#The sugar story documentary how to#
#The sugar story documentary plus#

The handling of the dietary experiment doesn’t vary all that much from Spurlock’s overall approach as Gameau prepares to spend two months ingesting 40 teaspoons of sugar a day-what the average Australian takes in. It’s all very cute, but if you want sugar-drenched whimsy, why not indulge in “Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory” instead? Gameau himself also shows a penchant for walking about in neon yellow or orange underpants during his medical check-ups. An unbilled Hugh Jackman does some hocus pocus with visual aids concocted with sugar granules on a lit-up podium to illustrate the history of the substance.ĭid you know Queen Elizabeth I was a sugar fiend whose teeth rotted and turned black? Well, now you do. Brit wit Stephen Fry elucidates the difference between glucose, lactose, sucrose and fructose in rhyme. Pop songs such as Depeche Mode’s “Just Can’t Get Enough” add a bouncy component. Talking heads show up on food labels, street signs and Times Square billboards. Gameau occasionally shrinks himself down to Ant-Man size, at one point hanging by a rope from his own nose before traveling through his body “Fantastic Voyage”-style. That may be why the initially wiry Gameau, a 30-something-ish cross between comic Russell Brand and Bret McKenzie of 'Flight of the Conchords,' feels the need to jazz up matters in a rather fanciful and intermittently entertaining fashion. The formerly fit Spurlock would gain 24 pounds, see his body mass index and cholesterol levels soar, suffer from mood swings and lethargy, and accumulate fat in his liver.Ī decade later, much of the shock value has dissipated from observing such a nutritionally induced sideshow.

Whether or not the doc also raised awareness among the general public about how such chains contribute to the country’s obesity crisis is another question.īut “Super Size Me” also trafficked in a less edifying kind of carny cinema: Ladies and gentlemen, come watch a man try to eat himself to death. The popular expose could have possibly been one of the factors that led Mickey D’s to eventually add a few healthier alternatives to its menu. 'This book will have you sprinting away from sugar faster than Usain Bolt in a 100m race.' Courier Mailįans of Sarah Wilson and David Gillespie will love That Sugar Book.Back in 2004, the idea that a filmmaker would risk his own well-being by voluntarily only eating garbage for an entire month was quite novel.

#The sugar story documentary plus#

Released in conjunction with That Sugar Film, the book contains all the information from the film plus the wonderful bits they were forced to leave out.

#The sugar story documentary how to#

In also contains sensible advice on kicking the habit, foods to avoid, how to shop, how to read labels and how to cook sugar-free food, with the help of over thirty delicious, nurturing and easily prepared recipes. That Sugar Book follows Damon on his journey and blows the lid on how the food industries make and sell our food, and how they are complicit in, and indeed determined to, maintain the status quo on the world's alarming and health-destroying sugar consumption. He discovered that 80 per cent of products on our supermarket shelves contain sugar, and that 5.5 million Australians have fatty liver disease directly linked to their sugar consumption. He interviewed food manufacturers, health experts and large-scale consumers of the white stuff. His journey took him not just down a path to ill health, but to outback Australia and to the backblocks of the USA. Doctors who monitored his health throughout warned him that he was on the road to obesity, diabetes and heart disease.

Within a couple of weeks, he had the beginnings of fatty liver disease. Although his caloric intake was the same as his regular diet, he put on nearly 9 kilograms in 60 days. Crucially, he would only consume perceived 'healthy' foods like muesli bars, breakfast cereals, low-fat yoghurts, juices and smoothies. He would eat 40 teaspoons of sugar a day for 60 days. He was also very curious: why did the elimination of sugar have such beneficial effects on his health and wellbeing? He decided to experiment and film the results. In no time he was slimmer, calmer, fitter and happier. When Australian actor and filmmaker Damon Gameau met a girl he was keen to impress he decided to get healthy by dramatically reducing his sugar intake. Fun, feisty and fired up, That Sugar Book is set to change the eating habits of a generation.