Thinking Out Loud

This post is basically a critical analysis of a documentary I watched recently and coincidently found it in tune with my New Year’s resolutions.

Damon Gameau’s That Sugar Film is a relatively new documentary that follows guinea pig Gameau on a journey to discover the stark truth about sugar. The one man experiment focuses solely on consuming foods that we would typically perceive as “healthy” foods — whether they’re labeled healthy, low fat, low cholesterol, whole grain, etc. — and the effects of a high sugar diet on a healthy body. I found it to be a very interesting piece with the added plus of a fantastic soundtrack featuring artists ranging from Florence and the Machine, Depeche Mode and Peter Gabriel (to me, music really makes a movie).

Gameau focused only on eating foods that were marketed as “healthy” foods such as cereals, low fat yogurts, granola bars and juices. The results were fascinating. I don’t want to give TOO much away since I think everyone should watch it, so instead I’ll leave you to your own devices and some intriguing facts about our nutrition labels:

-Have you ever noticed that there is no daily recommended dietary allowance for sugar? Go right now and look at the back of any product with a nutrition label. There is no daily recommended percentage for sugar content. Dietary guidelines are revised every five years by the federal government and have recently been put under more scrutiny as the daily recommended allowances have a direct effect on what is served in our schools and military.

Undoubtedly, the five-year reviews of the American dietary guidelines is an extremely daunting, complex and conflicting task left up to a small group of people. I’d imagine that with the always evolving research studies being conducted and released, putting together a set of dietary “rules” is quite challenging. This is the first time however that Congress has taken note and verbally admitted that there is a big disconnect between current guidelines and the increasing rate of obesity.

Needless to say, too much sugar in your diet is bad. It affects your brain function, moods, bones and teeth. It is crucial now that people become educated on this topic and take it seriously; to save our children from the grips of obesity and our own wellbeing. More and more studies are being released yearly proving this fact so one can only hope change is on the horizon.