Most people will know that sugar isn’t good for you, but how much sugar do you think you consume each week? It’s something which is present in more products and in bigger amounts than you might think and according to this documentary we all eat a kilo of the stuff each week. Can you imagine, like That Sugar Films shows, that the whole family is sitting around the table with a kilo of sugar in front of them, eating that with a spoon? It might seem weird, but that’s what we are doing without knowing it. Damon Gameau, who has made this film, tries to show the effects of sugar on our bodies. For the last couple of years he hasn’t eaten sugar and decides, a bit like Morgan Spurlock in Supersize Me, to start eating products with sugar in them. Specifically so called “healthy” products, so no ice cream or soda drinks.
Together with a team of medical experts he decides to start his research. First he shows how healthy he is and once he starts he tries to get the same intake of calories as he would normally do, but now with products containing sugar. The results are clear. He starts to feel worse, experiences mood swings and several tests show a couple of worrying conclusions.
He doesn’t only focus on his own experience but also travels to a small town to see what the effects have been of sugar on a community of Aboriginals. A couple of decades ago they lived strictly based on nature, but the introduction of small supermarket with a lot of sugar rich products have had its effect on the people. Suddenly the amount of cases where people experienced problems with their hearts rose, where previously there weren’t any.
If you have previously seen the other documentary about sugar, Fed Up, than a number of facts won’t be new, but the way Gameau presents it makes it very different. Visually he choses a very original way of presenting it, like when he lets himself be “eaten” to show what happens in your body when you eat sugar. He also makes a rap video where he himself plays the character sugar. It is a documentary you really can’t miss as it will wake you up and realize what you are putting in your body. For me this has been the most important documentary I’ve seen this year as I decided to also cut out sugar out of my diet, which has had its effect. That simple step has made me lose four kilos without doing much extra and that really surprised me.
Trailer: