Generations of kids will live shorter lives than their parents
What came first? The chicken or the egg?
Why does everyone need meds today?
It literally begins in childhood with the American diet.
Katie Couric had an interesting show this afternoon, May 8, 2014 re "FED UP" which premiered at Sundance Film Festival.
The film upends the conventional wisdom of why we gain weight and lays bare the misinformation put forth on how to lose it.
It reveals that far more of the American public gets sick from what they eat than anyone realized.
The film traces the history of processed foods adding dangerous levels of sugar and sweeteners to their roster of ingredients. (It began in the late 1970s with the rise of low-fat foods and has intensified since then.)
With the film's acquisition, Couric hopes, will come amended personal habits and public policies.
'''GENERATIONS OF KIDS WILL LIVE SHORTER LIVES THAN THEIR PARENTS'''
'Fed Up'
The premise: Unflattering documentary about the American food industry suggests that today’s children will have shorter lives than their parents because of their diets.
Directed by: Stephanie Soechtig
Length: 1 hour, 32 minutes
Rated: PG for mature themes, smoking and language.
GEOFF BERKSHIRE, VARIETY: ★★★ Accessibility trumps artistry in "Fed Up," a formulaic and functional documentary that nevertheless proves effective at getting the message out about America’s addiction to unhealthy food. Focusing specifically on childhood obesity, the insidious practices of big food companies and the lack of political will to address the problems, Stephanie Soechtig’s film is the latest in a long line of call-to-action docs following in the footsteps of "An Inconvenient Truth" (and boasts that film’s executive producer, Laurie David, to boot). Slick execution and big-name participants, including narrator Katie Couric and an interview with former President Bill Clinton, put the pic in prime position to become one of the year’s highest-profile commercial docs.
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PARK CITY, Utah - Katie Couric is fed up.
Like the title of the documentary she executive produced and narrated at Sundance, Couric is angry about the global epidemic of childhood obesity and the government's role in its spread.
"The amount of attention paid to public health is minuscule compared to the amount of attention the government pays to promoting U.S. agriculture," says Couric.
One of the most talked-about films at Sundance, Fed Up is described as the film the food industry doesn't want people to see.
It could be the movie that will change the way people think about eating.
The documentary details how, since the U.S. government issued its first dietary guideline 30 years ago, the rate of obesity has skyrocketed. Generations of kids will live shorter lives than their parents.
The film upends the conventional wisdom of why we gain weight and lays bare the misinformation put forth on how to lose it. It reveals that far more of the American public gets sick from what they eat than anyone realized.
The film traces the history of processed foods adding dangerous levels of sugar and sweeteners to their roster of ingredients. (It began in the late 1970s with the rise of low-fat foods and has intensified since then.)
With the film's acquisition, Couric hopes, will come amended personal habits and public policies.
"We'd like to see this shown in schools, in parent meetings, PTAs," says Couric. "I think it will change the way people buy food. It will change the way they consume food and it will change the way they think about food. And I think that is what's going to be required to really start dealing with this issue."
The hope is that a shift can occur, as has happened in other health and safety arena.
"We want people to see that there's hope," says Soechtig. "This can be fixed. We have these food fighters who are making differences on a local level. If we use tobacco as an example this is not as far-fetched as the food industry is portraying it. Look at seat-belt laws and car-seat laws. It happened before. It can happen now."
Doctors bemoan the rise of adult-onset diabetes in young children, as well as children suffering strokes and heart attacks at a very young age, due to their excessive intake of sugar.
Fed Up lays bare a decades-long misinformation campaign orchestrated by Big Food and aided and abetted by the U.S. government.
"How can you set dietary guidelines and also be responsible for promoting U.S. agriculture, especially when some of that agriculture means unhealthy products," Couric asked. "Whoever set that up probably did not realize that you could not serve two masters in that way."
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