There has been a lot of debate in recent years about the harm sugar may or may not do to our health. I have just watched ‘That Sugar Film’ which is an eye-opening documentary that presents, as one scientist in the film says, an interesting ‘anecdote’ of how sugar can adversely affect the body.
The ‘anecdote’ is by Damon Gameau who directed and made the film. With Damon expecting to become a father soon, he is keen to find out the truth about what is healthy food and what isn’t. He is very aware of careful eating, having been on a sugar-free diet for years since meeting his wife to be, and now sets out on an experiment to eat ‘normal’ processed food, often claimed to be ‘healthy’, to see what effect it has on his body.
The experiment
He deliberately avoids fast food, ice-cream, chocolate and soft drinks in order to gauge whether such ‘healthy food’, such as cereals, yogurt, low fat sauces and so forth, have a positive effect on his body during three months.
Whilst this is anecdotal rather than scientific, it is a one-man experiment after all, the results and the story he tells are shocking.
Basically, he puts on 8.5 kilos after 3 months, adds 7% to his body fat, and increases his waist size by 10cm!
After 18 days, his liver cells start to die and he develops signs of a fatty liver!
On a personal level, he becomes lethargic, has mood swings, gets cravings for sugar highs, and finds it hard to feel full. After three months, his doctors conclude he is heading for obesity.
The insights
The insights into why and how sugar can negatively affect the body, what research is being done by the food industry to exploit such things as the ‘Bliss Point”, are well worth watching.
The film is beautifully and engagingly presented with fun graphics and scientific explanations, as well as having a lovely, unexpected cameo by Stephen Fry, one of my favourite writers.
The scenes of replacing a drink of Coca Cola with a cup of water and the equivalent amount of sugar (9 teaspoonfuls) mixed in, or heaping sugar on to a chicken breast in place of the packaged sauce, are graphic reminders of just how much sugar is hidden in processed food. When you see this, you quickly realise, as Damon does, that it is so easy to overtake the recommended daily limit of 6 teaspoons of sugar a day.
In fact, because so much sugar is ‘hidden’, many American’s consume between 30 – 40 teaspoons of sugar a day without realising it. OMG!
The decontextualisation issue
My one slight issue with this progamme, as with various articles and TV programmes attacking sugar (or indeed any other food under the microscope, or more precisely under attack), is that it is taking one aspect of nutrition and pulling it out of context in order to analyse it. This is almost impossible to do. Indeed, this is what makes scientific experiments so hard to do and to use to draw concrete conclusions. I guess the issue is, we never just eat sugar in isolation. It is usually mixed up with lots of other foods or nutrients that can affect its ingestion and impact, not to mention all the other factors that can be influencing our health (smoking, exercise, emotions, etc…). Chemical reactions within our bodies happen within a holistic environment with a variety of contributing factors. To just isolate one and make conclusions is very difficult to do.
Entertainment and learning
All that said, I actually watched the film with my 10 year old daughter and she was totally engaged, laughing and yet horrified at what she saw. We were both entertained and learned a lot.
The film had big impact on both of us, making us aware of the issue and had us resolving to start looking more carefully at supermarket shelves and what we eat.
You can watch the trailer below
And for the full film on Amazon, click the picture below.
Settle in with a drink and a healthy snack and enjoy the film!
Be sure to let me know what you think.
You may also like this article about Superfoods.