That Sugar Film – My Geeky Review

Last night I watched That Sugar Film and I wanted to share with you my notes. You may know I’m a bit of a food documentary geek. I think they’re brilliantly produced and the experts that are interviewed are leading experts in nutrition and health. You may have seen a while back, my article called Sugar, Grains and Cocaine. It explains the addictive properties of sugar.

Fed Up is a great documentary on the effects of sugar and this is equally as good.  In this one, the writer and director is Australian-born David Gameau. He was sugar-free for 3 years and wanted to find out what would happen if he reintroduced sugar into his life for 60 days. It was a risky little game. The effects were staggering though and I cannot recommend watching this film enough.

David went on a diet and reintroduced to his diet 40 teaspoons of sugar per day. He wasn’t allowed to have this from the usual suspects including sweets and chocolates and desserts. It was in the form of hidden sugars – from the likes of breakfast cereals, low fat flavoured yogurts, processed foods, fruit drinks, fizzy drinks and even fresh fruit juicing. Initially the idea of consuming 40 teaspoons of sugar a day seemed high and dangerous. What he found out was that it was extremely easy to reach this quota – and at breakfast alone he was almost there. All he had to do was have a “healthy” breakfast cereal, a flavoured yogurt and an orange juice made from concentrate and he was on his way to reaching his quota.

Remember your fat storing hormone is insulin and sugar and high GI carbs trigger insulin secretion. Consistent exposure to high levels of insulin is what leads to insulin resistance and type-2 diabetes and also type-3 diabetes (aka Alzkeimer’s). It’s called that because exactly the same chain of events that leads to type-2 diabetes also leads to Alzheimer’s. And Type 2 diabetes used to be called Adult Onset Diabetes but since kids are now diagnosed with it, the name was changed to accommodate them. Can you believe this?

Back to sugar. In the 1970s and 80s we saw the introduction of the ‘low fat’ diet as it was believed that eating fat made you fat and caused heart attacks. This has been debunked now as I hope you know. Healthy fat does not trigger your hormone insulin whereas sugar does. And so do high GI carbohydrates. The fat content was replaced with sugar to make up for the lack of flavour and the soft drinks business rocketed. The case of type-2 diabetes and obesity has spiralled out of control.

Beforehand, his diet comprised 50% healthy fats, 26% proteins, 24% carbohydrates. This included no refined sugar.

Here is what David found when he introduced sugar to his diet:

• Fuzzy brain within days. He was unable to think properly so his focus and concentration suffered.
• He became anxious, irritable and scatty.
• Sugar cravings increased the more sugar he consumed.
• His ALT hormone (liver function hormone) fell 20 below to 20 above within 60 days. This indicates fatty liver and is dangerous.
• Fatty liver is the first step towards insulin resistance which leads to type-2 diabetes.
• Triglycerides (fat cells in blood) went from 0.08 to 1.5 and indicates high risk.
• His LDL cholesterol switched from healthy cholesterol to deadly small, dense LDL, and meant a build up of plaque in his arteries. This lines you up for heart disease.
• This was 2 months of “healthy eating.”
• He increased his body fay percentage by 7%.
• He gained 8.5kg in body fat.
• 10cm increase around his waist indicating visceral fat increase (visceral is the fat that surrounds your vital organs – very dangerous).
• His skin got considerably worse.
• His caloric intake hardly changed at all. THIS IS SO IMPORTANT TO KNOW!! This is why counting calories does not work. You can be consuming a low calorie diet and tons of sugar and it’s sugar and excessive high GI carbs (which turn into sugar in the body) that cause all the harm.
• When he removed sugar from his diet again, the first week was like giving up cigarettes – it’s that addictive. After a week, the cravings disappeared.
• 2 months after removing sugar from his diet, his vitality returned and his energy was back
• He went back to eating lots of healthy fats, proteins, and fresh vegetables and fruits and kept high GI carb intake to a minimum.
• His mood swings disappeared
• Blood tests returned to normal after 2 months sugar-free
• It took a while for his pallet to readjust and not crave sugar but it went back to craving healthy vegetables and fruits and wholesome, nutritious food.
• A quote I loved hearing at the end was this to parents: “Do whatever you can to make vegetables and fruits the highlight of your children’s diet. Make it so they don’t have blood sugar spikes so they can focus and be the creation of genius.” This is so awesome because it emphasises the point about how sugar severely impacts the learning ability of your children and also triggers ADHD and ADD. The same goes if you’re an adult. Sugar and high GI carbs trigger mood swings, high levels of stress and make it very hard to concentrate.
• The reviews and reports that stated that sugar was not linked to metabolic disease of any kind was funded by the sugar industry and were used by the government. Scientists were paid by the sugar industry to create results that favoured the sugar industry.

If you’d like to learn more about the effects of sugar and how our conventionally healthy diet is harming us, I’m releasing my next book, The Vitality Secret, at the end of the month.

Hit this link for details