Fed Up!

Return to Philosophy of Food

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 - ubiquity of sugar in the culture and media.

• WHO TRS 916 - study adocates no more than 10% of calories from sugar. US heavy handed response, threats withold funding. Industry wanted 25%. Result: No agreed level on US product nutrition panels.

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

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

• The Great Cheese Story (50:26)

• School Lunches Story -- After decline of Fed funding for school lunch program, most schools make contracts with fast food providers. Pizza becomes a vegetable!

• Tofi -- Thin people can be "obese"

• Tobacco / Food Industry Analogy Story -- soda is the cigarette of the 21st century.

• Real Food / Fake Food - Back to defining food.