Make room for another documentary about the obesity epidemic. In Fed Up, narrator Katie Couric walks viewers through history to explain why so many Americans are overweight.
In addition to featuring numerous interviews with professors, politicians and doctors, Fed Up chronicles the lifestyles of a few students. The students provide testimonials in between clips of them at home, school and doctor appointments.
In 1977, when a government report was released encouraging the food industry to manufacture food with less fat, food manufacturers responded by decreasing calories and increasing sugar. I like one doctor’s approach to explaining how consuming sugar affects our metabolism. “You can eat a bowl of Corn Flakes with no added sugar or you can eat a bowl of sugar with added Corn Flakes,” he says. “They might taste different, but below the neck, they’re metabolically the same.”