Kemberly Joy C.

Lora BSE-English

GE 6 7:30-9:00 MW April 16, 2023

That Sugar Film

“That Sugar Film” is a 2014 Australian documentary film directed and starred by Damon Gameau.
The film revolves around a man who underwent an experiment to get some definitive answers about the
bitter truth of sugar. In order to document the hidden reality of how sugar deceitfully contributes to poor
health and lurks in what we perceive to be "healthy foods," Damon Gameau changed his diet from
consuming foods without white sugar to eating foods equivalent to a revolting amount of 40 tablespoons
of table sugar each day for 60 days.
The film started with harvesting sugar cane to produce processed foods containing high amounts
of sugar such as soft drinks, ice cream, candies, etc. This shifted to the events of the past when the issue
of heart disease emerged in the public domain where an American scientist Ancel Keys declared that fat
was the problem and this was contradicted by John Yudkin a British doctor who firmly believes the sugar
was to blame. This debate go on for years until announced that Fat was the villain. Sugar was exonerated
and the low-fat movement was in full swing. This prompted them to remove fat from otherwise healthy
foods and replace the calories with sugar to make them taste as good as they did with fat.
Before watching, I am looking forward to watching this documentary film together with my
classmates because I have once again appreciated how interdisciplinary our curriculum is. I have learned
from our other subjects like PE 12, Educ 102, and Educ 106 about the effects of sugar on our body that’s
why instead of lacking excitement, I was very much ready to unravel the hidden face of sugar that our
society seems to ignore. The film was done with a team of experts (consultants) and creatively introduced
clips of credible interviewees that presented information about sugar. Since it was a documentary film, I
thought it would be one monotonous video but it was on another level in the way of its delivery- creative
and engaging.
In light of the film’s context, I have realized a lot of things that ultimately changed my perspectives
about my food consumption and the whole process of food production that marks a question in my head,
‘What amount of sugar does that particular food contain?’ and now I am concerned with my health
knowing that for the past years, I have been eating these processed foods without restrictions. Nowadays,
we can see lots of advertisements about ‘healthy and low-fat foods’ that ‘should be’ in our diet and the
large companies behind them are manipulating information to promote their products and earn money
from them. On the other hand, people are unknowingly consuming foods that they perceived as ‘healthy’
with indications that they are natural, low-fat, organic, and all when in fact it contains a large amount of
sugar and other harmful ingredients that if consumed constantly will cause health illnesses such as
obesity, heart attack, liver failure, and many more.
In the movie, sugar can function as an accessible food drug. Since it is often believed that adding
sweetness makes any dish more appealing, Mr. Gameau's experiment demonstrated how eating sugar
might increase one's appetite and mood. It has been noticed that eating foods high in sugar can
temporarily improve our mood, but as those effects wear off, we tend to crave more. As a result of
neglecting this cycle of sugar consumption, it won't come as a shock when we discover we are already
addicted to it.
If I hadn't seen the film, I could have assumed that excessive sugar consumption by people posed
no danger to society. The movie did, however, help me go below the surface and see that it's not sugar
that's tricking us all; it's the industry that's doing it. Nevertheless, we should all work together to find a
solution rather than pointing fingers and not being productive about it if we want to see the food business
sit down at the table with scientists and healthcare professionals and do what's right. It was further
discussed in the film that if we continue to reinforce that it has to be sweet for it to be good, then we’re
never really learning how to do good food. Therefore, by educating people, especially children, perhaps
they can avoid the mistakes that our generation has made and they will be more aware of their food
intake to have good health, well-being, and a happy, contented life.