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Sugar shock: Why you need to see the documentary Fed Up

Canadian Living
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Sugar shock: Why you need to see the documentary Fed Up

Sugar  It seems there has been a growing trend in documentary films in the past decade: They're all telling us that what we’re eating is killing us. In Super Size Me (2004), we saw how one man’s month of living on MacDonald’s fast food led to weight gain of almost a pound a day, a hike in his cholesterol level and fat accumulation in his liver. In Food, Inc. (2008), filmmakers showed us how modern agriculture practices are making our food unhealthy and unsustainable In Forks Over Knives (2011), we were told that most of the diseases afflicting us today (diabetes, heart disease, cancer, stroke) are caused by animal-based and processed foods. Now, a new film,  Fed Up, suggests that sugar is to blame for the obesity epidemic that we are seeing in North America today. Here are the Cliff's Notes: Many food manufacturers have replaced fats with sugar, and sugar is now added to most everything you buy in the grocery store. We have become addicted to sugar, as our brains respond to it in a way similar to addictive drugs like cocaine. And while weight loss is largely viewed as an individual hurdle, our whole food source has been largely corrupted, making this a problem we need to tackle as a society. It’s a problem we can’t ignore, because it has meant that people are, for the first time in history, living shorter lives than their parents. The film even predicts that a third of adults will have diabetes by 2050. Unfortunately, the sugar industry worldwide holds considerable power and has been likened to tobacco companies decades ago. According to the film, the World Health Organization was threatened that funding would be withheld if it tightened sugar guidelines. Like many of the films before it, this documentary makes it clear: Our food system is broken. Right now, the best solution for consumers trapped in the unhealthy system seems to be avoiding all processed foods, opting instead for whole foods, including fruits and vegetables, but bigger changes need to happen to make our food supply healthy. Fed Up is a important and compelling doc. Find out where it’s playing near you, and go see the film soon—without your box of cinema candy. [HTML1]

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Sugar shock: Why you need to see the documentary Fed Up

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