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We have turned sugar, a biochemically harmful substance into a comfort food, using it to reward as well as cure unnecessary cravings. ’Every bite you take is either fight, disease or feeding it’.
Recently I watched ‘The sugar film” which is about one man's journey to dig deep down and discover the real truth about sugar. Damon Gameau embarks on a unique experiment to document the effects of a high sugar diet on a healthy body, which includes consuming only foods that are commonly known as 'healthy'. Damon highlights some of the issues that plague the sugar industry, and where sugar sits on supermarket shelves. ‘The sugar film’ will forever change the way you think about 'healthy' food. This made me think about the effectiveness of sugar and
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One confounding factor is that sugar is rarely consumed by itself, meaning by the spoonful. It is combined with artificial flavours, fat or starch. Which results in combinations that send the brain's pleasure centres into overdrive which starts to create the addiction. This is one fascinating area of research that I think will only continue to expand over a period of time, but one thing is clear, ‘Sugar, no matter the form whether it be agave, white sugar, brown sugar, coconut sugar is everywhere, and we are consuming unknowingly and too much of it. ” As the sugar film character Damon states, as well as health sites and New Zealand articles as well as worldwide articles we do not realise how much sugar we are intake, basically because the products many tend to go for a said to be healthy and promoted in the right ways which grabs people's attention to buy. People don't look at the sugar content which is a big problem either because they don't think of ingredients included or they basically do not care due the sugary taste which is considered delicious and is addictive. As individuals we need to take more responsibility for things like these as our health is super important and we are effecting is without knowing which cause lots of issues
Searching for Sugar Man, a 2012 documentary directed by Malik Bendjelloul, contains many documentary-type aesthetics. The film tells the tale of an American musician named Sixto Rodriguez whose music encouraged the anti-Apartheid movement in South Africa. The characters within the film are all real people based off of a real-life situation. This particular film contains many on-camera interviews in order to get that documentary type feel. The film shows interviews from a construction worker, to all of Rodriquez’s daughters. Along with these interviews are also on-screen texts used to show the history of Rodriguez. Some on-screen texts display the interviewees names or some display the date and place where Rodriguez was. In one interview, the viewer is able to see the on-screen text of “Dennis Coffey- Co-Producer of Rodriguez’s First Album ‘Cold Fact’ (1970).” This type of on-screen information gives the audience a little background information on who is being interviewed.
Lustig, Robert, Laura Schmidt, and Claire Brindis. “The Toxic Truth About Sugar.” The Norton Sampler: Short Essays for Composition. Ed. Thomas Cooley. 8th ed. New York: Norton, 2013. 284-289. Print.
Jon Gabriel explains how sugar has become an addictive drug like nicotine, the only difference is that its legal. Once we become hooked on it we become habituated to its effects and need more and more to satisfy ourselves. As a result of the increase in marketing and the on going dependence on sugary foods and beverages, children are taking in more and more sugar and obtaining less and less nutrients. According to Gentry Lasater,
The food that we as a nation consumes reflects the health and well being of the American people. We have become so accustomed to fast food and easy, unhealthy, diet choices that diseases like diabetes has become very prevalent and on the rise. One in every three Americans born after 2000 will contract early onset diabetes. In the film “Food Inc.” takes a look into a typical grocery store and reveals the illusion of variety. Most of the food in the industry leads back to corn. High fructose corn syrup, a sweetener made from corn starch, is found in many of the foods and beverages that we consume. High fructose corn syrup has been linked to metabolic diseases like obesity and diabetes. Corn has become very affordable and abundant and big food
Western peoples consume enormous per capita quantities of refined sugar because, to most people, very sweet foods taste very good. The existence of the human sweet tooth can be explained, ultimately, as an adaptation of ancestral populations to favor the ripest-and hence the sweetest-fruit. In other words, the selective pressures of times past are most strikingly revealed by the artificial, supernormal stimulus of refined sugar, despite the evidence that eating refined sugar is maladaptive.
However, the outcome was different from his desired result due to strong protest from the dairy and livestock industry, so the Congress instead urged people to buy lean meat and less fat food so the dairy and livestock industry do not go out of business. This created the fat-free boom in the market in the 1980s. However, food companies began to put more sugar in their products because the taste was bad when they reduced fat in the food. Now, the sugar intake of Americans has doubled compared with before. In the American market, there are approximately 600,000 different food products, and 80% of those include sugar. Although sugar is written in various forms and names, one suggests that it’s bad in any form, especially if taken too much. Sugar consumed naturally through fiber-rich fruit or vegetable should be fine, but the added sweeteners stimulate the hormones that increase insulin. High insulin prevents people from thinking they are full, and thus crave more food. This causes many diseases. Of course one meal high in sugar will not kill them, but the problem is that people generally exceed daily sugar intake in one meal alone when consuming process food. We eat more processed and convenient food instead of fruits, vegetables, and
In the documentary “Fed Up,” sugar is responsible for Americas rising obesity rate, which is happening even with the great stress that is set on exercise and portion control for those who are overweight. Fed Up is a film directed by Stephanie Soechtig, with Executive Producers Katie Couric and Laurie David. The filmmaker’s intent is mainly to inform people of the dangers of too much sugar, but it also talks about the fat’s in our diets and the food corporation shadiness. The filmmaker wants to educate the country on the effects of a poor diet and to open eyes to the obesity catastrophe in the United States. The main debate used is that sugar is the direct matter of obesity. Overall, I don’t believe the filmmaker’s debate was successful.
From the government, the media, and the sugar industry, he mentions the significant role of sugar in our society. He described how sugar play a role in the rise of adolescent type two diabetes from year 1980s of zero case and year 2010 of more than 50,000 cases. Citing the movie, he talks about the overwhelming political influence of the sugar lobbyist, convincing Americans to consume more sugar. He mentioned how addictive sugar in comparison to the effects of cocaine. Also, he explains how sugar consumption is greater than the sugar intake of Americans in the
Sugar is considered a toxic poison. Sugar leaches the calcium out of the skeletal frame of a human’s body. Sugar literally sucks the calcium straight from our bones; therefore it is known to many as a “skeletal poisonous powder.” There are thousands of individuals struggling throughout the United States with sugar addiction. Sugar is a leading cause of a number of health-related issues. Sugar causes health issues such as, fibromyalgia, diabetes, obesity, and osteoporosis. Like me, many individuals have no clue that they are addicted to sugar. Up until this single subject design, I thought my eating habits were quite normal. I honestly did not realize how much sugar I was taking in everyday. This single subject design has truly encouraged me to live a healthier lifestyle. The purpose of this study is to indirectly determine my sugar intake, by counting calories daily and reducing my caloric intake.
HFCS can be habit forming since it is a sweet replacement for sugar and in his article Peretti mentions that David Kessler said “sugar, through its metabolisation by the gut and hence the brain, is extremely addictive, just like cigarettes or alcohol.” People enjoy the taste and because of this they consume large quantities, which lead to health factors such as: obesity, diabetes, heart problems, infertility, liver problems, and so on. Our limited perspective may cause us to lose sight of how much of a risk HFCS possesses.... ... middle of paper ... ...
The 2012 Music Documentary Searching for Sugar Man directed by Malik Bendjelloul which is about two men in South Africa on the search for the legend of Sixto Rodriguez and to know what happened to him. In the documentary the narrative is used in a way to keep the audience in a shroud of mystery and confusion as if we too were looking for his identity alongside them. The documentary starts off with the introduction of Stephen Segerman a record shop owner who explains that in the 1970’s Rodriguez was the biggest name in South Africa who nobody knew anything about. You couldn't read anything about him or see him anywhere all people knew of him were his songs and one picture of him sitting down with glasses on the cover of his album, what people know was a rumor that Rodriguez supposedly set himself on fire during his concert.
For years doctors have been saying that refined sugars are empty calories and consist of absolutely no vitamins or minerals that people need to survive. Dentists warn that sugary foods encourage tooth decay. Many people avoid sweet food because it can lead to obesity, heart problems, diabetes and cancer. These negative responses by people’s bodies are actually warnings. Maybe people eat sugar for other reasons than the sweet taste. The human body's negative responses to sugar may be a similar purpose to the reason kids feel pain when they are playing too roughly. People’s consumption of sweet foods might also serve as a sign of defiance against their bodies’ health limitations. What many people do not realize is that their tasty treats can affect their mind and emotions.
While critics may believe Damon Gameau’s work is nothing short of amateurish, his documentary That Sugar Film presents a powerful and humorous argument. Gameau uses himself as a guinea pig where he consumes 40 teaspoons of sugar for 30 days to expose the hidden sugars in perceived ‘healthy’ foods and the health problems being caused by sugar.
We are all familiar with sugar. It is sweet, delicious, and addictive; yet only a few of us know that it is deadly. When it comes to sugar, it seems like most people are in the mind frame knowing that it could be bad for our health, but only a few are really taking the moderate amounts. In fact, as a whole population, each and everyone of us are still eating about 500 extra calories per day from sugar. Yes, that seems like an exaggerated number judging from the tiny sweet crystals we sprinkle on our coffee, but it is not. Sugar is not only present in the form of sweets and flavourings, it is hidden in all the processed foods we eat. We have heard about the dangers of eating too much fat or salt, but we know very little about the harmful effects of consuming too much sugar. There still isn’t any warnings about sugar on our food labels, nor has there been any broadcasts on the serious damages it could do to our health. It has come to my concern during my research that few
...k out of their home (Center n.d.). Modernization and development has left our working class people scrapping by to provide food for their families. To “solve” this, and increase their profits, corporations are now controlling the people’s nutritional needs. Since the development of the first sugar plantation businesses have been pumping sugar into our veins. We graciously accept this form of cheap nutrition because industrialization has left us inadequately prepared for survival in the fast paced consumer world. Simon Capewell, a professor of clinical epidemiology at the University of Liverpool sums up the issue with sugar in modern time by saying, “Sugar is the new tobacco. Everywhere, sugary drinks and junk foods are now pressed on unsuspecting parents and children by a cynical industry focused on profit not health.” (NHS Choices: Your Health, Your Choices 2014).