Fed Up Documentary Analysis

FED UP

In the US from since the turn of the century, obesity has been a rising and very serious issue. In the 1980’s, western culture experienced a fitness surge, and the major food corporations began producing new products that were “fat free”, but the issue was fat free food did not taste as good so people would not buy it. To compensate the taste, the food companies replaced the fat with sugar.
I decided to watch the documentary FED UP by Stephanie Soechtig because nothing about the issue of obesity is in any way controversial or debatable. The Issue of obesity is a problem that is creeping up on us and most people don’t even know it. I knew that I could watch this documentary because it was based 100% on facts. The obesity epidemic

has had become a big problem in the US especially among the children. 17% of children in 2012 were obese and that is almost 1 out of every 5 people. The obesity epidemic has gotten so bad that this next generation is the first one that is projected to live shorter than the previous one.
The documentary “FED UP” by Stephanie Soechtig brings light to the new sugar substitution issue.

This documentary was one of the more informative documentaries that i have seen, it hit the audience with the cold hard facts. First it talked about how the obesity epidemic was kickstarted. The first dietary guidelines released by the us government basically condoned adding unlimited amounts of sugar to children's foods and as a result, children have faced impaired health and become fatter. “FED UP” also follows the struggles of three children faced with childhood obesity. The first one was a 15 year old girl who was self conscious about her appearance, and tried to be more physically active to. The next was a 14 year old boy named Brady who was also plagued with the obesity but Brady tried to implement new diets to combat his problem. The last was a boy who weighed 400 pounds, his strategy to solve his problem was to have 10,000 dollar surgery performed on himself. After the audience met the victims of this epidemic, the documentary showed us the roots of childhood obesity, the school cafeteria. The documentary showed how in a cafeteria the requirement for vegetables could be met by pizza because the us government classified pizza as a vegetable. The food in the lunchroom was full of added sugar which drew the kids to those foods because not only did they taste better, they also got the kids hooked because the sugar added in the food made the sugary food addictive, so the kids

couldn't help going for those foods. The documentary did a good job bring light to obesity epidemic.
As for affect on society, If every human watched this documentary, they would probably shocked at how bad sugar really is for you and want to change their eating habits. The reality is though, most people would not make permanent changes in their diet just by watching this documentary. It is just too easy to eat a sugary diet in our society when sugar is all around us. The sugary products taste better than the non sugary ones, and they are more addictive making you subconsciously want them more. Between the bright packaging, sweet taste, and addictive qualities, I don't think this documentary has enough steam to put a stop to obesity but it is a step in the right direction. So give it a few more years and more attention, and the huge problem of childhood obesity just may be tackled like the problem of cigarettes, Only time can tell.