Fed Up!

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1. Facts that you are surprised by, think important, or are suspicious of.;

2. Questions raised by the movie;

3. Claims or thesis that the movie's documentary evidence seems to support.

Notes for "Fed Up!"

• News of Obesity and related health epidemic.

• Narrative is broadly suscipious that our approach to the epidemic is

• Brady Kluge age 15 --- web cam introduction. 4min. Family food culture.

• Challenging the Diet/Exercise Paradigm -- "energy balance" (calories in / calories out) is a limited theory because calories have different effects depending upon the food. Eat less/exercise more. Origin of theory in Dr. Jean Mayer. Leads to Jane Fonda.... Retro exercise footage.... Also, amount of exercise needed wouldn't fit in a day....

• Maggie Valentine - 12 yr old - note tour of food products in the house -- beliefs about health food: Triscut low fat and industrial cereals.... Gary Taubes 12:43

• Why energy balance in limited: Example of almonds/soda -- role of fiber in moderating blood sugar rise. 14:00 mins. Coca cola ad espousing energy balance theory.

• Marion Nestle. 14:45. Big star in nutrition policy. Coca Cola funding scandal. Dr. David Allison -- Big Sugar scientist interviewed. Yikes.....

• Big Sugar Funding Scandals - Nestle describes an early version of this, but there was a more recent scandal involving many "professors" paid collectively $50 million. [1] [2]

• Wesley Randall. age 13. Note foods in the family. Lean hot pockets.... Industrial cereals.... Cheap calories (fast food "value" meals). 20:45: meal comparions. Not necessarily true that health meals are unaffordable. Doctor visit... 23: Clinton admits "we missed it"

• 1977 Dietary Guidelines Story 24:45min (We'll get this story a couple of times.) McGovern committee guidelines trigger backlash....

• can't say eat less, can't target any foods directly.
• Low fat movement correlates with increase in sugar in industrial food. 600,000 food products 80% with added sugar. '77 to 2000 double intake of sugar. (History of sugar is fascinating.)

• Glycemic response. 27:45 Insulin a fat storage hormone. Also loss of neural signal that you are "full" Note product comparison on sugar.

• HFCS (High fructose corn syrup) - industrial fruit juice may be about as calorie dense as Coke. (Also industrial carb products.) Sugar substitutes can trigger glycemic response as well. 32:00 tracking the foods that the kids in the doc are eating.

• Joe Lopez. 33:30. Note personal and family self-understanding of problem.

• David Kessler -- food addiction theory - Rat studies. Sugar in infant and baby foods. ubiquity of sugar in the culture and media.37:50 Great testimonial from Wesley. Kid themed food marketing.

• WHO TRS 916 story - sugar causes chronic metabolic disease. study advocates no more than 10% of calories from sugar. US heavy handed response, threatens witholding 400 million in funding. Industry wanted 25%. Result: No agreed level on US product nutrition panels. No &RDA on labels still today. We live under Big Sugar.

• Obama "Let's Move Campaign" -- co-opted by industry into an exercise program. Can't say processed food is a big part of the problem. Back to "energy balance"

• Food marketing co-opts nutrition policy because food science allows reformulation of products to continue addictive qualities.

• Dept of Ag conflict of interest: promoting production and promoting good diets.

• The Great Cheese Story (50:26) - where did all the fat go from skim milk? Government took on challenge of promoting cheese. "Cheese glorious cheese!" Brags about how much more cheese they got people to buy.

• School Lunches Story -- After decline of Fed funding for school lunch program, most schools make contracts with fast food providers. Pizza becomes a vegetable! 58mins Chilling to have one of the obese kids reciting the fast food menu for the week. 80% of highschools under soda contracts, over 1/2 serve fast food. Obama era increases lunch subsidy by 6 cents. still counts pizza and fries as vegetables.

• 1hour: Regulation of TV Advertising of Foods to Children. Celebrity and superpower hero marketing... "Ronald McDonald informs and inspires through magic and fun." Claim: FTC has less authority to regulate child marketing than adult.

• Nanny State politics. Consumer responsibility 1:06:00

• Bariatric surgery -- Joe Lopez as candidate. (Mixed evidence about effectiveness. 30% regain weight in 24mos) Marketing to minorities. Vulnerability of some minorities to obesity.

• TOFI -- Thin people can be "obese" -- mri shows high fats in organs.

• Why are Health Insurance companies investing heavily in fast food corporations?

• 1:15:45. Tobacco / Food Industry Analogy Story -- soda is the cigarette of the 21st century. History: Big Tobacco execs stonewalled on cigarettes and cancer for 50 years. Cut high school smoking addiction rate in half. Flintstones smoking ad.... Flintstones sugary cereal ad. Big Sugar execs stonewalling to Congress on addiction.

• Real Food / Fake Food - Back to defining food. Food activism -- from students, chefs. Brady's family tries a sugar "detox" diet. Cooking real food.