I have always known that documentaries, of any genre or topic, have the possibility for bias. Generally, documentary crews have a topic they are passionate about and find people to support their argument, and some documentaries are better than others about acknowledging the counterarguments. In the past week, I watched three food documentaries: “Sugar Coated,” “GMO OMG,” and “Fed Up.” I learned a lot about the food industry, some things I really didn’t want to know, but it wasn’t all negative. Here are the major takeaways I learned while watching these films.
1. Big companies and corporations spend a lot of money to persuade the mind of the consumer.
This happens in multiple ways. On top of mass amounts of advertising, big companies also fund many research studies to show customers that their products are not unhealthy. Some companies and corporations also spend a large chunk of money in the political arena to alter the food and health information that is released to the public. Now, this isn’t to say that every company does that, and this isn’t to say that companies always harbor malicious intent while doing so. Unfortunately when there are blurry facts, everything is open to the interpretation of the consumer.
2. Sugar (in excess) most definitely is bad for you.
Now you’re probably thinking that anything in excess can be bad for you, which I completely agree with. The thing about sugar that most people don’t realize is that Americans consume more than triple the amount of sugar they are supposed to on a daily basis. There are two general reasons this happens: nobody knows how much sugar they are supposed to intake daily and many processed products have deceitful labeling. You would assume a box of cookies that says “no sugar added” would have no sugar added, but that’s not the case. Sugar is masked behind many different names on nutritional labels and ingredient lists. Whether you want to believe it or not, this excess sugar intake of the average American can be linked to heart diseases, Diabetes, etc.
3. All calories are not created equal.
This one is pretty self-explanatory. The calories you get from drinking a can of Coke are very different than the calories you get eating a piece of fruit. Even if they have the same number of calories, they process in your body differently. Products with too much sugar, like sodas, overload your liver -- causing it to turn those sugars immediately into fat. For me, drinking a soda is not worth it.
4. There are other options.
After watching multiple food documentaries you start to feel hopeless like there is nothing safe for you to eat anymore. The problem that most Americans, including myself prior to this summer, have is that we aren’t properly informed. I’m not saying you should get all your information from food documentaries, but you should do your own research. Google the things you’re unsure about. Buy a health book from the bookstore. There are many ways to get informed about the food you’re eating; granted, some of it is going to be harder to find than others. Buying organic food isn’t just a fad. When you avoid putting unwanted chemicals into your body, it’s actually much better for you. Even looking at the nutrition labels for amounts of sugar and fat will help you.
5. Consumers deserve to know more than they do.
I saw this as a common theme throughout the documentaries I watched. In “GMO OMG” they asked people on the streets if they were eating GMOs, and most people had no idea what they even were. While today, most people know what a GMO is, or at least what it stands for, we don't know the high amount of GMOs that we consume. When the creator of that documentary was doing his research, he had trouble finding any studies about the health effects of GMOs to the human body. And when he found one brand new study that came out while he was filming, big companies attacked it soon after. That seems a little ridiculous to me. If over 80 percent of the food I eat has the potential to be genetically modified, I want to know if there are health risks associated with that. Why is it so difficult to find out what I’m really eating?
Hopefully, I don’t come off as some conspiracy theorist. I’m just fascinated by the food industry and the incredible power they have. I think everyone deserves to know what they’re putting in their bodies. So if this is a topic that interests you, or you’ve ever even wondered about it, I urge you to do some research of your own. You’ll be fascinated by what you find.