Fed Up

Fed Up is a very interesting documentary about everything what is wrong in the food industry, especially the American one. It's all about the lobbyists and making as much profit as possible. The same like it was with the tobacco industry in the past, and the same as what is still happening with the firearm and oil industry. It's almost impossible to fight those big companies because they have so much money that they will corrupt the majority of people that are in charge of the laws. On the other hand you will still have people that are not selfish and that will try to make this world a better place. A place where money has no role and where people can live healthy and in peace. For that Fed Up is ideal because they can't ban a documentary like this one, where the truth about the food industry is being said. What makes the documentary sad sometimes is seeing how badly informed and brainwashed that a lot of Americans are. Seeing those morbidly obese children being desperate and trying to figure out why they are so fat is sad to see. What I found utterly disgusting as an European was the food those kids eat in their school. I had absolutely no clue that all those fast-food companies ruled the whole cafeteria. That would be absolutely impossible in any European country. There is no way our schools would serve our children hamburgers with fries, pizzas, nachos and all other crap food every day. I just can't believe parents in America don't say anything about that. Well most of them are obese as well so I guess they are used to it since they were kid themselves, but it's just appalling that something like that is possible in schools where your kids should learn to grow up healthy. Anyways, Fed Up, is a well done documentary that should be mandatory in every American family. A must see for every citizen of the world, fat or skinny, it doesn't matter.

Fed Up highlights sleazy lobbying efforts of the food industry and describes simple actions our government could take to alleviate the obesity epidemic. Even Michelle Obama was distracted by the industry. Perhaps with the prodding of this movie production, Michelle O. has more recently started to get back on track with making dietary changes in our schools.

Will our government move in the right direction? Only with a strong grass roots effort to counteract the industry. Fed Up gives us the tools. The People enacted change upon the tobacco industry. We can do it again for food!

Warning: Don't see this movie if you're happy with the status quo, a shorter, lower quality of life, and don't mind paying even more for health care.

I've seen most of the movies that have been in theaters and online about nutrition. "Fed Up" is an important movie that does not have everything in it, but it tells the story in a good way and contains a wide variety of important information. I was very impressed.

One thread talks about how it is virtually impossible to overcome your body's instincts as well as habits you have been trained in since birth by commercials, and the ubiquity of food placement and messages that we get.

Another thread talks about the political system and how taken over it has been. When you start to piece things together - including facts from other industries - it becomes apparent that when we count GDP, Gross Domestic Product, we are really fooling ourselves counting the sale of foods that carry with them health costs that will show up for decades and be problems. The one thing we seem to be good at is manipulating people to hurt themselves in this country, and how can that have any good effect on either personal responsibility or the future of our way of life.

There is a lot to think about there. Several people have important messages including Dr. Robert Lustig, Gary Taubes, Michael Pollan, as well as others. I wish we got more than sound bytes and the movie was able to deeper into some of the issues here. The main idea that the movies takes on is that a calorie is not just a calorie, but it depends on the state of your body, and from where that calorie came from and what is it. Sadly this is not explained in depth, and I could have been.

An important movie that I am going to mention and urge people to go see.

NOTE - if you look through the reviews and comments in the message board you will see the typical empty vapid comments from people on the right-wing who will talk about personal responsibility. This is a good issue, and the movie deals well with it.

Go see this movie. 10/10

If you pay attention to nutrition labels on the food products you buy, you may notice that next to the number of grams of sugar, there is no percentage shown. The sugar industry made sure of that. What they don't want consumers to know is that the sugar content of many of their products is 100% or more of the average daily requirement. Stephanie Soechtig excoriates the sugar industry for valuing profits over health in her hard-hitting documentary Fed Up. Produced by Katie Couric, who is also the narrator and Laurie David, producer of the climate-change documentary An Inconvenient Truth, the film compares awareness of the true causes of obesity to the decade's long campaign informing the public about the danger of smoking cigarettes.

Though individual choice does play a part, Fed Up says that the main problem is not the lack of will power of the individual but the fact that people have become addicted to sugar. According to Soechtig, collusion between the food industry, Congress and the U.S. Department of Agriculture has led to fierce opposition to regulation, government subsidies to farmers for their corn (which has been turned into high fructose corn syrup), unhealthy school lunch programs (80% have contracts with Coke or Pepsi), and relentless advertising campaigns directed towards children.

Bolstered by interviews with former President Bill Clinton, author Michael Pollan, and Senator Tom Harkin together with a bevy of medical researchers, the film cites statistics showing that 80% of the approximately 600,000 products sold in the supermarkets and convenience stores have added sugar and that, since the late 1970s, Americans have doubled their daily consumption of sugar so that now, one in every five people face obesity. It is estimated by the Environmental Working Group (EWG) that in one year, kids eat more than 10 pounds of sugar by weight from breakfast cereal.

Using charts and graphs, Soechtig also shows that the amount of sugar the industry has added to food to compensate for the unappealing taste of low-fat products has contributed to the increase in Type II diabetes such that by the year 2050, it is predicted that one out of three Americans will be diabetic. The film makes the problem even more real by focusing on several teenagers who have struggled with their weight for many years, emphatically pointing out the error of the conventional wisdom which says that eating less and exercising more (striking a balance between calories in and calories out), is the best solution.

Sparing no one including Michelle Obama, the film notes that her "Let's Move" campaign has been co-opted by the food industry and the responsibility for obesity placed on the individual. While Fed Up is definitely an advocacy doc and is typically one-sided (representatives of the food industry refused to be interviewed), it is an important film that doesn't try to "sugar coat" the problem but asks us to become involved by seeking an alternative to sugar-laden products, putting pressure on government and industry representatives, and demanding that the food industry begin caring about the health of our children. Now wouldn't that be sweet?

Incredible documentary. Actually seeing people speaking the truth and exposing the food industry is so fulfilling. I applaud every one of those people who have a conscience and are more worried about protecting our children and future generations than filling their pockets with our new God, Money.

I laughed so hard at the part where they replaced the "Half the fat" label with "Double the sugar", it reminds me of super markets who make bigger shopping carts and brand them as "for your shopping convenience" rather than, "So you can buy more stuff and we can make more money."

My only regret with this movie is that I didn't see it 30 years ago. I've heard for years about how bad sugar is for you and not to drink pop and always shrugged it off. Sometimes you have to see a documentary like this for it to really sink in. I already know who I'm giving my last bag of sugar to.

A huge THANK YOU! to the creators of this movie from this parent.