FED UP

Director: Stephanie Soechtig
Writers: Mark Monroe, Stephanie Soechtig
Stars: Michele Simon, Bill Clinton, Katie Couric, Dr. Robert Lustig
Strength: Humanized, graphical presentation of facts in documentary
Weakness: Demonizes sugar and oversimplifies the problem of 
obesity
Runtime: 92 minutes
Rating: 4.5/5

Plot: Upending the conventional wisdom of why we gain weight and how to lose it, Fed Up unearths a dirty secret of the American food industry-far more of us get sick from what we eat than anyone has previously realized. 

Review:  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.

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 unknowingly 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. Since the late 1970s, Americans have doubled their daily consumption of sugar so that now, one in every five people face obesity.

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 weakness of legislation is brought to light with simple statements like "Congress considers Pizza to be a vegetable," and seems almost too nonsensical to believe. But facts are facts. 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 that the conventional wisdom which says that eating less and exercising more (striking a balance between calories in and calories out), is not the solution by itself without considering where the calories are coming from.

While Fed Up is definitely an advocacy documentary and is typically one-sided, 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.

Reviewed by Zakir Mushtaque