Review of Fed Up (2014) by Manny C — 06 Jun 2014

Zombies and vampires are nothing compared to the horrors of Fed Up. Big Sugar is a weapon even Godzilla couldn't smash. In this take-no-prisoners documentary, executive producer Laurie David, a crucial force behind the Oscar-winning An Inconvenient Truth, teams with director Stephanie Soechtig and narrator Katie Couric to tell the unsavory truth about America's obesity epidemic.

It's not pretty. Since 1980, Americans have doubled our intake of sugar, seen a huge increase in Type II diabetes and seen overweight children go from outliers to the depressing norm, all thanks to processed foods.

Fed Up isn't out to sermonize, it's trying to serve as a wake-up call. The film makes clear in stark terms from interviews with dieticians, doctors and even President Bill Clinton, that exercise is hardly a cure-all.

Few workouts, even the regimens under First Lady Michelle Obama's 'Let's Move' program, actually get at the root of the problem---that exercise is essentially useless your food habits change as well.

It also tears apart the myths of low-fat foods. Here's a secret: when something says it has little to no fat content, that pretty much means its sugar serving has been increased so as to preserve its flavor and keep customers addicted.

Why is all this happening? Start with a greedy collusion between the federal government and the food industry. As long as there are fat profits to be made, political influence goes a long way, meaning processed foods and ever expanding waistlines will be the norm unless we all stand up and say 'no more'.

Fed Up is definitely pissed off, unbothered by its often abrasive mode of attack. Its inspiring to see such rare muckraking in this world full of complacency. The filmmakers wisely keep much of their focus on children who are the majority of victims of this deplorable system.

Fed Up is rearing up to make a change. Futile and naïve? Possibly, but who cares. Film has the potential to change things, even today (just look at last year's Blackfish and The Act of Killing). It's a movie that matters and gives a damn.

That's worth applauding.