Fed Up (film)

Last updated

Fed Up
Fed Up poster.jpg
Theatrical poster
Directed by Stephanie Soechtig
Written by
  • Stephanie Soechtig
  • Mark Monroe
Produced by
  • Stephanie Soechtig
  • Sarah Olson
  • Eve Marson
Narrated by Katie Couric
CinematographyScott Sinkler
Edited by
  • Brian David Lazarte
  • Tina Nguyen
  • Dan Swietlik
Production
companies
Atlas Films
Diamond Docs
Artemis Rising Foundation
Distributed by RADiUS-TWC
Release dates
Running time
92 minutes
CountryUnited States
LanguageEnglish
Box office$1.5 million

Fed Up is a 2014 American documentary film directed, written and produced by Stephanie Soechtig. [1] The film focuses on the causes of obesity in the US, presenting evidence showing large quantities of sugar in processed foods are an overlooked root of the problem, and points to the monied lobbying power of "Big Sugar" in blocking attempts to enact policies to address the issue. [2] [3] [4] [5]

Contents

Synopsis

Fed Up shows how the first dietary guidelines issued by the U.S. government 30 years ago overlooked the role of dietary sugar in increasing risks of obesity, diabetes, and associated ill-health outcomes, particularly in children. Since these guidelines effectively condoned the unlimited addition of sugar to foods consumed by children, sugar consumption has greatly increased, obesity has skyrocketed, and generations of children have grown up far fatter than their parents. These children face impaired health and shorter lifespans as a result. [6] [7] As the relationship between the high-sugar diet and poor health has emerged, entrenched sugar industry interests with almost unlimited financial lobbying resources have nullified attempts by parents, schools, states, and in Congress to provide a healthier diet for children. The film concludes with a list of 20 companies, industry groups and politicians who refused to talk to the filmmakers. [8]

Production, premiere and release

The director, Stephanie Soechtig, said she followed some of the families struggling mightily with obesity, diabetes and other health issues for more than two years during the making of the film. [5] American journalist and TV personality Katie Couric co-produced the documentary and is its narrator. [9] [10] The film premiered in competition category of U.S. Documentary Competition program at the 2014 Sundance Film Festival on January 19, 2014. [11] [12]

After its premiere at the 2014 Sundance Film Festival, RADiUS-TWC acquired distribution rights of the film. [13] [14] The film was released on May 9, 2014, in the United States. [15] [16]

Reception

Fed Up received a positive response from critics. Review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes reports 80% of 66 film critics have given the film a positive review, with a rating average of 7 out of 10. [17]

In her review for LA Weekly , Amy Nicholson praised the film by saying "Fed Up is poised to be the Inconvenient Truth of the health movement. (Which makes sense - producer Laurie David worked on both.)" [18] Geoffrey Berkshire in his review for Variety said "Stephanie Soechtig's documentary effectively gets the message out about America's addiction to unhealthy food." [19] Robert Cameron Fowler from Indiewire in his review said "'Fed Up' is a glossy package that gets its warnings across loud and clear: we need to change what we eat." [20]

Justin Lowe of The Hollywood Reporter praises the film as highly relevant, though overly-detailed—the "Highly relevant film diminishes its central message with distracting details." [21]

As Manohla Dargis succinctly summarizes in her review for The New York Times : [2]

Recent research ... indicates calories in fruit are not the same as those in soda, a conclusion that is part of the big picture in "Fed Up," a very good advocacy documentary ... A whirlwind of talking heads, found footage, scary statistics and cartoonish graphics, the movie is a fast, coolly incensed investigation into why people are getting fatter. It also includes some touching video self-portraits by some young people who belong to the almost 17 percent of children and adolescents, 2 to 19, who are considered obese.

Criticism

The documentary has been criticized by some doctors and scientists as occasionally misrepresentative of scientific evidence. The film makes the claim that drinking one soda a day will increase a child's chance of becoming obese by 60%. The scientists who are the authors of the study this statistic comes from state they cannot prove this causality, as the film claims, only an association. [22] [ better source needed ]

Harriet Hall, writing in Science-Based Medicine, stated the film's selection of experts consists mainly of politicians and journalists with few relevant nutritional scientists or doctors. She also argues the definitive pronouncements the film makes about the role of sugar are premature as there are too many other possible confounders such as lifestyle, total calorie consumption and the type of foods being eaten. [23] Hall also goes on to provide a comprehensive list of statements the film claimed were facts but were not based on scientific evidence. [23] [24] She concludes by saying "the film will undoubtedly do some good by helping raise public awareness of childhood obesity" but wishes "it could have done so without misrepresenting the facts". [23]

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sugar</span> Sweet-tasting, water-soluble carbohydrates

Sugar is the generic name for sweet-tasting, soluble carbohydrates, many of which are used in food. Simple sugars, also called monosaccharides, include glucose, fructose, and galactose. Compound sugars, also called disaccharides or double sugars, are molecules made of two bonded monosaccharides; common examples are sucrose, lactose, and maltose. White sugar is a refined form of sucrose. In the body, compound sugars are hydrolysed into simple sugars.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sugar substitute</span> Sugarless food additive intended to provide a sweet taste

A sugar substitute is a food additive that provides a sweetness like that of sugar while containing significantly less food energy than sugar-based sweeteners, making it a zero-calorie or low-calorie sweetener. Artificial sweeteners may be derived through manufacturing of plant extracts or processed by chemical synthesis. Sugar substitute products are commercially available in various forms, such as small pills, powders, and packets.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Junk food</span> Unhealthy food high in sugar or fat

"Junk food" is a term used to describe food that is high in calories from macronutrients such as sugar and fat, and often also high in sodium, making it hyperpalatable, and low in dietary fiber, protein, or micronutrients such as vitamins and minerals. It is also known as "high in fat, salt and sugar food". The term junk food is a pejorative dating back to the 1950s.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Katie Couric</span> American journalist (born 1957)

Katherine Anne Couric is an American journalist and presenter. She is founder of Katie Couric Media, a multimedia news and production company. She also publishes a daily newsletter, Wake Up Call. From 2013 to 2017, she was Yahoo's Global News Anchor. Couric has been a television host at all of the Big Three television networks in the United States, and in her early career she was an assignment editor for CNN. She worked for NBC News from 1989 to 2006, CBS News from 2006 to 2011, and ABC News from 2011 to 2014. She was the first solo female anchor of a major network (CBS) evening news program. In 2021, she appeared as a guest host for the game show Jeopardy!, the first woman to host the flagship American version of the show in its history.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Healthy diet</span> Type of diet

A healthy diet can help prevent all forms of malnutrition, as well as non-communicable diseases such as diabetes, heart disease, stroke and cancer. Unhealthy diet and physical inactivity are major global health risks. A healthy diet is a diet that maintains or improves overall health. A healthy diet provides the body with essential nutrition: fluid, macronutrients such as protein, micronutrients such as vitamins, and adequate fibre and food energy.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Obesity in the United States</span>

Obesity is common in the United States and is a major health issue associated with numerous diseases, specifically an increased risk of certain types of cancer, coronary artery disease, type 2 diabetes, stroke, and cardiovascular disease, as well as significant increases in early mortality and economic costs.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Obesity in the United Kingdom</span> Overview of obesity in the United Kingdom

Obesity in the United Kingdom is a significant contemporary health concern, with authorities stating that it is one of the leading preventable causes of death. In February 2016, former Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt described rising rates of childhood obesity as a "national emergency". The National Childhood Measurement Programme, which measures obesity prevalence among school-age pupils in reception class and year 6, found obesity levels rocketed in both years groups by more than 4 percentage points between 2019–20 and 2020–21, the highest rise since the programme began. Among reception-aged children, those aged four and five, the rates of obesity rose from 9.9% in 2019–20 to 14.4% in 2020–21. By the time they are aged 10 or 11, more than a quarter are obese. In just 12 months, the rate is up from 21% in 2019–20 to 25.5% in 2020–21.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sugary drink tax</span> Tax or surcharge on soft drinks with high sugar content

A sugary drink tax, soda tax, or sweetened beverage tax (SBT) is a tax or surcharge designed to reduce consumption of sweetened beverages by making them more expensive to purchase. Drinks covered under a soda tax often include carbonated soft drinks, sports drinks and energy drinks. Fruit juices without added sugar are usually excluded, despite similar sugar content, though there is some debate on including them.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Obesity in the Pacific</span> Overview of the causes for and prevalence of obesity in the Pacific

Pacific island nations and associated states make up the top seven on a 2007 list of heaviest countries, and eight of the top ten. In all these cases, more than 70% of citizens aged 15 and over are obese. A mitigating argument is that the BMI measures used to appraise obesity in Caucasian bodies may need to be adjusted for appraising obesity in Polynesian bodies, which typically have larger bone and muscle mass than Caucasian bodies; however, this would not account for the drastically higher rates of cardiovascular disease and type 2 diabetes among these same islanders.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Robert Lustig</span> Endocrinologist, professor

Robert H. Lustig is an American pediatric endocrinologist. He is professor emeritus of pediatrics in the division of endocrinology at the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF), where he specialized in neuroendocrinology and childhood obesity. He is also director of UCSF's WATCH program, and president and co-founder of the non-profit Institute for Responsible Nutrition.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Criticism of fast food</span>

Criticism of fast food includes claims of negative health effects, animal cruelty, cases of worker exploitation, children-targeted marketing and claims of cultural degradation via shifts in people's eating patterns away from traditional foods. Fast food chains have come under fire from consumer groups, such as the Center for Science in the Public Interest, a longtime fast food critic over issues such as caloric content, trans fats and portion sizes. Social scientists have highlighted how the prominence of fast food narratives in popular urban legends suggests that modern consumers have an ambivalent relationship with fast food, particularly in relation to children.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Michael Walrath</span> American businessman

Michael Walrath is an investor, advisor, and founder of startup and expansion stage companies. Walrath was CEO and founder of Right Media, an online advertising exchange marketplace that was acquired by Yahoo for $850 million in 2007.

<i>The Devil We Know</i> 2018 documentary by Stephanie Soechtig

The Devil We Know is a 2018 investigative documentary film by director Stephanie Soechtig regarding allegations of health hazards from perfluorooctanoic acid, a key ingredient used in manufacturing Teflon, and DuPont's potential responsibility. PFAS are commonly found in every household, and in products as diverse as non-stick cookware, stain resistant furniture and carpets, wrinkle free and water repellant clothing, cosmetics, lubricants, paint, pizza boxes, popcorn bags, and many other everyday products.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Added sugar</span> Caloric sweeteners added to food and beverages

Added sugars or free sugars are sugar carbohydrates added to food and beverages at some point before their consumption. These include added carbohydrates, and more broadly, sugars naturally present in honey, syrup, fruit juices and fruit juice concentrates. They can take multiple chemical forms, including sucrose, glucose (dextrose), and fructose.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sweetened beverage</span> Type of beverage

Sugar-sweetened beverages (SSB) are beverages with added sugar. They have been described as "liquid candy". Added sugars include brown sugar, corn sweetener, corn syrup, dextrose, fructose, high fructose corn syrup, honey, invert sugar, lactose, malt syrup, maltose, molasses, raw sugar, sucrose, trehalose, and turbinado sugar. Naturally occurring sugars, such as those in fruit or milk, are not considered to be added sugars. Free sugars include monosaccharides and disaccharides added to foods and beverages by the manufacturer, cook or consumer, and sugars naturally present in honey, syrups, fruit juices and fruit juice concentrates.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">2014 Sundance Film Festival</span>

The 2014 Sundance Film Festival took place from January 16, 2014 until January 26, 2014 in Park City, Utah, United States, with screenings in Salt Lake City, Ogden, and Sundance Resort in Utah. The festival opened with Whiplash directed by Damien Chazelle and closed with musical drama Rudderless directed by William H. Macy.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Preventive nutrition</span> Branch of nutrition science

Preventive Nutrition is a branch of nutrition science with the goal of preventing, delaying, and/or reducing the impacts of disease and disease-related complications. It is concerned with a high level of personal well-being, disease prevention, and diagnosis of recurring health problems or symptoms of discomfort which are often precursors to health issues. The overweight and obese population numbers have increased over the last 40 years and numerous chronic diseases are associated with obesity. Preventive nutrition may assist in prolonging the onset of non-communicable diseases and may allow adults to experience more "healthy living years." There are various ways of educating the public about preventive nutrition. Information regarding preventive nutrition is often communicated through public health forums, government programs and policies, or nutritional education. For example, in the United States, preventive nutrition is taught to the public through the use of the food pyramid or MyPlate initiatives.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sugar marketing</span> Marketing of sugar

Sugar is heavily marketed both by sugar producers and the producers of sugary drinks and foods. Apart from direct marketing methods such as messaging on packaging, television ads, advergames, and product placement in setting like blogs, industry has worked to steer coverage of sugar-related health information in popular media, including news media and social media.

Stephanie Soechtig is an American director and filmmaker who is known for documentaries such as Tapped (2009), Fed Up (2014), Under the Gun (2016) and The Devil We Know (2018).

<i>Eating You Alive</i> 2018 American film

Eating You Alive is a 2018 health documentary film about why Americans are suffering from chronic diseases such as cardiovascular disease, diabetes, obesity, autoimmune disease, among other diseases, and whether the outcome can be changed.

References

  1. ↑ "Is Sugar the New Cigarettes? Fed Up, a New Sundance Film, Thinks So". Archived from the original on April 2, 2014. Retrieved April 8, 2014.
  2. 1 2 Dargismay, Manohla (May 8, 2014). "Sugar, Come Out With Your Hands Up". The New York Times. Archived from the original on June 1, 2014. Retrieved May 31, 2014.
  3. ↑ Bittman, Mark (May 13, 2014). "An Inconvenient Truth About Our Food". The New York Times. Archived from the original on May 19, 2014. Retrieved April 13, 2014.
  4. ↑ O'Sullivan, Michael (May 8, 2014). "'Fed Up' movie review: The sins of sugar". The Washington Post. Archived from the original on May 11, 2014. Retrieved April 13, 2014.
  5. 1 2 Macvean, Mary (May 9, 2014). "Fed Up' documentary lays blame for American obesity on food industry". Los Angeles Times. Archived from the original on May 30, 2014. Retrieved April 13, 2014.
  6. ↑ "Katie Couric is 'Fed Up' with childhood obesity". Archived from the original on April 8, 2014. Retrieved April 8, 2014.
  7. ↑ "Sundance Curiosities: Will 'Fed Up' Be the Last Straw for America's Food Industry?". Archived from the original on January 9, 2014. Retrieved April 8, 2014.
  8. ↑ Lowe, Peggy (May 19, 2014)."'Fed Up' Portrays Obese Kids as Victims in a Sugar-Coated World." Archived August 28, 2015, at the Wayback Machine NPR.org. Retrieved September 20, 2015.
  9. ↑ "This Documentary Is 'Fed Up' With the Food Industry and Its Fed Friends". Archived from the original on April 13, 2014. Retrieved April 8, 2014.
  10. ↑ "Sundance: Katie Couric Dishes on Her New Documentary 'Fed Up' (VIDEO)". Archived from the original on January 23, 2014. Retrieved April 8, 2014.
  11. ↑ "Sundance 2014: U.S. Documentary Competition". Archived from the original on March 29, 2014. Retrieved April 8, 2014.
  12. ↑ "Sundance Poster For FED UP – Documentary w/Katie Couric". Archived from the original on January 30, 2014. Retrieved April 8, 2014.
  13. ↑ "Sundance: RADIUS-TWC Buys Katie Couric-Narrated Docu 'Fed Up'". Archived from the original on May 31, 2014. Retrieved April 8, 2014.
  14. ↑ "Sundance: Radius-TWC Picks Up Katie Couric-Produced Documentary 'Fed Up'". Archived from the original on April 5, 2014. Retrieved April 8, 2014.
  15. ↑ "WATCH: You May Never Eat Again After Seeing This Trailer for 'Fed Up'". Archived from the original on April 16, 2014. Retrieved April 8, 2014.
  16. ↑ "'Fed Up' Film Examines Food Industry". Archived from the original on April 10, 2014. Retrieved April 8, 2014.
  17. ↑ "Fed Up (2014)". Rotten Tomatoes . Flixster. Archived from the original on May 15, 2014. Retrieved June 8, 2014.
  18. ↑ "Is Sugar the New Cigarettes? Sundance's Fed Up Thinks So". Archived from the original on April 19, 2014. Retrieved April 8, 2014.
  19. ↑ "Sundance Film Review: 'Fed Up'". Archived from the original on May 31, 2014. Retrieved April 8, 2014.
  20. ↑ "Sundance Review: Katie Couric-Produced Obesity Doc 'Fed Up' Hits the Mark". Archived from the original on April 13, 2014. Retrieved April 8, 2014.
  21. ↑ "Fed Up: Sundance Review". Archived from the original on January 22, 2014. Retrieved April 8, 2014.
  22. ↑ "29 common claims and bogus 'facts' about food that are false or very misleading". Business Insider. Archived from the original on August 5, 2019. Retrieved August 5, 2019.
  23. 1 2 3 Hall, Harriet. "Does the Movie Fed Up Make Sense?". Science-Based Medicine. Archived from the original on October 15, 2014. Retrieved August 6, 2019.
  24. ↑ Smith Edge, Marianne; Raymond, Matt. "Correcting the "Fed Up" Record". Food Insight. Archived from the original on August 6, 2019. Retrieved August 6, 2019.
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