That Sugar Film: A Review

Published 6.10.2016

So I couldn't find anything to watch on television this past weekend and started scrolling through the video options online. The result is this review of That Sugar Film from 2014.

That Sugar Film follows the same basic script as Morgan Spurlock's film, Super Size Me.Supersize Me's target was McDonald's, sugar, of course, is that target here. I watched the movie on Amazon this past week end. What follows are my comments about the film.

Before starting my comments I will note my biases upfront. I'm not any sort of medical professional, and I do not think sugar is inherently harmful. Nor do I think that it is addictive. I think ingesting excessive sugar isn't a good idea, however, I think ingesting an excess of anything is not a good idea.

As noted above, this is a stunt film in which Damon Gameau, an Australian, decided to ear 40 grams of added sugar a day for two months and measure the change in his health. He claims the inspiration for this idiocy, beyond making a buck off the current anti-sugar fad— is the impending birth of his first child. He wants to truly understand how sugar affects the body.

He had already altered his eating pattern from his youth to a more healthy one. He was eating a fairly high fat diet 50% (of “healthy” fats) and 24% carbs — but "no added sugar." The 26% protein content of his diet is also fairly high. Basically, it sounds like he was eating some variety of "paleo" diet.

For 40 days, he's going to eat a bunch of processed "healthy" foods with added sugars that total to 40g each day. He never gives any calorie information about the diet, and given that he packs on pounds while eating it, I think he was eating more calories than he did prior to the stunt.

Sciency Padding

There are "sciencey" interludes in the film, the first purports to explain the different types of sugar found in foods (mostly processed). Fructose gets bashed, including the fructose in fruit— which even Robert Lustig doesn't do. The fructose in fruit comes packaged with fiber and other nutrients. Lumping fruit with added sugars in ultra-processed foods is intellectually dishonest— at best. At worst, it reveals that you've swallowed the recently falsified Gary Taubes theory of obesity.

It’s not news that processed foods have a lot of added sugar. And yes, remove the fiber, and you can eat more “fructose” People don’t eat 6 apples in a row, but they can eat the equivalent amount of sugar in a single serving of ultra-processed food (and just the types typically denoted “junk”). Again, there is no news here.

Weigh in

Day 12 was the first weigh in, he put on weight. And the weight he puts on is near his abdomen. His ALT levels in his blood test (a measure of liver enzymes) are rising, which means his liver is getting fat— n 3 weeks (18 days). Part of the problem is that he’s DRINKING his sugar. I think this could have been done without the sugary drinks. Which I at least don’t consider healthy.

At this point, he basically goes all Taubesean on our asses, then Taubes himself speaks, spewing his usual spiel. Lately Gary isn’t anti carbohydrates so much as anti-sugar. At least the film acknowledges that the brain runs on glucose.

And apparently Gameau gets a sugar high, which they actually compare to bipolar— which almost caused me to close the window on the video. However, having already started notes for this write up, on I suffered.

A number of standard points are made. Most native people exposed to ultra-processed foods 1) like and eat it over their traditional diets and 2) develop obesity and other previously unknown (in their population) health issues. These facts do not prove that the causative factor is added sugar, but why let facts destroy a good story?

Gameau puts on 5kg in a month (roughly 10 lbs), and finally admits that, YES, he has been eating a larger number of calories (mostly by drinking them) than before the stunt. Again, it's not news (or shouldn't be) that liquid calories are not as satiating as calories from food. One of the easier things to change if you're looking to cut calories from your daily total is liquid calories.

He is putting all the blame on sugar, but the real issues are eating processed foods (with little fiber) and sweetened liquids.

Bottom line

This film is unoriginal and, at times, scientifically incorrect in its presentation. It's not an exploration of the topic, it's a presentation of a point of view. As such, it's not worth the time I devoted to watching it, or writing it up. That's a pretty sad statement, but there it is.

Off to the US

So Gameau heads off into the belly of the sugar beast, the US. Where he says, it's hard to stay under 40g of added sugar a day, so packed with it is our food. Again, skip the fizzy sugar water and fruit juice, and I think this is not the case— EVEN if you still choose to eat ultra-processed solid foods.

Taubes shows up again, saying nothing new. He heads to Kentucky where he films some absolutely terrible parenting. A Kentucky mom puts Mountain Dew is a bottle for her 3 year old. WTF? You can’t fix stupid.

The trip to the US allows him to discuss the "bliss point" which was first discovered by US food scientists. The bliss point is the point beyond which more sugar destroys the taste (for most people) The bliss point also depends on fat and salt content in the food.

Excess intake of sugar (really of food) affects liver function, which has downstream effects, including for the skin.

Now suddenly, at around the halfway point in the film, he claims that, "as best he can determine," he's been eating at a calorie intake equal to his pre-stunt level. This statement is obviously false as he's been packing on kilos from the get-go, and it also contradicts his earlier admission that he was eating more.

Eventually he talks to John Sievenpiper who doesn't think that sugar is "teh debil," but Gameau makes sure (unlike with Taubes or any of the other anti-sugar speakers) to note that Sievenpiper has accepted funding from soda companies.

In the end, he stops eating a stupid stunt diet, does back to eating the way he had been and his body recovers. All of his blood work returns to normal and he loses the weight that he packed on. Although, he does admit that his body had adapted to the stunt diet over a few weeks. His sugar highs and other reactions has stopped. All of which I mention because one of my favorite sayings is

The body adapts until it cannot.

The human body is able to survive on a wide variety or diets. Bodily function might not be optimal on a given diet, but all that is really required is survival and reproduction. The body will adapt to any way of eating that permits those two things.

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