The Australian Damon Gameau, with buckets of Australian humour and irrelevance, pulls a Morgan Spurlock of Super Size Me fame, but instead of going on a whole diet of McD's like Spurlock, he goes on a "healthy" sugar based diet and the results are shocking. Let's dig in...
Damon Gameau is a very smart man. He knows people don't love documentaries, so how do you make them watch something they normally wouldn't? Make it funny as hell and innovative. Man is That Sugar Film funny, from cameos by Hugh Jackman and Stephen Fry to crazy laugh out loud re-enactments, to the clever use of graphics and CGI, Gameau does not cut corners.
You would think a documentary as funny as this may be distracting but no, as Damon's diet of juice, granola bars, yogurts, energy drinks and all the "fat free" food continues, we not only get a physical manifestation of how bad processed sugar is, but we can also see its damage on his eternal organs and emotional state.
Yes, sugar has a major impact on our emotions, turning us into mini bipolar people when the sugar spike drops.
Damon does not even hold punches, showcasing how sugar is damaging to societies that have never had processed sugar in their diets, in this case the Australian Aborigines, which explains a lot about our high diabetes, hypertension and weight problems we have in SA. It really is scary. Even the notion of how calories work is re-examined and Damon is our guinea pig - we see it all on him.
Basically Gameau's documentary shows that we as a society are consuming too much processed sugar. The worst part is, we give it to our kids like it's nothing. While processed sugar has the same effect on our liver as alcohol, it's as addictive as heroin, alters our moods badly and keeps us forever eating, creating excess fat in our bodies 'cause processed sugar inhibits the body from consuming fat.
We as a society have been duped and we are so complicit in staying in our ignorance 'cause chocolate is better than sex for some, we love sweet stuff and we've got to have that fizzy drink. We are like smokers in the 30's and 40's who in the 70's and 80's had to learn the hard way about how bad smoking is - now we don't even smoke around kids.
The documentary is fun and light, but does tackle issues without being pedantic. It shows how we've been scared of fat and put sugar in almost everything. If you are a parent or someone who really values their health, you need to watch this movie, it could literally change your life.
I for example have drastically cut down on my processed sugar intake and am planning on cutting down even more and I can tell you the results speak for themselves. Or you can go watch this and just have a ball at the cinema.
Rating *****
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
* Junk ** Only If theres nothing better *** Now we cooking **** Almost Perfect ***** Instant Classic