That Sugar Film

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Sheritrudeau
Sheritrudeau Posts: 2 Member
in Food and Nutrition
I just recently watched the documentary "That Sugar Film." It's left me with many thoughts regarding how processed our food is today and the affect of sugar on the body. Does any one want to engage in a conversation about this topic?
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  • janejellyroll
    janejellyroll Posts: 25,763 Member
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    You might want to try the "Debate" area for this. A discussion over how sugar impacts the body and whether or not processing food, in and of itself, is a bad thing is likely to become a debate fairly quickly and the rules on that are more relaxed over there. You're also more likely to find an audience who wants to discuss it.
  • Serah87
    Serah87 Posts: 5,481 Member
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    Sugar has been beat to death!!! Just another fear mongering show. Unless you medical reason, sugar is not the devil. I lost 121 pounds eating any and all sugars and in perfect health!!!!
  • lemurcat12
    lemurcat12 Posts: 30,886 Member
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    Sheritrudeau wrote: »
    how processed our food is today

    Some processed food is nutrient-dense, some is not.

    For example, one kind of processing is freezing. IMO, that freezing makes fish more available to me and vegetables more available and less expensive out of season is a positive.

    Another kind relates to dairy. IMO, plain greek yogurt contributes to my diet. Cheese may not be the most nutrient dense food for the calories, but it IS delicious.

    Another is pickling, smoking, and other traditional ways of preserving foods. I love sauerkraut, kimchi, and smoked salmon, and don't think they are bad for me.

    Yet another relates to oils: olive oil is pretty delightful and not, IMO, either new or negative in the diet.

    Some, of course, has to do with more refined foods, like dried pasta. You can get it in whole grain versions, but of course it's no less processed either way. I enjoy making pasta occasionally, but I'd eat it less often. Since for me it forms the base of a meal involving lots of vegetables and lean meat, I don't personally think that would make my diet more healthful.

    Still another has to do with pre-made meals, which might be more of what you are getting at. Even here, though, it really matters what you choose. Some aren't very nutrient dense, don't have a lot of veg or protein, have lots of added sugar or fat or sodium (or all of the above). But still others are quite different. I have some pre-made meals (from local restaurants) I buy for lunch on occasion, and they were chosen because they are reasonably similar to something I might make (in some cases, as with this vegan salad I buy, having different ingredients than I'd usually bother with, but which I think add a little something to my diet).

    And finally, you can't generalize about "how processed our diet is today." You choose what you eat, so you decide how processed your diet is. I don't eat lots of ultra processed foods and virtually none with significant amounts of added sugar or fat (the pickled stuff can be somewhat high in sodium, so it's about quantity if sodium is a concern). So I don't really agree that "our" diets "today" are so processed. We (meaning my personal family) probably ate more canned veg when growing up vs. what I eat now (even though we ate pretty healthfully), although I suppose fresh veg carted in from far away (because seasons are what they are) isn't actually any more "natural."

    Thoughts?

    (And I agree these kinds of topics are better in the debate section.)
  • LazSommer
    LazSommer Posts: 1,851 Member
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    Why
  • Sheritrudeau
    Sheritrudeau Posts: 2 Member
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    Thank you all. I just watched it today and was curious about other peoples thoughts. Sugar is a complicated topic and I thought it might be interesting to hear other perspectives.
  • Christine_72
    Christine_72 Posts: 16,049 Member
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    Sheritrudeau wrote: »
    Thank you all. I just watched it today and was curious about other peoples thoughts. Sugar is a complicated topic and I thought it might be interesting to hear other perspectives.

    Some people see no problem not tracking how much sugar they consume, others keep a close eye on it.
    Different strokes for different folks.

  • zoeysasha37
    zoeysasha37 Posts: 7,089 Member
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    I dont like fear mongering-twist the truth type of films but if you like it , then go for it !
  • AnvilHead
    AnvilHead Posts: 18,344 Member
    edited April 2016
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    That Sugar Film is a "documentary" about like Alice in Wonderland is a "documentary". They're both fiction, loosely based upon reality, with a lot of twisted points of view. The guy who made it is an actor, not any kind of doctor or dietician, and his "expert panel" reads like a who's who of crackpots and new-age woo peddlers. About the only thing missing was Dr. Oz.
  • KateTii
    KateTii Posts: 886 Member
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    I see "That sugar film" along the lines of the big "fat is bad" movement all those years ago. What happened? They realised you need fat for metabolic processes and there are still people brainwashed into thinking all fats are bad.
  • Christine_72
    Christine_72 Posts: 16,049 Member
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    KateTii wrote: »
    I see "That sugar film" along the lines of the big "fat is bad" movement all those years ago. What happened? They realised you need fat for metabolic processes and there are still people brainwashed into thinking all fats are bad.

    But do you think they'll change their minds about sugar in the future, and say it was all a mistake and that we actually NEED sugar to stay healthy?

  • 6pkdreamer
    6pkdreamer Posts: 180 Member
    edited April 2016
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    Go back to the good old days when doctors smoked and dentists hsnded out boiled lollies!
  • smotheredincheese
    smotheredincheese Posts: 559 Member
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    KateTii wrote: »
    I see "That sugar film" along the lines of the big "fat is bad" movement all those years ago. What happened? They realised you need fat for metabolic processes and there are still people brainwashed into thinking all fats are bad.

    I agree with this. I think there always needs to be a scapegoat that we can blame obesity on because it's easier than taking personal responsibility for our health. For a long time it was fat, now it's sugar. Who knows what it will be next. Gluten, maybe.
  • lemurcat12
    lemurcat12 Posts: 30,886 Member
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    Christine_72 wrote: »
    KateTii wrote: »
    I see "That sugar film" along the lines of the big "fat is bad" movement all those years ago. What happened? They realised you need fat for metabolic processes and there are still people brainwashed into thinking all fats are bad.

    But do you think they'll change their minds about sugar in the future, and say it was all a mistake and that we actually NEED sugar to stay healthy?

    They always knew we needed some fat. The problem was a focus on one macro as a problem with the idea that if you just cut back on fat and did nothing else you would be improving your diet. I do believe that they will backtrack from the focus on sugar or carbs as THE problem and find something else, because just cutting sugar (or trying to) and eating more fat won't succeed on an overall population level any more than the reverse did (the result of pushing cutting fat was that we ate more highly refined carbs without actually cutting back on fat, yay).

    So long as it's about finding one dietary bad guy and simplistic solutions vs. a focus on what we do eat (and making it an overall healthy diet), then I think it will have no better results.
  • TXMary2
    TXMary2 Posts: 25 Member
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    No one needs sugar.
  • Alluminati
    Alluminati Posts: 6,208 Member
    edited April 2016
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    TXMary2 wrote: »
    No one needs sugar.

    False.

    Tell that to people who run marathons.
  • Karoger87
    Karoger87 Posts: 56 Member
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    ClubSilencio wrote: »
    I've watched the trailer for that film. Very sensationalized in the vein of Supersize Me. The man undertook an extreme way of eating to prove that something is bad for you. His fridge and cupboard was stocked as if a 10 year old wrote the shopping list. He also got fat because... too many calories.

    I give it :cookie: out of :cookie::cookie::cookie::cookie::cookie:


    I just watched this documentary today, he consumed the same amount of calories that he usually has. Quality of the foods changed. Did anyone commenting watch the whole documentary??
  • stevencloser
    stevencloser Posts: 8,911 Member
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    http://www.slate.com/articles/health_and_science/medical_examiner/2015/08/that_sugar_film_science_debunking_links_to_mood_health_fatty_liver_disease.html

    "That Sugar Film takes an outsider, even contrarian, view in the study of nutrition, and makes it out to be a well-established science. Then it corroborates that view with a silly self-experiment, and tosses in alarmist claims for added flavor. Yet we’ve reached such a nadir in our understanding of nutrition—and the anti-sugar fervor has gotten so intense—that this blather can come off not merely as “informative” and “entertaining,” as the critics called it, but even as remedial. We knew all this already, some critics griped, as if the movie’s crazy notions were established science. “[T]he truths That Sugar Film contains were already obvious decades ago. It’s sad that we need reminding,” wrote a columnist for the Philadelphia Inquirer. “Many of Gameau’s findings won’t come as earth-shattering revelations,” said the Los Angeles Times. “[T]here’s really nothing fresh in terms of news or science,” complained the Toronto Star."

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