Mini Film Review: That Sugar Film

The film I have decided to highlight this time isn't necessarily an environmental film, but 'That Sugar Film' does promote a diet that is both healthy and sustainable.

It follows filmmaker Damon Gameau, who has spent the last few years eating a predominantly unprocessed diet (thanks to his Mrs), and decides to go back to the average, high sugar diet that most Westerns follow for 60 days.  In this movie he documents not only the effect this has on his health, but also on his moods.

What I find most interesting about this documentary was the fact that he kept in the recommended calorific intake each day and even regularly ate advertised 'healthy foods'.  Yet, despite this, his health still deterioate and he accumulated fat around his waist, one of the worst areas to you can accumulate it.  According to the research available at the time of the making of the movie, fructose is the one type of sugar that is particularly bad for us, always being converted by the liver into fat.  Unfortunately, this is the one sugar found in almost all processed foods.

It clearly shows that we need a shake up in how companies are allowed to advertised their products and how they present the ingredients we look at.  But it also highlights that we need to educate ourselves about the food we put in our bodies and not rely on the companies to provide us with a 'healthy option'.

While I do eat a predominantly healthy diet, it did make me realise that I still consume a lot of sugar and that this is probably stopping me from reaching some of my health goals.  I had reduced my sugar intake before, but it has slowly slipped its way back in and I have noticed my energies levels bounce up and down all day in connections with it.  It's probably about time that I go cold turkey when it comes to sugar, but after watching what Damon went through to begin with it is a little daunting.  However, it's definitely a route worth going down as this is not only a more healthy diet but not eating processed food is also more envirnmentally friendly and sustainable.