That Sugar Film

Soldato
Joined
12 Jun 2008
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3,011
Watched this today on a flight back to the UK, and really opened my eyes to the amount of sugar we consume ever day.

I'm going to try and cut back the amount I have in my diet, but was wondering if any of you fine cooks had some advice for decent tasting meals with minimal added sugar or know any recipes/tips/tricks that will help out.

Cheers :)
 
Yep, the one which always gets me, is in 1822 Americans consumed just 9g of refined sugar a day, in 2013 that is now 153g a day
Most recipes don't have added sugar. And ones that do I just generally leave out. Thai food is not as good without sugar but it's still good, just have to get used to a more sour palate.

It would be nice to see the non refined sugar content, I bet that's shot up as well, but I can't find figures on it. Most of the goodness of fruit and veg has been bread out, sour flavours which are the product of extremely beneficial compounds have been bread out, while in fruit sugar has been bread in. Combined with nutrient lacking soil and veg and fruit is significantly nutritionally poorer these days.

If you di eat a lot if sugar/crabs you'll find that you'll struggle the first few days, then you get less hunger attacks. as blood sugars aren't on a rollercoaster ride. Unfortunately I find it only takes 1 day of eating crap to struggle again. 1 meal seems to be the limit
 
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Most of the good ess if fruit and veg has been bread out, sour flavours which are the product of extremely beneficial compounds have been bread out, while in fruit sugar has been bread in. Combined with nutrient lacking soil and veg and fruit is significantly nutritionally poorer these days.

If you di eat a lot if sugar/crabs you'll find that you'll struggle the first few days, then you get less hunger attacks. as blood sugars aren't on a rollercoaster ride. Unfortunately I find it only takes 1 day of eating crap to struggle again. 1 meal seems to be the limit

This is something i also wasn't aware of, i'd taken for granted up to this point that my diet was pretty healthy but on closer inspection i can definitely do better.

I've found a few recipes this week to get me started, and have just done the weeks shop which was mostly stuff with little/no added sugar and a load of veg. Will see how i get on, today has been ok but i can imagine the next few days getting a bit tough.

If anyone else is interested, then: http://thatsugarfilm.com :)
 
Sugar keeps us all unhealthy, docile and addicted to pharmaceuticals. Some might say it was planned.

Shove your face with sugar and junk. Watch crap on TV and look at Facebook many hours of the day. Look at the shiny shiny.

Sorry I'm having a cynical day.
 
Very cynical.
It's cheap and it tastes good.
Real culprit is the war against fat and saturated when there was no scientific evidence and even know it's rather lacking. It means manufacturers replaced natural fats with substitutes, sugar being one. It's like low far biscuits that have more calories than the normal ones.
 
Yep defo sugar and complex carbs are the main cause of all the problems with food related health. As well as drinking calories thats just a bad idea.
 
Just means cook yourself and do not use the pre done jars as they are full of sugar. You also need to check as sugar comes in many different names on labels. Buy whole fat version of items as the low fat usually means added sufar
 
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Salt-Sugar-...=salt+sugar+fat+how+the+food+giants+hooked+us

I can't recommend that book enough, a very interesting history of the big food companies and how they have used sugar particularly when coming under attack about salt and fat. It changed my eating habits and made me have a hard look at the amount of sugar I had been consuming. In a month of cutting out really unnecessary sugars and just having a treat on a saturday I felt so much better, my trousers fit as they should again and I stopped sugar crashing.

The cereal aisle, cereal bars etc are terrible. We initially had a real hard job getting < 5% sugar things to eat in the morning. Some of the stuff you pick up that they market as being healthy that have 20-30% sugar are astounding. Or dried fruits with 70% or more sugar.

Or the kids stuff they market as being made with fruit concentrate, which is just another processed sugar.

The other problem for me was work, people always bring in biscuits or cake. Every single day. I cut that out and it's made a huge difference too. Now I sit there tutting like a reformed smoker :D
 
Tucking into a giant sticky bun after my bread and jam, washed down down with a a bug glass of fresh apple juice. If you are worried about sugar and carbs you aren't exercising enough.
 
What a stupid statement but Im sure you already knew that.

it is perfectly reasonable statement. People fail to take a holistic view of their entire diet, exercise and lifestyle into account and are always looking for something or someone to blame, or a quick fix solution. The fad now is to brandish carbs and sugar as evil while proclaiming everyone was wrong about fat, while completely failing to realize they are making the exact same mistake with carbs.

If people exercised more they would get much fitter and healthier and could worry far less about their diet. Carbs are fantastic for you, a critical part of a healthy balanced diet, and sugar can absolutely be a part of that, just like fat and sat fat.
 
However people aren't zero carving. People just reducing it to a sensible level.
They also aren't saying all fat is healthy and at any quantity.

However high carb, and sugar in particular foes spike insulin which causes a crash, which is what a lot of us struggle with and why a lower carb approach works.

And the biggest issue with the statement is there's lots of research coming out that is suggesting that excess carb is the culprit to many of the modern issues, and that being fat has virtually no effect on the risk, it's just fat people tend to eat rubbish. and that "fit" people who also eat rubbish have virtually identical risks to the fat group.it is showing it's perfectly possible to be fat with low risks, it's just this is rare.
 
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However people aren't zero carving. People just reducing it to a sensible level.
They also aren't saying all fat is healthy and at any quantity.

However high carb, and sugar in particular foes spike insulin which causes a crash, which is what a lot of us struggle with and why a lower carb approach works.

If you have a "lower carb approach" then you are basically always in the depressed state. If you really are having big crashes after eating carbs then you should see your doctor and get tested for diabetes, that isn't normal in a healthy adult.

When you wake up in the morning after 8-10 hours of fasting that tired, hungry grouchy, lazy body is simply missing blood glucose. Best way to perk yourself up is to absolutely eat carbs. Getting tired and struggling to finish your workout at the gym, that's you running low on sugars- make sure you eat plenty of carbs the day (replace glycogen storage) and hours (raise blood glucose) before a good workout.

Carbs and especially sugars are digested quickly which is exactly why they are so useful in your diet, combined with fats and proteins will prevent any kind of "crash" or felling of hunger until the next meal time.


If you demonize any one kind of food you are really missing out on the big picture.

The biggest causal factors of type 2 diabetes is being overweight and under exercised (which of course are correlated). Exercising for 30-60 minutes a day massively reduced Diabetes risk, as well as risk form all kind of other diseases from strokes to heart disease and cancer. Worrying that fruit has a lot of sugar in it and" therefore is bad" is about the last thing you should be worrying about.


I'm not saying there aren't benefits to watching the carbs you eat but it is pointless demonizing them and looking for a quick fix by blaming the food industry for adding sugar. If I am forced to be more sedentary then I will drop my carb intake a little - but that is by no means a healthy alternative to exercise. If I am trying to loose weight then I also loose carbs because it is easier to reduce calories by reduces starches than meat, but I will also reduce fat simply because it is so calorific. And at no chem will I reduce fruit and vegetable consumption over the fears of carbs.

Also, instead of low carbs if you are really worried about insulin spikes then you need to follow a low glycemic index diet,, many carbs actually have a relatively low GI and a digestive time comparable to proteins and fasts, and many fruits have a similar GI to vegetables despite the "OMG so many sugars!!!!"
 
Oh god, no it is very normal for people to crash after crabs, pasta is famous for leaving you feel hungry after a short period and has nothing to do diabetes.

The science is going very much against you. Again, no one is saying going zero crabs or very low crabs. Just lower crabs. It's not demonizing carbs either. It's just realising how many crabs modern society eat and how poor quality those crabs are.

Crabs good for breakfast, well you dint need breakfast but even if you do. You don't need almost pure crabs which is what most modern breakfast are. Much better to have a mix with crabs, fat and proton. Again you seem to think people are saying cut carbs out. It's not, it's reducing them to a sensible level. And with all thinks looking at what they are.
 
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Oh god, no it is very normal for people to crash after crabs, pasta is famous for leaving you feel hungry after a short period and has nothing to do diabetes.
That is not "crashing", that is just a normal healthy occurrence of eating a food with a higher GI. The failure here is not to be eating protein and fats along with the pasta.

The science is going very much against you.
No, the science is against you. What I have summarized above is exactly what the science states. Don't read junk about Paleo diets and other popular rubbish read the actual science.

Again, no one is saying going zero crabs or very low crabs. Just lower crabs. It's not demonizing carbs either. It's just realising how many crabs modern society eat and how poor quality those crabs are.

You say you are not demonizing carbs and then go on to demonize them with classic lines like " how many crabs modern society eat", which is actually the same if not proportionally less of the total calorific intake than the historic norm. What is happening is people are eating more total calories, exercising less, and eating more processed food. The carb intake is absolutely not the problem here in isolation.
I agree that the quality of much food in general, not just carbs has deteriorated.

Crabs good for breakfast, well you dint need breakfast but even if you do. You don't need almost pure crabs which is what most modern breakfast are.
You dont "need" to eat for several weeks or even month, but there is a big difference between what is needed to survive and what is optimal. Who said anything about eating pure carbs for breakfast? I'm talking about a balanced diet that is moderately high in carbs but still contains proteins and fats. A bowl of porridge with nuts, seeds and fruit followed by some eggs is a typical example of a balanced breakfast.

Much better to have a mix with crabs, fat and proton. Again you seem to think people are saying cut carbs out. It's not, it's reducing them to a sensible level. And with all thinks looking at what they are.


you really need to stop saying crabs, it is rally off putting :D

I think the problem is your idea of a sensible level is much less than what an actual balanced diet is. Most of your calories should come from carbs for example, but that includes carbs in fruit and vegetables. Your disdain for pasta clearly shows this. There is absolutely nothing wrong with eating pasta, you wont get a "crash" if you are healthy and eat a balanced diet, that chicken and and mixed vegetables on the side of your plate will ensure you wont get hungry soon afterwards and you blood glucose will remain relatively balanced on a slow decline until you next eat. the blood glucose will either be used in exercise or to restored lost glycogen from previous exercise and you can go on being healthy happy.
 
Yep D.P. no amount of exercise is gonna burn off a bad diet thats a lie just ask any personal trainer diet control is the key to fitness and good health not to say that exercise isn't important but diet will always dictate more than what any amount of exercise will do.
 
Rofl. Because most of society eats a balanced diet do they?
It's quite obviously no one in this thread is talking about said people.

I do read the papers and even the doctors are starting to go against what you say.
Carbs Especially refined sugar is massively up on historical figures. Again in 1822 Americans consumed just 9g of refined sugar a day, in 2013 that is now 153g a day

Oh and crabs and carbs is due to auto correct. Keeps changing it even after I've typed it several times.
 
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Yh no one especially really in the lower income areas other than fitness people has good macros they all be eating like 140g of carbs and **** and getting like 60g of bad fats and little amounts of bad protein. Carbs are good but not sugar as sugar is digested so fast it usually unless your genetically lucky is straight up stored as fat and when a huge amount of the carbs are bad ones and sugar people start getting fat lol.
 
As someone who has taken a bit more interest in their health and diet, the above is indicative of what I'd noticed when reading up on things... there are some many differing opinions and schools of thought.

I gave up looking for a magical answer and swapped the sandwiches for salads and do some cycling each day. It's probably not the best way of going about it but it's much less stressful than reading the conflicting ideas on the internet :p
 
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