children or anything else to live for. This is THE one film to see … before you die!