Fed Up - A Review & Reaction

I took the opportunity to head into downtown Houston yesterday to catch the early matinee of the new advocacy documentary Fed Up and walked out of the theater feeling … well … fed up!

Directed by Stephanie Soechtig and narrated by Katie Couric, the film feels like an overlong TV news special ... but as a news special, the film is remarkable and frustrating.  There were only two other people in the theater with me (a middle-aged "peace love and understanding hippie" and her daughter), so I don't have a great deal of confidence that this film will have that strong of a reach until Netflix picks it up on plays it on our TVs.  And that's a shame ... because you need to see this film NOW!

The film rightfully names the US government and food corporations responsible for a campaign to get Americans addicted to junk food -- particularly, and most dangerously, sugar -- as early as possible.  Bouncing back and forth between profiles of overweight teens and talking heads with graphics and statistics galore, the film exposes as outrage that should be addressed.  Just as the public consciousness turned against cigarettes and “big tobacco,” it is past time that we turn against added sugar and “big food.”

One of the many, many sobering statistics in Stephanie Soechtig’s documentary is that the current generation of American children is expected to have a shorter lifespan than their parents. The reason is an explosion of disease and malnutrition brought on by childhood obesity in the last 30 years and the fact that Type 2 diabetes (which was once referred to as “adult onset diabetes”) has become a childhood disease.  The first of many shocking statistics is this:  in 1980 there were zero cases of Type 2 diabetes among American adolescents – in 2010 that number is well over 50,000!

And the sugar lobby has a stranglehold on the political process in America to make sure it stays that way, and that Americans don’t find out how much sugar they’re really ingesting. Here’s an experiment — right now, go to your kitchen cupboard, pull out an item and read the “Nutrition Facts” label. Notice how most ingredients include both the amount AND the percentage value for a 2,ooo-calorie diet? Notice how sugar is almost the only one that DOESN’T include a percentage? That’s not by accident.

In this age of fitness revolution (with blogs such as Potamus Power, exercise programs galore, health club membership having doubled from where it was twenty years ago and an abundance of “low fat” and “fat free” products on our shelves), why do we find ourselves continually in an obesity epidemic, especially among our children?  Fed Up shines a light on what may very well be the main culprit:  What if everything we’ve been told about food and exercise for the past 30 years is dead wrong?

The film does a great job putting to rest the myth that a calorie is a calorie, that if we burn more calories than we digest, we should lose weight.  Much of the fitness industry is based on this notion and the film plainly explains the untruth.  Let’s face it, a handful of almonds have the same calorie count as a can of soda … which do you think is better for you?  At one point in the film a well-intentioned mother tells us that her son loves Hot Pockets, so she gets Lean Hot Pockets. I laughed out loud when I heard this … and then recoiled in terror as I realized that she was being serious.  The advertising campaigns for these “healthier” versions of pre-packaged, processed garbage had done their trick … and a parent doing what she thinks is best for her child is making his condition worse.

For me, the most disturbing message in the film is what is going on in our schools.  School lunch programs that are contracted with Taco Bell, Pizza Hut, Burger King and others are feeding our children in cafeterias that don’t even have cooking equipment anymore!  80% of schools in America have a contract with either Coca-Cola or Pepsi?  Outrageous!  School lunch guidelines that indicate that french fries and pizza are classified as vegetables … with ketchup tossed in, one could have TWO servings of vegetables by eating an order of fries with ketchup?  Outrageous!  At one point, one of the kids explains that his only lunch options that day were a hamburger or a sloppy joe? Disturbing! A lunch lady telling us that they offered a “healthy option” and that, out of 300+ students, less than twenty-five selected it that day. Heartbreaking!

I strongly encourage you to catch this film if you can … but more importantly, to do something about the issue it raises.  Join me in taking the Fed Up Challenge and in reaching out to our schools to get the fast food / junk food industry OUT OF THERE!

Find out more at: fedupmovie.com

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May 17 2014
KING RICH
Weight:  186.5 lbs
BMI:  26.9
Body Fat:  25.1%

*  How accurate are these numbers?  Huh ... I don't really know.  But I am using the Weight Watchers by Conair Scales Glass Body Analysis Scale Model WW52 to measure my stats.  I am less concerned with the accuracy of the numbers themselves and more concerned with the change I hope to see in the future.  For consistency's sake, these stats will always come from the same source and appear with my bi-weekly posts. 

Most Recent 5K
JLGC Flashback 5K
League City TX
Official Time:  39:06.5
Improvement:  1:02.5

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