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Damon Gameau, Documentary Film, Film review, Food Industry, Health and wellbeing, Sugar, That Sugar Film
Sweet and deadly
Now this is a film which is right up my street, as I am enormously interested in the politics of the food industry and how it deliberately dupes us and deceives us – and even more interested in matters related to health and wellbeing.
Damon Gameau, an Australian actor and film-maker did not really tell me anything I didn’t already know (because I read a lot of books about the subject) but, my did he tell it entertainingly!
It is because this film is not just talking heads stuff by the prophets of doom that I rate it so highly. Neither does it fall into the other side trap of being all pizazz and flashy dumbed down soundbites without any reference and substance.
Instead, there is a very assured tightrope walked between giving lots of facts, having various experts talk through the science of how the body metabolises sugar, in its different forms, all accompanied by `turns’ by various luminaries, including Stephen Fry, giving us some of the scientific information in a more engaging and witty way.
There is even, I kid you not, a star turn rock star number with Gameau as a kind of Presley/Alvin Stardust/Rocky Horror combo sugar devil in an outrageous pink jumpsuit leering seductively at a group of babes dunking themselves in chocolate mousse! This by the way is Gameau at the end of his 60 day 40 teaspoons of the stuff ‘normal Australian sugar consumption’.
Behind all the fun `sweeteners’ though, is a shocking story (one we DO know, though, it seems, ignore) Gameau engages in a particularly shocking experiment to show the devastating effects of sugar.
Gameau’s diet had been completely sugar free for three years, and he had not drunk alcohol for about ten years. He ate a particularly healthy, wholefood diet. At the start of the film he is clearly someone glowing with vitality and energy, and when tested by nutritionists and medics, was pronounced extremely healthy, with no markers for fatty liver, heart problems, or raised blood lipid levels and the like.
The `experiment’ was that for 60 days he would keep to the same calorific intake, – normally most of his calories came from healthy fats, protein and complex carbohydrates – but would consume the amount of sugar and hidden sugar (processed foods) eaten and drunk by the average Australian – 40 teaspoons a day. But he would not do this by consuming junk food, instead, it would be by the consumption of food wrongly supposed to be `healthy’ – for example, fruit juice, smoothies, `high energy’ muesli bars and the like.
Part of the lie we have been fed is that ‘calorie control’ is where it’s at – but calories from different food sources do not metabolise the same way – the calories in sugar behave differently in the body than the calories in fat and protein
By 18 days in, this vibrant trim man was looking more than a little pasty and jaded, puffy around the eyes, which had lost their sparkle. His skin and hair looked dull, he was visibly developing a paunch. He was also suffering mood swings. Part of the brief for the experiment was that he would keep up his normal good exercise patterns. The `normal sugar consumption of the average Australian’ diet was eating into his energy, creating those sugar rush manic surges followed quickly by listless slumps and the inevitable (cocaine like) cravings for more of that white death stuff. He was finding it hard to exercise, as he lacked the energy.
Even more alarmingly his liver was showing signs of damage after 18 days – liver cells dying, releasing their contents, becoming cirrhotic, the signs of fatty liver disease. Fortunately, at the end of the 60 days, and the resumption of his old, healthy diet, all the bad effects had gone after a couple of months, though Gameau did say that the first week of cutting out the addictive sugar (it affects brain chemistry and hits the `reward’ centre of the brain and its neurochemistry exactly like cocaine) was pretty tough, and he certainly had `cold turkey’ symptoms
If Gameau and the visible evidence of the shocking changes sugar produced on him are not enough to make spoon on its way to sugar dish pause, there is the heartbreaking 26 tooth extraction on a Kentucky boy, just shy of his 18th birthday, caused primarily by a variant of Pepsi called Mountain Dew, which he had imbibed since he was 3.
Also explored tellingly in this film are the obvious parallels between big tobacco and the sugar industry. Just as the tobacco companies leaned muscle and spurious science funding scientists to do research to deliver skewed results to disprove links between smoking and disease, so the sugar industry does exactly the same.
This is a wonderful, hard hitting film, delivering its punches of fact wrapped nicely in a ….lethal candy coating. `Sweet,’ being so much linked to pleasure and reward, is hard wired in our brains BECAUSE in nature readily available fructose , is RARE, so we are programmed to want it, and respond to it, as a useful source of energy which can be stored as a long term energy resource, as fat. The problem for us of course being that now, fructose is readily available and what was an evolutionary advantage is now the sweet kiss of death.
I have one disappointment – little mention is made about artificial sweeteners, which carry as many, and in some cases, MORE problems associated with their use. Sweeteners, and the perfidious ubiquitousness of THEIR presence, as food manufacturers respond to and create new possibilities for our desire for that sweet taste, are every bit as dangerous. Many, for reasons of weight control, have got as far as checking the labels and avoiding sugar in their processed food and drink, but are surrendering to the hugely profitable diet industry and ‘going diet food’. There have been plenty of studies about the artificials, but, again, these are not hugely funded because the funders are those big, powerful, vested interest concerns who of course are not going to be giving money to researchers to prove that their products are dangerous! A little mention is made of sweeteners in the Extras section of the DVD, but the lack of much information is likely to just see the sugarholics switch to sacchaholic behaviour, in the belief they might be sparing themselves from the dangers of fructose consumption. Not so
Bravo to Gameau, making such a brilliant documentary
He also authored a companion book, That Sugar Book, where a lot of the research 
studies are cited
That Sugar Book Amazon UK
That Sugar Book Amazon USA
I received the DVD as a review copy, from the Amazon Vine programme, UK. It will be released for sale on 27th July in the UK. A visit to Amazon USA site shows it is unavailable to view/buy. It probably just means that video rights have not yet been negotiated, but I smelt a conspiracy around the evil empire of sugar. Well, they suppressed studies showing the perfidious nature of the stuff, so surely, an indie film is small fry to them.
Lady Fancifull 
As a diabetic, sugar is basically poison. So I can empathise with this a lot, and I get really angry about all the so-called healthy foods absolutely riddled with the stuff. Well done that man!
Yes. It’s an excellent film. It annoys me hugely how the food industry pulls wool over our eyes quite deliberately. I pretty well distrust processed food. At times it seems as if a degree in rocket science is required to understand labelling, and I find the easiest method is to either buy items where you know what they are ‘oh, look, its a tomato!’ or, if it is in a packet/tin/prepared form, read the label and if there are ingredients you don’t recognise the common name of, avoid. Even though I am pretty health aware and don’t eat lo-fat, lo-sugar and all the rest, because it will invariably mean something unpleasant is in there, I was amazed by the sheer quantity of sugar in some of the stuff which isn’t ‘junk’
I must admit my juicer is packed in the back of the cupboard. It was never hugely used, but the difference between eating the fruit, the whole fruit and nothing but the whole fruit, and drinking the juice, is quite alarming!
Yeah, fruit juice is one of the biggest myths plus breakfast cereal. Porridge and unsweetened soy milk for me….
I must admit I am a huge whole fruit eater however. Not juice though. Curiously (we all have different metabolisms, I guess) a big bowl of fresh fruit keeps me going longer than porridge and soy milk, which doesn’t quite make sense to me! I guess (well I hope) that it is the enormous quantity of fibre in that fruit which slows down the sugar release. Porridge is for the coldest of days in this house.
40 teaspoons a DAY? That is truly shocking.
I know. And I wouldn’t have thought it was much different in either the UK or the States – it’s the sugars which are hidden which we are unaware of. It’s probably only those who are already diabetic or passionately committed personally or professionally to healthy eating in order to avoid diet related illness who are really paying attention to the detail. I found it interesting also to realise that you could look quite slim on the outside and yet have visceral fat on the inside. Within such a short space of time as 18 days on that ‘average’ sugar consumption diet that had happened to Gameau. Brave man to do it, though i do assume he had investigated first whether the dangerous changes could be quickly reversed!
Very interesting blog post. I started cutting down on sugar a decade ago. The last thing to go was sugar in my coffee. Then I discovered that I was gluten sensitive. Between those changes, I lost 30 pounds over those years. My daughters are leading the healthy food and Harry is finally getting on board. Thank you for posting this!
You’re welcome Susan. I’ve recently been in a bit of a ding-dong on a review with a supplier of a ‘healthy’ supplement which is laced with artificial sweetener. We are both citing studies at each other, but his study, predictably, was funded by a company who produces/has the patent on the sweetener! As many such studies which ‘prove’ safety, are.
Figures Don’t Lie, But Liars Do Figure. I am convinced that the medical community killed my dad. He was diabetic, and they counseled him to eat a low-fat diet and use artificial sweetening. I tried to talk to him and my mother and it all fell on deaf ears.
I’m so sorry, Susan. There is always a human story behind statistics
Thank you. Too many people listen to their doctors instead of their common sense.
To be fair to GPs, if increasingly that long training is all geared to pharmacology, and much research is funded by the drug companies, under the guise of ‘rigorous (sic) scientific trials’ how are doctors to get information when if you read almost any studies. there will be other studies contradicting their findings, and it will often not turn out till years later that studies may have been skewed to give the desired (by those funding the studies), results. And of course those who wield largest amounts of capital will be able to have best control on how information gets disseminated.
I
Gosh, I feel kinda bad about that doughnut now! 😉
Heh heh, sweetie!
This reminds me of the movie, Supersize Me, where the subject ate nothing but McDonalds three meals a day for a month, and if the clerk asked him if he wanted a “supersize” meal, he had pledged to eat it. Oh my. By the end of the film, I think the guy had put on 30 pounds and felt ill most of the time. His doctor advised him to stop. Horrifying. And now this. Horrifying, but not surprising. I avoid most sugar unless its’ in the form of whole, raw fruit. A teaspoon in my tea or coffee in the morning. And I eat very little processed food. I don’t go for the smoothies, juices, or “health bars.” The alcohol, though, does get through the defense system. But not often. 😀
It is quite extraordinary to think how capitalism exploits biology! In terms of how evolution developed a certain way so that we strongly respond to the presence of certain compounds and will actively seek them out because they might be quite hard to get hold of, and are enormously useful because of that. Then, once we find a way to make them abundant what was a plus in terms of health, becomes a minus, but a plus for the food industry