I love to learn and, as I go through my weight loss journey, nutrition has become a point of interest of mine (obviously). Because of that, I’ve begun watching a lot of documentaries on the subject. I keep a running list of documentaries that I’ve watched, what they are about, and my opinion of the documentary. Today’s documentary review is for: That Sugar Film
This is probably my favorite nutrition documentary to date (I’ve watched a bunch, though I’m just getting around to reviewing them).
IMDB Description: Damon Gameau embarks on an experiment to document the effects of a high sugar diet on a healthy body.
My Summary: A man who has been living a sugar-free life for the better part of three years (since getting with his health conscious girlfriend), decides to do an experiment on the effects of sugar on the human body. With the help of a nutritionist, a doctor, and others, Damon begins eating the Australian national average of individual daily sugar consumption – 41tsp sugar per day for 30 days. This film documents his journey, while also investigating the journey of Australian aboriginal people who recently (within the last few generations) began eating sugar, and flying to the U.S. and looking at our sugar intake compared to Australia.
Review: I like this documentary a lot, as I mentioned. Damon Gameau has an entertaining personality and makes this documentary a lot of fun. The film is interrupted by poetry read by Hugh Jackman, poetry read by Stephen Fry, and even a music video at the end. It’s made to be entertaining. Set that aside though, and I like that the film didn’t sensationalize the effects. They focused on real situations faced by real people and didn’t claim those apply to 100% of people. I also greatly liked that, in order to meet his daily sugar goal, Damon (most the time) ate “healthy” low fat foods. He didn’t just eat junk. He made an effort to eat what doctors and society pushes as healthy foods: Juice, yogurt, fruit, chicken teriyaki, etc. That really drove home that the effects he experienced weren’t from suddenly switching to junk food, but from bringing sugar back into his diet. And it wasn’t just Cane Sugar, but natural fructose from fruits as well.
I have and will continue to recommend this film to anyone looking to get healthier.
