On Sunday, October 26, Outpost hosted the movie “Fed Up” at the Times Cinema. It was free and open to the community, and it packed a wallop. The turnout was excellent, and the movie even better.

This film, narrated by Katie Couric, was a well-researched and fast-moving account of the insidious growth of sugar into the American diet, and the consequent “tsunami” of diabetes and other metabolic disorders in our population.

Four teens were the focus of the film, and one heard from them directly how extremely difficult it has been for them to manage their diet or reduce their weight. One young man, Joe Lopez, is 15 and weighs nearly 400 pounds. He chose to undergo bariatric surgery rather than face high odds of death by the age of 20. While he is an extreme example of the problem, it is merely a matter of degree and not of kind.

I perceived a sense of hopelessness and resignation amongst the parents of these teens.  It was clear that the kids were exposed to junk food with high sugar and fat concentrations everywhere they turned. The biggest villain was clearly in the school cafeterias, which no longer serve cooked meals, but are merely distributors of fast food franchises housed in the very place where kids should be learning nutrition, not sugar addiction.

The conduit for all of this sugar - by whatever name - is processed foods.  It’s buried in everything we eat.  Whatever the form it’s all “sugar” when processed our liver and our pancreas, which react and go into overdrive when we eat the stuff.  It is as American as, well, apple pie.

This documentary also pointed out the identical weapons of defense and offense used by the processed food and sugar industries that were also used for years by the tobacco industry.

Despite the challenging messages of this documentary I’d strongly encourage everyone to see Fed Up.  The commitment to changing one’s eating habits or cooking more meals at home as the movie suggests, can be a great start.

Have you ever seen a movie that changed your perceptions about an ingredient? What was it? And how did it change your behaviors?

Nancy Ettenheim, director

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                            Outpost Board Members at the movie screening of FED UP.