All language subtitles for Fed...Up

[ Siren Wailing In Distance ]

[ Woman On TV ] ...on
the bridge, a little bit slow
right now on the lower level.

Upper level
looking much better.

[ Woman #2 On TV ]
Thanks, Al.
8:05 on this Wednesday morning.

Time now for a check of your
Mathis Brothers--

[ Man On TV ]
The bottom line is, you know,
the epidemic here, Susan,

is worse than
previously estimated--
probably much worse.

We have this new report
coming out overnight...

from theJournal
of the American
Medical Association--

...of Doctors has described
this week what it calls
an emerging epidemic--

[ Katie Couric ]
Military leaders called that
a threat to national security.

If it doesn't
affect you personally,

it will affect you indirectly
by someone you know,
someone in your family.

- [ Laughing ]
- It is just going up
much faster than we thought.

[ Man On TV ]
The problem
just keeps getting worse.

[ Man #2 On TV ]
This is a terror from within.

It is a global epidemic.
Epidemic.

[ Man #3 ]
Clearly something's gone wrong.

[ Man #4 ] Kids are being told
the biggest lie they will ever
hear in their lives.

She cannot-- literally
cannot calm herself down.

[ Couric ]
In the past quarter century,

the number of overweight
children has grown from...

one in 20 to nearly
one in five.

Used to be you'd have
one or two heavyset kids
in a class.

Now we get eight or 10.

[ Man #5 ] This year,
for the first time
in the history of the world,

more people will die
from the effects of obesity
than from starvation.

[ Man #6 ]
This has ramifications
far beyond obesity itself.

[ Man #7 ]
It is worse than even smoking.
The cost of this is about--

[ Woman #3 ] Half a trillion
dollars in additional health
care cost-- half a trillion.

[ Man #8 ]
The American Academy
of Family Physicians...

partnered up with
Coca-Cola.

[ Woman #4 ]
Isn't this a conflict
of interest?

[ Man #9 ] Hope that the
American Academy of Family
Physicians is looking for ways--

Researchers say obesity
is causing more and more
cases of cancer...

and is now catching up to
smoking as the leading cause--

[ Couric Narrating ]
It started out
as a small story.

I had no idea
I'd be talking about weight gain
and obesity my entire career.

We've been covering
the problem and solutions
for over 30 years.

[ Richard Simmons ]
It's sweatin' time!

[ Couric ] In that time,
entire industries have ignited
over the weight problem.

[ Woman ] I will never
look like that again.

First came the magazines,
then the talk shows--

- And how was the diet for you?
- This is the miracle we've
been waiting for.

And now
our epidemic is entertainment
on network television.

How is this still an issue,

much less
a worldwide epidemic?

We get new solutions
every day.

Everything in the grocery store
is made with less fat
and fewer calories,

and yet our kids
keep getting bigger
and sicker.

It makes
no sense.

Is there a link between our
ever-expanding waistlines...

and the government's own
dietary guidelines?

[ Couric ] And that got me
thinking, what if the solutions
weren't really solutions at all?

The Bush administration
is resisting a plan...

from the World Health
Organization to fight obesity--

[ Couric ]
What if they were actually
making things worse?

There are a very high
percentage of young people
overweight...

because of a number of things
that have happened
in our country...

in the last several years.

[ Couric ] What if our whole
approach to this epidemic
has been dead wrong?

Sorry. Okay.

Uh, let me fix this.

You know, one person
told me...

that fat people
were just made to be fat.

And I don't think
that's true.

And I know it's hard,
'cause I'm still overweight.

And right now I feel like
I always will be.

[ Brady ]
Why do you not eat
vegetables, Taylor?

'Cause I do not like them.
Why?

- I don't.
- Why not?

'Cause I don't.
You just say you don't,
but you don't have a reason.

Yes, I do.
What's the reason.

I don't.

[ Brady ]
Being in the South, we eat
a lot of fattening things.

We eat macaroni and cheese,
fried cube steak,
fried chicken.

And that's what we're used to.
That's what
I've grown up doing.

I've done what my parents done.
My parents have done
what they've done.

It's passed on from generation.

And once you start overeating,
it becomes the worst habit,
and it just grows.

[ Mother ]
The first time that I think
he ever mentioned...

the teasing--
calling him fat or something--

I think it was probably
around the age of eight.

Some girls told him
they wanted to see
how fast he could run,

and he ran.

And later,
another girl came to him
and told him...

that they were laughing at him,
and they just wanted him to run
so they could see his fat shake.

He stayed upset
about that for so long.

[ Brady ]
We ready to eat, Mama?
Mm-hmm.

[ Brady ]
I'm 15, and I weigh
around 215 pounds.

[ Tinna ]
If you like it that way--

[ Brady ]
I'd like to lose
about 50 to 55 pounds.

I could do so many more things.

Maybe I could play football
or play baseball.

I've always had an interest
in baseball.

[ Tinna ] We talk about it
a lot-- about, you know,
the weight thing and--

I've always been overweight.
And I was overweight
at his age.

And I don't want him
to be having to obsess
about weight his whole life.

You know, I want him
to be able to focus on other
things that are more important.

I really think
he wants to lose weight.

I just think he doesn't
know how to do it.

[ Brady ] Everybody else
doesn't look at it
the same way as I do.

I look at it as I'm failing,

and they just look at it
as he's just another fat kid.

[ Man ]
Kids are obese for two reasons--

They have voracious appetites,
and they don't exercise enough.

[ Whoopi Goldberg ]
Americans view
overweight people as lazy,

unambitious
and lacking willpower.

[ Man #2 ] All we have to do
is have people eat less
and exercise more.

Not a very big problem.

The subtle message is
"It's your fault you're fat."

All you need to do
is eat less, exercise more.

It's all about
personal responsibility,
about willpower.

That's the message
that's been pushed on us.

I want to see you all moving,
all right?

Forget about it.

[ Couric ]
"Eat less, exercise more"...

has been
the common sense answer
to unwanted weight...

for more than half a century.

This was the science.

And it started with a mouse.

The year was 1953.

Up until this point,
exercise had been
considered taboo.

Doctors even warned
it would cause heart attacks
and diminish your sex drive.

Then came Dr. Jean Mayer,

a French physiologist,

who would become the foremost
expert on obesity in the U.S.

He noted that large lab mice
ate virtually the same amount
as smaller mice.

But the big ones weren't
nearly as active afterwards.

Mayer's conclusion:

lack of exercise must be related
to weight gain.

His finding sparked
a fitness revolution.

[ Man ]
This is where you come
and punish yourself for fun--

or rather,
for your health.

Here we go now.
We're gonna step apart together.

To the right. Apart--

[ Couric ]
By the time Jane Fonda
became the face of fitness,

Americans were spending
billions of dollars
trying to lose weight.

[ Woman ]
♪ Let's get physical
Physical ♪

♪ I wanna get physical ♪

[ Couric ]
But as more and more people
began exercising,

more and more waistlines
grew out of control.

Between 1980 and 2000,

fitness club memberships
more than doubled
across the United States.

During that same time,
the obesity rate
also doubled.

A decade later,

two out of every three
Americans...

were either overweight
or obese.

So how is it possible...

that the enormous rise
of the fitness revolution...

almost exactly mirrored
the rise
in obesity rates?

[ Man ]
Something is making that happen.

The question is,
how is that happening
in Malaysia, Saudi Arabia,

Sweden, Norway, South Africa
and everywhere else?

And we have obese
six-month-olds.

You want to tell me
that they're supposed to
diet and exercise?

So, how our politicians
can continue...

to espouse this same mantra--

"Diet and exercise,
you are what you eat,
it's your fault"--

is absolutely beyond me.

[ Girl ]
I am 12 years old,
and I weigh 212 pounds.

My doctors have said
that I am a statistic.

I don't really know
what it means.

I think it has something
to do with my weight.

They normally say
that I'm just
supposed to eat healthier...

and exercise a lot more,

which is what I am doing.

I swim four days a week...

and then walking my dogs
on the weekends.

[ Woman ] We didn't really
start to worry about it until
I think she was eight,

um, when the doctor
wanted us...

to seek a nutritionist
to kind of address the issue.

And I just remember
at that time...

we called the nutritionist
that he wanted us to,

and we were told,
"We don't see children
that young."

It has to do
a lot with their self-esteem,

especially with girls
once they hit
their teenage years,

because, "Oh, I'm the fat kid,
and I always have to
consciously watch what I eat."

My doctor, um--

he told me to join
Weight Watchers,

um, and I can't,
because I'm not
old enough yet.

Then we stopped at that point
and said, you know what?

We know-- We have the tools.
We know what we're
supposed to do.

Let's just try
and do it ourselves.

Some of the things
that I do when I look for
healthier choices...

is doing
the reduced fat--

It's got more fiber in it.
It's made with
more whole grains.

I look at the fat content,
but cereal, by its very nature,
is generally pretty low in fat.

So cereal's a good go-to
for pretty much
any meal replacement.

I know what
my family will eat,

and I try and consider that
when I'm purchasing things.

[ Maggie ] I would expect that,
since I'm eating healthy
and exercising a lot,

that I would be able
to lose more weight
than I am.

But my weight has mostly
stayed the same.

So, sometimes it gets
a little bit frustrating.

[ Man ]
This whole generation of kids--
they're doing their best.

They're torturing themselves...

to do the cure
that we tell them,
and it's the wrong cure.

And we're blaming
the willpower,

the moral fortitude
of these kids,

and it's a crime.

[ Man ]
There is a solution to obesity.
It's energy balance.

It's balancing calories in
and calories out.

[ Woman ] We're eating
and drinking too much
and not getting enough exercise.

[ Man #2 ]
We will have to have
greater emphasis...

on getting that energy balance.

Nowadays there's this phrase,
"Let's practice energy balance."

Okay, we're gonna make sure
that we know how to match...

the calories in
to the calories out...

so that we don't get fat.

It's nonsense.

You eat, say,
110 bites of food a day,

and you only burn off 109
of them, you're gonna
get obese in 20 years.

Even if there's
a Guinness world record holder
of calorie counting--

calories in
to the calories out--

nobody can do it.

[ Man ]
3.40.

What do you
have next?
Next I have swim team.

We certainly don't want to
discourage people
from exercising...

or underplay the importance
of physical activity
to health,

but we are not gonna
exercise our way...

out of this obesity problem.

To burn off
just one 20-ounce Coke,

a child would have to bike
for an hour and 15 minutes.

Most people don't have
that much time in their day.

[ Lustig ] So if you burn
a calorie sleeping,

or you burn
a calorie exercising,
it's still a calorie burned.

The question is,
is a calorie eaten
a calorie eaten?

And for that we have
really good data.

And it says a calorie
is not a calorie.

Why is a calorie
not a calorie?

All right.
Let's give you an example.

Let's take an easy one.
Let's take almonds.

If you consume 160 calories
in almonds,

because of the fiber
in the almonds,

the food is not
going to get
absorbed immediately.

So your blood sugar rise
is gonna be a lot lower,

it's gonna be for longer.

So what's the opposite
of the almond?

Well, the opposite of the almond
would be a soft drink.

Because there's no fiber,

they get absorbed
straight through
the portal system to the liver--

The liver gets
this big sugar rush.

And when your liver
gets that onslaught,

it has no choice...

but to turn it into fat
immediately.

So, 160 calories in almonds,
or 160 calories in soda?

You tell me which is better.

[ Woman ]
For over 125 years, we've been
bringing people together.

[ Couric ] And yet we are
continually being sold...

a message contrary
to the science.

[ Woman ]
...on something that concerns
all of us-- obesity.

[ Couric ]
Our weight, we're told,

comes down to calories in
and calories out.

[ Woman ]
One simple, common sense fact--

All calories count,
no matter where
they come from,

including Coca-Cola
and everything else
with calories.

And if you eat and drink
more calories than you burn off,
you'll gain weight.

[ Woman ]
Well, one thing
we need to understand--

that the food industry
is really at the heart
of this problem.

We're handing the industry
a big gift...

in that they get to confuse
the issue by talking
about exercise.

It's all about the spin, right?
So the food industry
is good at...

kind of taking half-truths
and then stretching them.

Food companies
are interested
in selling more food.

That's their job
as a corporation.

And one way to do that is to
co-opt potential critics.

The soft drink companies
fund research in universities.

They donate
to professional societies.

And, in fact, I just saw
a new major analysis...

that says that soft drinks
have nothing to do
with obesity.

And the study was sponsored
in part by Coca-Cola.

We haven't heard this
kind of association before.

It's the American Academy
of Family Physicians--

They have partnered up with...

Coca-Cola, which--

[ Man ] You know-- Yeah,
definitely a head-scratcher.

[ Couric ]
Immediately after Coke's
announcement,

a group of 20 doctors
who helped make up the American
Academy of Family Physicians,

publicly resigned.

How can any organization
that claims to promote
public health...

join forces with a company
that promotes products
that put our children at risk?

[ Couric ]
But not all doctors
see it the same way,

particularly those
whose research
is funded by the industry.

[ Male Newscaster ]
Even though study after study
has shown soda...

to be a significant contributor
to America's staggering
obesity crisis,

Dr. Allison says
there's not enough
"solid evidence."

But his critics say
Allison is motivated
by something else--

by all the money
he has repeatedly taken...

from Coca-Cola, Pepsi...

and the American
Beverage Association.

[ Couric ] I know you've
received a lot of money from
the food industry in general.

Was there evidence
that said the ingestion
of sugary beverages...

actually contributed
to the obesity problem?

Ingestion
of all calories contributes
to the obesity problem.

One question you might ask
is whether sugary beverages...

contribute more so
than do other calories.

That's a very challenging
question to ask.

Well, let me ask you that.
Do they?

It's a good question.
There's reasons
to believe they might.

But I don't think the evidence
is quite clear.
For example--

And what would be
the science behind that?

Well, the ideal study might be
requiring people to, uh, uh--

Excuse me. Let me start
again on that. Let me just
get my thoughts together.

Okay.

[ Man ] We know sugared beverage
consumption is producing
diabetes and obesity.

It's just ridiculous
to think otherwise.

And, of course,
research shows it
to be the case.

And people are getting
wise to industry-funded
studies that show the opposite.

[ Taubes ] If you're peddling
Coca-Cola, Pepsi,
sugar water, Gatorade,

you don't want your food
to be considered
inherently fattening,

just as the tobacco industry
would have preferred...

that their product not been
considered inherently
capable of causing cancer.

But just like cigarettes
literally cause lung cancer,

certain foods literally
make you fat.

This is a big bag.

What did you have for lunch?

Let's tell the truth.
Um--

Hamburger.
French fries.

Milk and juice.

- Milk andjuice?
- They give them both.

If you ever go on a diet,
and you try to eat
healthier food,

your brain's still
telling you "Eat, eat, eat.

It's not what I want.
No, get something else."

You're still used to
that fattening stuff.

That's why it's hard
to go on a diet.

You ain't got
but a few more to go.

This time of night
sure ain't that many.

Gotta savor the flavor.
You gotta savor the flavor?

You gotta savor the flavor
'cause you only get
so many chips.

I'm trying to lose weight.

My weight is pretty heavy.
180.

I'm a pretty heavy dude.
That's why I try to
get exercise in,

eat some healthy food
every day.

[ Mother ] We, um, started
eating different things,
more fruits and vegetables.

We limit our starches.
We limit our breads.

We keep healthier snacks.

He loves Hot Pockets.

So they have Lean Hot Pockets.

So I make sure to have
the lean ones versus
the regular ones.

It costs more
to eat healthier.

So we slip.
And I'm not gonna say
we don't.

Because it's easier
to go in there and buy
the cereals with sugar in it.

It's easier to buy chips,
because it's cheaper.

And that's what
the food industry
wants them to think.

They want them to think
it's cheaper.

KFC Family Feast.
Nine pieces, any recipe,

three large sides,
six biscuits, 19.99.

Do not give up on dinner.
Mmm.

[ Hyman ]
"You deserve a break today."
You can get a "value meal."

These are messages that have
kind of gotten embedded...

into our culture,
into their thinking.

But there is well-documented
scientific proof...

that you can eat well for less,
and they don't know that.

[ Woman ]
Okay, we're gonna be
in room number nine.

Just come right in.

And it'll be
just a moment, okay?

[ Man ]
How is the diet control going?

Diet control for him
is getting-- is better.

At first it was rocky,
but it's a lot better.

I'm happy to hear
that you think things
are going so well,

but it's a bit concerning,
because when I look at Wesley,
he doesn't look any thinner.

In fact, he actually
looks bigger than he did
a few years ago.

And what I see
from the data is...

is that he's continued
to gain weight...

even faster than the rate
that he was before.

His weight is even higher
than it was last time.

I've eaten less
than I usually have.
I've exercised more.

And I don't really know
why I'm getting more weight.

Mom, have you noticed
that his skin here...

is starting to get
a little bit dark
and a little bit thick?

- It's part of what we call
metabolic syndrome.
- Oh. Okay.

His body is already starting
to show some of the adult signs
of overweight and obesity.

I worry about that I might have
a heart attack or a seizure,
or something like that.

I've seen
these things on the news.

And I've seen my family
have had it too.

And I'm worried
myself might have it.

[ Nurse ]
So relax your arm and your leg.

And take some deep breaths.
And here we go.

[ Hyman ] It's not just
genetics. We're seeing strokes
in eight-year-olds.

We're seeing heart attacks
in 20-year-olds.

We're seeing kids at 30--

by their 30th birthday
needing...

renal dialysis
for kidney failure,

because of these problems.

[ Lustig ]
Genetics are a very
important part of this,

and certainly
there are people...

who are genetically susceptible
and genetically prone.

But genetics is not
what this is about.

When I was young,
the obesity rates...

were actually pretty rare
among children.

There's been
a stunning increase.

[ Woman ]
We haven't had
this situation...

throughout the whole history
of mankind...

until the past
30, 40 years.

[ Couric ]
Most experts say
the obesity epidemic...

really has taken place
in the last 30 years or so.

Looking back,
do you think
there's anything...

that your administration
or other administrations...

could have done
to prevent this?

I don't know.
I missed it sort of.

We knew that-- We had an effort
to try to increase the exercise
programs in the schools...

and improve
the cafeteria requirements,

but I don't think
we appreciated
the magnitude of it.

We've got all these kids,
even preteens,
with type 2 diabetes now.

That used to be called
adult-onset diabetes.

It was unheard of
for young people to get it.

And it's becoming
a big problem
in other parts of the world.

Second-fastest growing area--
Middle East and North Africa.

It's not only a personal tragedy
for a lot of young people--

and interferes
with their quality of life,
their mobility,

but it will lead to...

enormous complications for us.

As physicians,
we know how to take care of
a 50-year-old or 60-year-old...

with type 2 diabetes.

What none of us have done...

is to take care of
that 10-year-old...

with type 2 diabetes
for five, six, seven decades.

We don't know
the consequences of that.

And that scares me greatly.

[ Couric ] If there's
a moment in time marking the
start of the obesity epidemic,

it's 1977--

the McGovern Report.

The Senate Special Committee
on Nutrition...

is looking into the connection
between heart disease and diet.

[ Couric ] Expert testimony
before the committee
on nutrition and human needs...

warned Senator George McGovern
that obesity would soon be...

the number one form
of malnutrition
in the United States.

When we get the kind of
overwhelming consensus...

that has developed
before this committee,

it seems to me we have
some obligation to share that
with the American people.

[ Couric ]
With predictions
of rising medical costs,

the committee issued
the very first dietary goals
for Americans,

noting that our diet
had become overly rich
in fatty meats,

rich in saturated fats
and cholesterol...

and rich in sugar.

The egg, sugar, dairy
and beef associations,

with sales of their products
in danger, united...

and flat-out rejected
the McGovern Report.

They even demanded a rewrite.

The byzantine politics
that I saw taking place here...

the last couple of weeks...

had to do with the power
of lobbies.

[ Couric ]
Despite McGovern's
best intentions,

the dietary goals
were indeed revised,

and the words "reduced intake"
were removed from the report
for good.

Instead, they encouraged
Americans to buy
leaner products...

and buy more food
with less fat.

And so, the 1980s began
with a new health doctrine...

and a brand-new market--

every food product imaginable
reengineered to be low in fat.

When you take the fat
out of the food,

it tastes nasty.

Tastes terrible.
Tastes like cardboard.

Food industry knew that.
So they had to do something...

to make the food palatable,
to make it worth eating.

So what did they do?
Dumped in the sugar.

♪♪ [ Pop ]
[ Man ]
♪ Sugar

♪ Aw, honey, honey

♪ You are my candy girl

♪ And you got me wanting you

♪ Honey

♪ Aw, sugar, sugar

♪ You are my candy girl

♪ And you got me wanting you ♪

[ Couric ]
Between 1977
and 2000,

Americans have
doubled their daily
intake of sugar.

Sugar is poison.

It is a chronic--
not acute-- chronic--

dose-dependent--
depends on how much you eat--

because there is
a safe threshold--

hepato-- "liver"-- toxin.

The metabolic diseases
that are associated
with obesity--

the diabetes,

the heart disease,

the lipid problems,
the strokes, the cancer--

those diseases
are being driven by sugar.

[ Couric ]
Fructose,
the sweet part of sugar,

can only be processed
in the liver.

When your liver
is pushed to the max,

the pancreas
comes to the rescue...

by producing excess amounts...

of a hormone called insulin.

[ Lustig ]
Insulin is the energy storage
hormone.

Insulin turns sugar
into fat for storage.

That's insulin's job.

[ Couric ]
High levels of insulin
can also block your brain...

from receiving the signal
that you're full.

[ Beeping ]

[ Lustig ]
Problem is your brain
thinks you're starving.

So how do you feel
when you're starved?

Crappy, tired, slothy.

Sit on the couch,
don't want to do anything.

And, of course, hungry.

Well, I've just described
every obese patient.

The behaviors that
we associate with obesity--

the eating too much,
the exercising too little--
the gluttony and the sloth--

they are the result
of the biochemistry,
not the cause.

[ Brady ]
All right. I'm at
the grocery store with my mom,

and so far our buggy's
got Cheez-Its,

cookies, pudding.

[ Couric ]
The problem is...

sugar isn't just
in cookies and desserts.

[ Lustig ] If you go to
the supermarket, there are
600,000 food items in America,

and 80% of them
have added sugar.

[ Couric ]
Sugar can hide behind many names
on nutrition labels,

like sucrose, fructose,
glucose, dextrose,

lactose, maltose,

invert sugar
and turbinado sugar.

And the most
well-known of all,

high-fructose corn syrup.

[ Lustig ]
You'll absorb them
exactly the same.

And so, all of the studies
that have pitted...

high-fructose corn syrup
against sugar...

show no difference
between the two.

They're both equally bad.

[ Couric ]
So, too much sugar,
in any form, is dangerous,

even if the high-fructose
corn syrup is replaced...

with any of these
other varieties.

It's not just all of
the excessive sugars,

but the processed
starches too--

white bread, white rice,

potato products,
prepared breakfast cereals--

are digested into glucose
literally in an instant
in the digestive tract.

You can eat a bowl
of corn flakes
with no added sugar,

or you could eat a bowl of sugar
with no added corn flakes.

They might taste different,
but below the neck,

they're metabolically
the same thing.

[ Lustig ]
When you consume
sugar naturally--

that is, in fruit--

you're getting the fiber
that you need to mitigate
the negative effects.

Am I worried
about fruit? No.

But am I worried
about fruit juice?
Oh, you bet.

Because when you take
the fiber out,

you might as well
be drinking a Coke.

I drink diet soda
all the time,

and I want to know
if diet soda is good for you
or bad for you.

[ Hyman ] A lot of people think
that they can just switch from
sugar to artificial sweeteners--

"diet" this, "diet" that,
Splenda, aspartame--

but it triggers
hormonal responses...

that cause you
to produce more insulin.

They make you crave more.
They make you hungry.

You think sugar's on the way.
Your brain's like,
"Wait a minute.

I think sugar's coming.
I tasted it."

So, low sugar, low fat,
diet foods--

they're dangerous,
and they're actually
disease producing as well.

Disease doesn't happen
with one meal,

but it happens
with a thousand.

But that's what we have,
because now sugar
is with every meal.

Good morning.
I am just getting ready
to go to school this morning,

and I just ate cereal.

♪♪ [ Acoustic Rock ]

[ Man ]
♪ Sweet on the tip
of my tongue ♪

♪ You taste like

♪ Sunlight

♪ And strawberry bubble gum

[ Brady ]
I have everything I need here
to make my healthy lunch.

Some peanut butter.

♪ You spike my blood

♪ And you make my heart
beat faster ♪

♪ Own me, you own

♪ And rattle my bones

♪ You turn me over and over

♪ Till I can't control myself

♪ Make me a liar, yeah

♪ One big disaster

♪ You make my heart beat

♪ Faster
[ Vocalizing ]

♪ 'Cause you make
my heart beat ♪

♪ Faster

♪ You make my heart beat

♪ Faster, yeah ♪♪

[ Lustig ]
So, 10 years of sugar
in the morning,

sugar in the evening,
sugar at suppertime,

you've got this
veritable tsunami...

of obesity and metabolic
disease we see today.

My name is Joe Lopez.
I'm 14 years old.

And I'm in ninth grade.

Right now
I'm about nearly 400.

I've tried
a lot of things, but...

none of them really work.

I would lose some weight
and then gain it back.

[ Man ]
All of us in my family
have always been heavy--

all of us.

I guess it's culture.

You know.
It used to be--
Grandma used to say,

"You don't get off of that table
until you eat everything
you have on there."

And we kind of thought
that that's the way
it's supposed to be.

[ Mother Speaking Spanish ]

[ Joe ]
It's not as easy
to just stop eating,

because I have
a huge appetite...

for Twinkies
and all that sweet stuff.

Yes, I know, you're gonna say
I'm putting him in harm's way...

by giving him all the food
that he wants and stuff,

but I know he sneaks stuff--

cookies and cakes
and all that.

Or he gets stuff at school,
or he gets stuff
with his brother, and, uh--

You don't have
no control over it.

I wish I did,
but, uh, you don't.

You don't.

Processed food
is much more powerful...

than we ever realized.

For decades,
we had the science to show
that drugs of abuse...

can hijack
the neural circuits...

to get us to come back
for more and more.

We now have the science
to show...

that you can make food
hyper-palatable too,

and that gets us to come back
for more and more.

[ Man ]
Researchers
at Princeton University...

have been studying how rats
change their eating behavior...

if they're allowed
to drink sugar water.

[ Couric ] In a recent study,
43 cocaine-addicted
laboratory rats,

were given the choice
of cocaine or sugar water...

over a 15-day period.

Forty out of the 43
chose the sugar.

In another study,
rats on a sugar water diet...

exhibited telltale signs
of addiction--

binging, craving
and withdrawal--

when the sugar was taken away.

Food addiction is a real thing.

It's not a metaphor.
It's a biological fact.

The studies show
that your brain lights up
with sugar...

just like it does
with cocaine or heroin.

In fact, sugar is eight times
more addictive than cocaine.

So, if you start your baby
early on addictive,

highly sugary foods,
they're gonna become addicted.

[ Lustig ]
Take a look at formula.
Certain formulas,

especially
lactose-free formulas--

they substitute with sucrose.

The food industry knows
that the earlier they introduce
these foods to people--

to children, to infants--

the more likely they will have
branded them for the future.

[ Couric ]
And every generation of kids
born after 1980...

has grown up
surrounded by these
highly addictive foods.

I see food, I get hungry.

It's-- I don't know
what it is.

I just-- When I see it,
I get hungry.

My stomach's telling me
I'm not really hungry,
but my mind's telling me, "Eat."

If you eat foods that are
addictive-- You can't
just have one line of coke.

You can't just have,
you know, two cigarettes.
You're gonna become an addict.

[ Man ]
Once you pop, you can't stop!

[ Hyman ]
We have to understand
that the willpower idea,

that personal responsibility,
doesn't work
in the face of addiction.

A lot of times people wonder...

why it's so hard to lose weight.

But a big reason might be...

because you actually have
those foods--

the chips and the brownies
and the cookies and cakes
and ice cream--

in your house.

It's just like being
an alcoholic.

Do you think an alcoholic
could withstand from
drinking that alcohol...

if he had a bottle of gin
sitting next to him?

It'd be tough to do.
When you're close to it,
you want it.

And it's the same way
with food.

[ Kessler ]
We like to think we make
rational decisions,

but the fact is
our brains are getting
constantly hijacked.

You can't walk,
in most cities, most places,

more than a hundred feet
without having your brain...

being
activated in some way.

[ Wootan ] Gas stations
used to sell gas. Now they're
all convenience stores.

And there's junk food
at the checkout
everywhere--

at toy stores,
at drugstores.

Go to buy stationery supplies,
linens, electronics--

Every store these days
has junk food right at
the eye level of your kids.

And then you add
the emotional gloss.
You add other things.

You add favorite
cartoon characters.

You make it into entertainment.
You add toys.

And then you add
the carnival-like features.

You add all these
other layers of stimuli.

And in the end, you end up
with one of the great public
health epidemics of our time.

Sometimes it's hard.

I see... chocolate,
and I just want to eat it.

I wish there was a pill
I could take that would
just make me thinner.

[ Man ]
If a foreign nation...

was causing our children
to become obese,

that's going to affect
their health
and hurt their happiness,

cause them to be depressed,
to have poor self-esteem--

If a foreign nation
were doing that to our children,

we'd probably go to war.

We would defend our families.

So why do we accept this
from our own country?

[ Couric ]
Do you think the government
is behind...

when it comes to helping
Americans reduce
their sugar intake?

Yes. I do.
Why? Why are they
doing this?

I think that--

Or why aren't they
doing more?

I can't answer that,

particularly since corn
has been turned into fructose...

and is a sweetener
for soft drinks,

which I don't think
is a good use of corn.

Um,

but I think that
America is still
insufficiently alert...

to the damage we are doing
long-term to our
collective health...

by too much sugar intake.

[ Lustig ]
In 2002,
the World Health Organization...

put together a document
known as TRS-916--

Technical Report Series 916.

And in that document
they say, very specifically,

that sugar is a major,
if not thecause...

of chronic metabolic
disease and obesity.

[ Couric ]
The W.H.O. is the division
of the United Nations...

responsible for setting
global health standards.

[ Man ] The World Health
Organization wanted to really
restrict sugar intake...

to a level that scientists
recommended.

They recommended no more
than 10% of calories...

in a diet
should come from sugar.

Well, the sugar groups...

hit the roof over that one.

There was a very strong pushback
in Washington by
the industry.

[ Couric ]
Senators Larry Craig
and John Breaux,

a Republican and a Democrat,

asked then secretary
of Health and Human Services
Tommy Thompson...

to stop the report.

[ Peter Jennings ]
The Bush administration
is resisting a plan...

from the World Health
Organization...

to fight obesity
on an international scale.

The administration says
it is too tough
on the food industry.

[ Lustig ]
Tommy Thompson actually
took a jet to Geneva...

and basically told
the World Health Organization...

that if they published
this document,

we would withhold
the $406 million...

that we were going to
pay them as our contribution
to the W.H.O.

In other words,
we extorted the W.H.O.
to bury this document.

The sugar recommendation
was deleted from most World
Health Organization reports...

going forward
up to this very day.

[ Couric ]
Lobbyists for
the sugar industry...

recommended that 25% of calories
in your daily diet...

should come from sugar,

two and a half times
the W.H.O. recommendation.

While food nutrition labels
list government-recommended...

daily amounts
of various nutrients,

today when you look
on any food label,

you will not find sugar listed
with a percentage
for the daily recommendation.

The question is
whether or not
our government...

has been complacent
or even complicit
with this...

food debacle.

And the answer is
absolutely.

The sugar industry's
extraordinarily powerful,

and there's a lot
of money involved.

[ Hyman ]
We have a food industry
that's feeding America...

mostly highly processed, sugary
foods that are killing us--
that are making us fat and sick.

This is the fundamental problem
that nobody's talking about
in the society.

[ Applause ]

Thank you, everyone.

We're all here today
because we care deeply...

about the health
and well-being
of not just these kids up here,

but for all kids like them
all across the country.

And clearly we're determined
to finally take on...

one of the most
serious threats
to their future,

and that's the epidemic
of childhood obesity
in America today.

We've got some talented chefs
and nutritionists here...

to teach us how to make
healthy breakfasts--

Farmers' markets
do more than just...

help Americans feed
their families healthy meals,
they help--

We're issuing a call to action.

We need you not just to
tweak around the edges,

but to entirely rethink
the products
that you're offering.

[ Wilson ]
In the first months
of the Obama administration,

she was exhorting the industry
to change its products and to
cut its children's marketing...

and to really make
substantive changes
that way.

[ Man ]
My guess is when the food
industry heard Michelle Obama...

launch her Let's Move campaign,

they reacted in terror.

Our kids don't choose
to make food products...

with tons of sugar
and sodium
and super-sized portions...

and then to have those products
marketed to them
everywhere they turn.

[ Pollan ]
That's a terrifying discussion
for the food industry.

So what did they do?

They volunteered
to help her.

I am so pleased to announce
a major agreement...

on the part of the private
sector corporations...

to improve
the nutrition of the food
that we put on the table,

or that we grab
on the run.

The Healthy Weight Commitment...

is a partnership
between 16 corporations--

[ Pollan ]
Pepsi,
Coca-Cola--

everybody's offering
to help.

But you have to look
at what they're
offering to do.

We're very fortunate
that the first lady
has taken on this initiative...

so people are starting
to talk about it more.

In the schools,
we have a program...

where we have P.E. teachers
and nutritionists
working together,

teaching the kids
about calories in
and calories out...

and really paying attention
to what you eat,

and then paying attention
to the exercise you do
every day.

Also, we went to
the White House, and we did an
announcement with Mrs. Obama...

that our companies would be
pulling 1.5 trillion calories
out of the marketplace in 2015.

And so we're very happy
that we can provide
healthier choices...

for moms as they're shopping
for their kids.

[ Taubes ]
Fourteen calories a day
is a single bite of food.

It's a couple sips of a soda.
It's a bite of an apple.

It's nothing.

They've agreed to reformulate
their foods in a number of ways.

[ Pollan ]
All the food manufacturers
drew her into...

a very long, complicated,
intricate discussion
about processed food--

how we can make
processed food better.

But whatever they do
to processed foods,

it will be used
to sell us...

more processed foods...

than we should probably eat.

That's the beauty
of a processed food.

You can dial up the carbs,
dial down the carbs.

Same with the proteins.
Same with the sugars.

All these changes become
marketing claims,

designed to get you
to buy more.

[ Hyman ]
The food industry has bamboozled
and hoodwinked us...

into thinking that there are
healthier alternatives.

Junk is still junk,
even if it's less junky.

[ Lustig ]
It's about making money.

That's their bottom line.

They're in business
to make money,

not to keep America healthy.

[ Woman ]

Well, the companies
actually have three options...

to participate in the calorie
commitment:

They can change the recipe
of existing products,

they can introduce new products
into the marketplace,

and they can also introduce
portion-size products
into the marketplace.

So, if they're--
So--

You're going to be introducing
new lower- and zero-calorie
products.

Well, you have a significant
transition that's taken place
in the last 10 years,

and I think that, uh, most
moms and dads know when you walk
through the grocery store,

and you're making that selection
as to what products
you want to buy,

you have options that are
zero-calorie options,

lower-calorie options
and full-calorie options.

[ Woman ]
It feels like we're
avoiding the question.

[ Pollan ]
That's the industry's
response.

Change the conversation
from real food...

and cooking
and going to
the farmers' market...

to reengineer
processed foods...

and exercise.

[ Man ] Before too long,
the first lady
was emphasizing more and more...

the "exercise" part
of the Let's Move campaign.

Shouldn't be so hard
to get them to run around
and play, right?

This isn't forcing them
to eat their vegetables.
[ Audience Laughs ]

It's getting them
to go out there
and have fun.

It's about how active
our kids are.

This isn't about
demonizing any industry
or any, you know--

It's not about
demonizing parents,

and it's not about
demonizing businesses.

[ Pollan ]
From the beginning
the name "Let's Move"...

was not meant
to evoke exercise.

- It was meant to evoke
action on the issue.
- Issuing a call to action.

But what a food industry
person hears is...

their interpretation
of the obesity epidemic,

which is that
we are too sedentary.

It's our own damn fault
because we're sitting,
watching TV too much.

It's not the food.

And I think that was
a very unfortunate message for
the White House to put out...

because it isthe food.

[ Couric ]
And the food,

especially the abundance
of cheap, processed,
sugar-laden products,

is a direct result
of government policy.

Mainly the United States
Department of Agriculture.

The U.S.D.A.
was initially created...

to help farmers thrive
by promoting their products.

But in the aftermath
of the McGovern Report,

the U.S.D.A. inherited
dietary guidelines as well.

When obesity
became a problem,

the Department of Agriculture
was put into
conflict of interest.

Because on the one hand
it was telling people
to eat less...

in order to
prevent obesity,

and on the other hand
it was telling people
to eat more...

to promote consumption
of American
agricultural products.

[ Man ]
They can't do
a good job of both,

and because of lobbying dollars
and where the money really is,

it's doing a much better job
of promoting U.S. agriculture...

than it is in teaching us
and helping us
how to eat well.

[ Couric ]
One clear example
of this conflict...

is the curious case
of cheese.

Remember
back in the 1980s...

when the food industry
began taking out the fat
from its products...

after the McGovern Report?

[ Man ]
Women, and girls especially,

became a little bit more
health-conscious...

and started drinking
skim milk.

Did you ever stop to think
what happened...

to the fat in the milk
when it became skim?

[ Couric ]
Well, one way to make use
of milk fat...

is to turn it into cheese.

As the demand for low fat milk
increased over the years,

the government found itself
with a lot of cheese they didn't
know what to do with.

[ Moss ]
Instead of pushing
the dairy industry...

to cut back
on the production,

Washington came up
with this other idea.

Why don't we help the industry
sell more cheese...

by getting people
to eat more cheese?

[ Female Singers ]
♪ Cheese, glorious cheese

[ Male Singers ]
♪ Tastes mighty inviting

[ Female Singers ]
♪ Cheese, glorious cheese

[ Male Singers ]
♪ It's so tantalizing ♪

[ Moss ]
Dairy Management
was created in 1995...

to act as a marketing arm
of the dairy industry.

[ Couric ]
Financed by the farmers,

with oversight
by the U.S.D.A.,

Dairy Management
helped flood the marketplace...

with good-looking cheese.

[ Moss ]
Now walk into
the dairy aisle,

and the cheese section
is bulging...

with packages of cheese--

shredded, cubed,
diced, grated,

made as simple as possible
for adding to other foods.

Some of the things that
Dairy Management did...

to encourage
the consumption of cheese...

were so clever
that the U.S.D.A.
actually bragged on them...

in its annual reports
to Congress.

In 2007, for example,

it noted how the industry
was able to sell
30 million more pounds...

by designing things like
Pizza Hut's Cheesy Bites Pizza,

Wendy's Dual Double Melt
sandwich concept...

and Burger King's
Cheesy Angus Bacon Cheeseburger.

So at the same time
the Agriculture Department is
promoting consumption of cheese,

its small unit, charged
with protecting consumers
and fighting obesity,

puts out these little brochures
that encourage people...

to eat lesscheese.

If the U.S.D.A. really
wants to increase
cheese consumption...

andpromote
a healthy lifestyle,

here is
an easy solution--

cheesercize.

Just grab a set
of baby bells...

and really
work those "goudes."

[ Audience
Cheering ]
Oh!

[ Couric ]
The problem is,
it's not just cheese.

This conflict
between public health
and promoting agriculture...

plays out
across the board.

The U.S.D.A. says
to limit your sugar intake,

yet has provided
over $8 billion in subsidies...

for corn-based sweeteners...

since 1995.

It's fair to say that
the government is subsidizing...

the obesity epidemic,

inadvertently,
through its subsidies of corn,

which gets turned into
high-fructose corn syrup...

and all those weird ingredients
that you see in processed food--

the maltodextrin,
the xanthan gum,

all those words
you can't pronounce.

So you have
the government...

in this crazy,
schizophrenic situation...

where, on the one hand,

they're subsidizing
precisely the foods
that are making us sick,

and then on the other
are now on the hook
to set the standards...

for school lunches
for our kids.

[ Brady ]
Chili cheese fries, nachos,
fried chicken--

all these fattening
and greasy foods...

are just clogging up
our schools.

School, we're supposed
to be healthy.

My school has nachos
every day for school,

and three-fourths
of our students in high school
choose nachos.

All my bad decisions
are when I'm at school,

at lunchtime,
at breakfast time.

'Cause there's no other choice.
Either you eat or you starve.

Today at lunch
we had hamburgers.

You either had a chance
to get a cheeseburger
or a sloppy joe.

Neither one of them's
really that healthy.

[ Maggie ] Other options
that they had were this place
called the student store.

They have a daily special,

like Monday is
Papa John's pizza,

Tuesday is Chick-fil-A,

Wednesday is Arby's,

Thursday is Pizza Hut...

and Friday is McDonald's.

And then
this is the slushie machine
that they have.

[ Pollan ]
The school lunch program
has evolved in such a way...

that it really is serving
the food processors...

much more than it is
serving the students.

[ Couric ] The government got
in the school lunch business
after World War II.

1946.

President Harry Truman signed
the National School Lunch Act...

after a huge number
of military recruits
were rejected...

because of malnutrition.

On February 18
I will present in detail...

an economic program
to Congress...

reducing the growth
in government spending
to reduce unemployment.

[ Couric ] In 1981,
President Ronald Reagan,

looking to limit
the role of government,

cut $1.46 billion...

out of the child nutrition
budget.

[ Reagan ]
It will propose budget cuts...

in virtually every department
of the government.

[ Couric ]
Many schools got rid of
their cooking equipment...

and turned to the food industry
to make lunch cheap and simple--

kid-friendly favorites
that could be heated and served.

In 2006,
80% of all high schools...

operated under exclusive
contracts with soda companies,

and by 2012 more than half
of all U.S. school districts...

served fast food.

The food industry infiltration
of the schools is deplorable.

The schools have become
dependent on the money,

and it's a bargain
with the devil.

Some schools have become
like a 7-Eleven with books.

- [ Applause ]
- We are thrilled to be here
with all of you...

as I sign the Healthy,
Hungry-Free Kids Act,

a bill that's vitally important
to the health and welfare
of our kids.

[ Couric ]
In 2010 President Barack Obama
signed the bill...

authorizing the U.S.D.A.
to come up with new standards...

for the federally funded
school lunch program...

in an effort
to make it healthier.

This had the effect of
possibly eliminating pizza
from school.

Well, the Schwan Company
in Minnesota...

is a $3 billion
private company...

which accounts for 70%
of the pizza market
in the U.S. school lunches.

They could not have pizza
eliminated from school.

So their senator
in Minnesota,
Amy Klobuchar,

wrote a letter to
the Department
of Agriculture...

to protect
their frozen pizzas
in school lunches.

It had kind of
a complicated process...

where the effect was
to count a slice of pizza
as a vegetable.

[ Man ]
It's common sense.
It's not a vegetable.

What's next?
Are Twinkies gonna be
considered a vegetable?

Rather than having
a deliberative effort,

we have special interests...

inserting these provisions
into these bills...

contrary to the public health.

In terms of
the pizza issue,

we proposed a set
of guidelines,

and Congress
essentially suggested...

that they wanted
a slightly different approach.

[ Couric ]
Was that frustrating
for you?

Well, it's a little
frustrating, sure.

But at the end of the day--
Tomato paste
is a vegetable?

Really?
Well, it's-- Well, uh--

Not in my household,
but, uh-- but, I mean,

somebody could probably
make the, um--

the scientific argument
that it is.

But it's not how
I perceive a vegetable.

[ Couric ]
By 2012, the revised regulations
were issued.

The U.S.D.A. increased
the lunch budget...

for the first time in 30 years,

by six cents,

set a new maximum on calories...

and doubled
the required amounts
of fruits and vegetables,

which still includes
french fries and pizza.

[ Maggie ] It doesn't look
like the lunches have
improved that much.

They have hamburgers
and cheeseburgers,
chicken-fried steak...

and pizza today.

[ Woman ]
We have a main dish
every day...

that is very healthy.

We probably did
about 25 of those...

out of, like, 350.

They kind of like--

"I'll have the pizza."
And they'd rather get fries
and cookies.

But you can't choose for 'em.
They have to choose
for themselves.

[ Woman ]
I don't know any child...

who would rather have
vegetables over a candy bar...

when both are placed
in front of them.

[ Couric ]
A lot of these
fast food restaurants...

are still operating
in school cafeterias
all across the country.

And it's--
it's not a good thing.

I don't agree with
all the new guidelines.

I wish they'd gone
a little further.

We could cure literally
80% of the problem...

for children in school...

if we went back to
school cafeterias where they
prepared the food in the school.

- What can I get for you, babe?
- Can I have a cheeseburger,
please?

You sure can.

Thank you.

[ Carole ]
Have you lost any weight?

[ Voice Breaking ]
It's just kind of aggravating...

because--

I mean, my weight's
not really going...

the way it's supposed to go.

[ Brownell ]
When we release our children
into the care of schools,

we expect that they're not
going to drink unsafe water
that will make them sick,

we don't expect them
to breathe unsafe air
that will make them sick,

and we shouldn't expect them
to eat unsafe food
that will make them sick.

The industry, I think,
cares less about
what they sell in schools...

than the opportunity they have
to market their brand.

We're paying
a very dear price...

for letting
the food industry
act at will...

in recruiting our children
as loyal customers.

[ Man ]
I remember I went to
a preschool once,

and the kids were sitting on
little chairs--
little red-and-white chairs...

that said "Coca-Cola."
[ Chuckles ]

What do they think?
Well, Coca-Cola's good.

It's part of preschool.
I should be drinking
more Coca-Colas.

Marketers want to start
to target kids
as early as they can.

Studies show that children
as young as two and three...

start to recognize brands.

[ Wootan ]
The problem is, they don't
see any commercials...

for bananas, strawberries,
zucchini and broccoli.

It shapes the whole way
they think about food--

what they think food is.

[ Couric ]
There have been attempts
to regulate...

how we market food
to children...

since the very beginning
of the obesity epidemic.

1977--

the same year
as the McGovern Report.

Consumer advocates lobbied
the Federal Trade Commission,

the government arm
in charge of advertising,

to regulate ads
for sugar-laden products.

It's grr-r-reat!

The executive director of
the Federal Trade Commission...

says the group is slowly
coming to the conclusion...

that television advertising
aimed at children is unfair.

[ Man ]
The cumulative effect...

of the thousands of hours
of advertising
viewed by children...

is that kids are being told
the biggest lie they will
ever hear in their lives.

It's not fair to use
the public airwaves
to encourage children...

to develop health habits
and buying patterns...

which they will probably
keep up in adulthood...

that are hazardous to health.

[ Male Reporter ]
The F.T.C.'s proposed
restrictions...

have been defended as vital
to protect the health
of America's children...

and assailed as an attack on
free enterprise, free speech...

and as a dangerous intrusion
by the federal government
into family life.

[ Couric ] Broadcasters,
advertising agencies
and toy companies...

all banded together...

to prevent the F.T.C.
from regulating
children's television.

[ Cronkite ] And an official
of Quaker Oats...

said one of the best uses
of sugar he could think of...

was getting children
to eat their cereal.

[ Couric ]
Big Food won the battle.

No regulations
were put in place.

But marketing to kids
really took off
a few years later...

with processed foods.

And with the advent
of corn syrup, a cheaper
alternative to sugar,

the big food makers
had more money to spend...

on bigger sizes
with better prices...

and on ad campaigns
with corporate tie-ins...

and high-priced
celebrity endorsements.

[ Michael Jackson ]
♪ You're a whole new
generation ♪

♪ You're a whole new
generation ♪

[ Couric ]
Now food advertising
is everywhere.

- Diet Snapple?
- I know! It tastes just like
regular Snapple, doesn't it?

Dr. Pepper's
unbelievably satisfying.

[ Harkin ]
We in this Congress
have a responsibility...

to protect America's children...

from the sophisticated,
aggressive, relentless marketing
of junk food to our children.

[ Couric ]
With obesity rates
skyrocketing,

Congress tried again
in 2004...

to regulate
food industry marketing
to children.

Big Food and Fast Food
responded much like they did
20 years before.

When I hear this discussion,
I hear "marketing to children,"

which really you're saying
"advertising to children,"

and you're also saying,
"It's all bad."

And that's just not true.

Ronald McDonald
never sells to children.

He informs and inspires
through magic and fun.

[ Brownell ]
Industry under threat
of government regulation...

will say
"We can police ourselves."

And they launch into this series
of self-regulatory promises...

that we'll market less
to children, we'll pull
our products out of schools.

When you hold them accountable
and study whether changes have
been made, what do you find?

It's not a pretty picture.

[ Announcer ]
Keeps 'em full,
keeps 'em focused.

- Get a spectacular
Spider-Man toy!
- Made with real fruit!

[ Child ]
Thanks, Mom!

[ Couric ]
With the fox
guarding the henhouse,

children's exposure
to junk food ads,
including online,

increased 60%
from 2008 to 2010.

The Federal Trade Commission
has less authority...

to regulate advertising to kids
than it does to adults.

You would think that would be
just the other way around.

[ Cohen ]
There are several studies
that show...

that when children
are watching television,

especially with
food commercials,

they're primed
to eat more.

One study had kids
watching TV,

and they gave them a bowl of
Goldfish crackers to munch on
while they were watching.

The kids that watched TV,
while they showed also
food commercials,

they ate 45% more
Goldfish crackers...

compared to kids
watching the same TV program
with nonfood commercials.

[ Kessler ]
I showed the data...

on how our neural circuits
and the neural circuits
of our kids...

are getting sensitized
to all these food cues...

to a group of
leading diabetologists,

and their conclusion,
when they saw that...

and they realized
that these circuits
get laid down for a lifetime,

is that we're toast
as a country.

Hearings begin today
on a proposed law...

that would ban
giving away toys...

with meals high in calories,
fat, sugar and salt.

[ Couric ] The trouble is,
every time the government tries
to regulate Big Food,

again and again
the industry protects itself...

by sparking
a larger public debate...

over the role of
government in our lives.

The food police
striking again.

They have a predictable script
that they roll out every time
these things come up.

This is the most ridiculous
sort of nanny-statism.

- "Nanny state."
- It isthe nanny state!

[ Woman ]
These nanny-state people want to
tell you what to eat.

"Government doesn't belong
in our private lives."

Apparently now we need
government food cops.

"You're discriminating
against us."

To single out
one food or beverage--

The mayor of New York City,
Michael Bloomberg,

wants to outlaw what he calls
super-sized sodas
and other sugary drinks.

"You don't need the police.
Just look at all the
good-guy things we're doing."

[ Woman ]
You know what Ronald McDonald
is also known for?

For 35 years
he's been known for
the Ronald McDonald Houses.

Exactly!

The script
is so reliable now,

and the lobbying dollars...

that are aimed at legislators
from the food industry
are enormous,

and as a consequence
they're pretty good
at fighting things off.

Who should be making
the decisions what to eat...

and school choice
and everything else?

Should it be government,
or should it be the parents?
It should be the parents!

[ Slurping ]

The fact that parents
have a role to play...

does not change the fact
that targeting young children...

is simply immoral.

[ Simon ]
I think we need to really
get straight in this country...

the difference between
parental responsibility...

and the corporation's role
in exploiting...

the vulnerabilities
of a young child.

[ Edgar ]
He's been having many more
problems now with his legs.

He's going through therapy,
and he's still having
a hard time with it.

So you've been
having knee pain?
Yeah.

[ Joe ]
This bariatric program
came to the hospital,

and my doctor considered me
for surgery...

that'll change my life
for the better.

I don't want it.
I kinda need it.

I've gotten to a point
in my weight where...

if I-- if I keep
gaining weight like I am,

I'm gonna probably
be dead by 20.

The surgery
has complications.
There's no question about it.

But as we've talked about, you
always look at what the risk is
of doing the surgery...

and compare it to
what the risk is
of notdoing the surgery.

And we've all agreed
that the risk of not
doing the surgery...

is that we're gonna
decrease your life span,

increase your risk
of diabetes and all
of these complications.

And so we know that even though
there's risk with the surgery,

there's a bigger risk
of not doing it. Okay?

I've never heard of,
you know, a 15-year-old
having this surgery.

Um, you know--

I guess I'm still
kind of against it.

Thing could go wrong,
and...

then I wouldn't
have my Joe.

That wouldn't be right.
I would feel that one.

[ Michael Bloomberg ]
It's the people
who are least able...

to know what's good
for their health...

who are the ones
that certain industries
cater to...

and try to focus
their advertising towards.

[ Family Speaking Spanish ]

[ Bloomberg ] We're selling
these products to the people
who are most vulnerable...

andthey're also the people
that society has to provide
health care for,

because they don't have
the money to do it themselves.

[ Edgar ] I didn't even want
to be at the hospital
and see him going through that.

It sounds selfish,
but, um--

[ Voice Breaking ]
It was hard.

But, uh, he-he's...

a tough little guy.

Yeah.

[ Medical Staff
Chattering ]

[ Ludwig ] There's probably
a limited role for gastric
bypass, or bariatric surgery...

in the most extreme
circumstances,

to avoid life-threatening
complications.

But what does it say
about our society...

if we would rather
send children...

to such
mutilating procedures,

but yet lack
the political will...

to properly fund
school nutrition...

and ban
junk food advertising
to children?

It reflects a systematic
political failure.

We're the richest society
in the world.

We've failed because
we've placed private profit
and special interests...

ahead of public health.

[ Brady ]
This is a vitality
medical center.

Fixing to get
our body scans.

[ Chattering ]
♪♪ [ Singing ]

[ Chattering Continues ]

[ Brady ]
It's hard for us teenagers
to try to be healthy...

'cause you see
all your friends...

eating fattening
chili cheese fries
and nachos...

and all this fattening
fried chicken...

and all these fattening,
greasy foods,

and they're skinny,
and they look good.

My brother
can eat all he wants
and still be skinny,

and I look at him and say,
"Well, he can do it.
Why can't I?"

And that--
I hold on to that.

And that's how
I-I don't lose weight.

Many people think that
if you're thin, you're healthy,

but that's not
necessarily true.

You can be fat on the inside
and skinny on the outside,

or metabolically obese
normal weight.

It's very dangerous,
and it leads to all the same
consequences as being fat,

such as heart attacks,
strokes, cancer,
dementia and diabetes.

[ Lustig ] Dr. Jimmy Bell,
who is a neuroimager
in London, England,

coined the term "Tofi"--
T-O-F-I.

Thin on the outside,
fat on the inside.

Because when you slide somebody
into an M.R.I. and you
actually visualize the fat,

they might as well
be obese.

There! X-ray!
Yeah.

Nuke sign!

[ Couric ]
Brady and his brothers went
to the doctor for DEXA scans,

a type of X-ray that measures
internal body fat.

The beauty of it is,
you can see where the fat is.

Because a lot of fat
is distributed
in different places,

and the worst fat
is the belly fat.

Kids who are normal weight
should be between 10 and 20%
belly fat.

[ Couric ]
Brady's results were
by far the worst--

47% of his body is fat,

most of it in his belly,
which is 60% fat.

[ Hyman ]
The belly fat
is a dangerous, lethal fat.

And his insulin levels
are high.

The insulin is
the fat storage hormone.

[ Couric ]
While his youngest brother,
Nicholas, had normal results,

10-year-old Chandler...

had 22% belly fat...

and the 19-year-old,
Joseph, had 28%.

[ Hyman ] Almost all
of these skinny-fat kids
are prediabetic.

Even though the junk food
doesn't make them fat,
necessarily,

it makes them sick.

The question is,
do you have it? You might,
and you don't know.

Based on the statistics,

we know that 30% of America
is obese.

Let's talk about
the thin people.

Up to 40% of these people
have the same
metabolic dysfunction.

They're just not obese.

So when you do the math,
that's more than half
the U.S. population.

This is not just
a problem of the obese.

This is a problem
of everybody.

[ Nestle ]
There are so many industries...

that make profits
off of people being unhealthy...

that it's in their interest
to have people continue
to be unhealthy.

And so that's why you don't see
an enormous national effort...

to try to improve
the quality of
the American diet...

or people's
food choices.

[ Interviewer ]
Is that why you see
health insurance companies...

buying stock
in fast food companies?

That is exactly
why you see...

health insurance companies
buying stock
in fast food companies.

They're just
covering their bets.

[ Hyman ]
Unless we address this
as a society...

and stop blaming
the fat person,

we're gonna be
in big trouble.

We're gonna have
huge health consequences...

and huge economic consequences
as well.

[ Couric ]
We've been down
this road before.

This isn't the first time
our children have been sold
a bill of goods...

that leads to addiction
and disease.

What's been the great
public health success to date?

It's tobacco.

[ Woman ]
♪ Smooth and fresh

♪ Is the Newport taste

[ Kessler ]
We used to view the cigarette
as our friend,

something that was sexy,
that was glamorous,
something that we wanted.

What did we do with tobacco?

We demonized
the tobacco industry.

We changed how
we perceived that product.

[ Couric ]
We knew as early as 1950...

that there was a link
between smoking and lung cancer.

Do you swear that the testimony
you are about to give...

is the truth, the whole truth
and nothing but the truth?

[ All ]
I do.

[ Couric ] But Big Tobacco
would deny the science
for the next 50 years.

Cigarettes and nicotine
clearly do not meet...

the classic definitions of
addiction.

[ Brownell ] The public finally
saw that they were doing
deceptive and misleading things,

and so we took them on.

Government took them on.
The media took them on.

It's been 30 years
since the first report
linked smoking and cancer.

There's disturbing news
about teenagers and smoking.

[ Couric ]
The U.S. was the first
to require warning labels...

on every cigarette pack.

But we didn't stop there.

A number of decades ago
there was something around
called the Fairness Doctrine,

and for every tobacco ad
that got run,

the networks had to free up time
for anti-tobacco advertisements.

Smoke now, pay later.

Whatever you do,
just don't smoke.

[ Brownell ]
The tobacco industry found...

it was getting battered
by these advertisements
and said...

we will voluntarily
take our advertising
off television.

[ TV: Announcer ]
Come to where
the flavor is.

[ Couric ]
It wasn't long before
smoking ads were removed...

from almost all
public spaces.

And with greater
public awareness,

smoking was banned
from all airlines.

And as early as 1975,

individual states
began regulating smoking
in public places...

and taxing
packs of cigarettes.

After we banned it,
all of Western Europe
went smoke-free.

You would tell me
in a million years
the Irish, the Italians,

the Spanish,
the English, the French--

they don't smoke
indoors anymore.

[ Kessler ]
Today we view the cigarette
for what it is--

a deadly, disgusting,
addictive product.

[ Couric ]
As a result of this
critical change in perception,

the number of American
high schoolers who smoke
has been cut in half...

in just the last 20 years.

Where would we be
if we hadn't acted?

[ Announcer ]
The Flintstones has been
brought to you by Winston,

America's best-selling,
best-tasting filter cigarette.

♪ Winston tastes good
like a ♪

♪ Cigarette should

Junk food companies
are acting very much like
tobacco companies did...

30 and 40 years ago.

I need your Fruity Pebbles!
Really fruity! [ Roars ]

Post Fruity Pebbles cereal,
part of this
complete breakfast!

Years from now we're gonna say,

I can't believe we let them
get away with that.

There is no evidence that
the consumption of soft drinks
in secondary schools...

is inconsistent
with sound nutrition science.

The argument you're making
is to advance the sales
of your soft drinks...

with the hopes
that these students will get
used to them enough--

I hesitate to use the word
"hooked on 'em" enough--

I'm suggesting, Senator,
that in a well-balanced diet...

we all need to consume
two liters of liquid.

Soft drinks can certainly supply
part of that liquid intake,

and I would reject entirely
any argument that they are
in any way harmful for you.

Sometimes I just wanna say,
Don't you have
any shame at all?

Isn't there something
inside of you that says,

"You know, what we're doing
is not right"?

They haveto know,
just like the tobacco companies.

How could these people
sleep at night for years,

knowing they were
lying through their teeth
about tobacco and cancer,

and yet they just kept
pushing those tobacco products
out there.

It's the same way
with big food companies.

I just-- I don't know how--
I-I don't know how
they can live with themselves.

[ Bittman ]
Soda is the cigarettes
of the 21st century,

and the sooner
we get that clear,

the sooner we get rid of
these idiotic arguments about...

free speech allows us
to sell things
that are poisonous.

[ Man ]
The obesity epidemic,

the diseases that fast food
places-- hamburgers, soda pop,
whatever-- cause--

We've had this information
for decades...

and we've failed to act on it
until now it's catastrophic.

I'm trying--
I'm trying to save my life...

and protect myself
from dying of
heart attack, seizures,

anything--
diabetes, anything.

I just want y'all
to realize...

that y'all
killin' yourselves.

'Cause I've already
realized it.

I'm just making sure
y'all do, you guys do.

[ Couric ]
At our current rate,

over 95% of all Americans
will be overweight or obese...

in two decades.

By 2050,

one out of every three Americans
will have diabetes.

[ Chattering, Laughing ]

[ Carmona ]
As we look to
the work force of the future,

where will the soldiers and
sailors and first-responders--
cops, firemen--

Where will they come from
when we have
a generation of children...

that will be physically unfit
and saddled with a lot of
disease that's all preventable?

[ Lustig ]
The financial aspects of this
are staggering.

75% of our health care dollar
goes to the maintenance
or treatment...

of chronic metabolic disease.

[ Karp ]
If you think the national debt
is a problem right now,

wait till you see
the tsunami of debt
that's coming...

from the health care impact
of obesity.

It's going to be
an enormous burden...

that we are going to be
placing on the shoulders
of our children.

I want people to know...

that childhood obesity...

isn't as simple as TV...

and the press make it seem.

And even Mrs. Obama.

It's like, no matter
how hard you try,

it's always going to be
an ongoing battle.

[ Taubes ]
When Michelle Obama launched
her "Let's Move" campaign,

she said this isn't about
demonizing any food industry,

which is a very politically
sensible thing to do.

The problem is,
if you want to cure obesity,

you have to demonize
some food industries.

Let's move!
Let's move!
Let's move!

[ Brownell ]
I think Michelle Obama
has been a wonderful force...

in the nation's attempt
to address childhood obesity.

Um, but my guess is that
she and other people
in the administration...

have to be aware of
the lobbying might
of the food industry...

and have to
go easier on them
than they may want to.

I hope with time, because
of the public support
for these initiatives,

that the politicians
will have the courage
to take on the industry...

the way it really
needs to happen.

[ Bittman ]
There are other countries now...

who have prohibited
junk food marketing to kids,

stopped serving junk food
in schools,

started taxing soda.

These are things
that I'd like to see us
leading the way on.

Instead, we're leading the way
on producing the world's
deadliest diet...

and basically exporting it
to other countries.

[ Harkin ] I think the thing
that has frustrated me more
than anything else...

in my now almost 30-year
campaign against obesity...

and trying to get
healthful lifestyles--

The most frustrating thing
is just the way the deck
is just stacked...

against being healthy.

[ Wootan ]
Right now healthy eating
is like swimming upstream.

If you want to eat better,
you have to work so hard
against the food environment,

which is always pushing you
to eat more.

I think the attitude
that someone else
is gonna change it...

is the wrong attitude.

If we want
better conditions,

each of us
has to do something
to make that happen.

[ Wootan ] We need to
come together as a society
to protect our children,

just like we have
with seat belt laws
and car seat laws.

We're not gonna tell anybody
what they're gonna
feed their kids.

We're just gonna try
to make it easier
for parents...

to do what they
already want to do,

which is feed their child
more healthfully.

[ Couric ]
Some people are already trying
to change the environment...

and improve the conditions
for our children.

There are even some kids
who are taking on
their own schools...

in order to remove
sugar-sweetened beverages
from the cafeteria.

There are also
revolutionary food fighters...

who are not waiting
on government action.

[ Jamie Oliver ]
I want to tell you about what
is in some of these products.

- Okay, everyone--
- Four scoops of sugar.

[ Couric ]
They're educating kids
on the toxic effects of sugar.

They are all the same.

Reimagining
how you can feed kids...

real food on a budget.

By serving the local
fresh beans,

we're saving
about $4,000 a year.

Our business model is to go
into underserved areas,

into food deserts and try
to make them food oases...

and make sure we bring access to
fresh, affordable healthy food.

[ Couric ]
Many of these places have seen
modest decreases...

in their childhood
obesity rates.

[ Harkin ]
So we've made some progress.

It's not as much as we'd like,
it's not as much as we need,

but therein lies some hope.

[ Brownell ] This is supposed
to be the first generation
of American children...

expected to lead shorter lives
than their parents did.

So we have to ask ourselves,
what legacy are we
leaving our children?

What kind of conditions
are we exposing them to
that would make this come true?

It's a call to action to do
something pretty courageous
against this problem.

[ Couric ]
What if every can of soda...

came with a warning label
from the surgeon general?

What if fast food chains
were banned
from all public schools?

What if every time you looked
at a nutrition label...

you'd actually see
the percentage
next to sugar,

What if every time
a celebrity sold a soft drink,

they also had to pitch
a vegetable?

How would academics improve?

How much more productive
would we become?

How much money
and how many lives
could we save?

[ Clinton ]
I think the government has
a leading role to play here.

We just got
a long way to go.

Now, you can wait around
for the ideal day...

when government regulation
will be perfect.

Meanwhile, you gotta
keep working
the food industry...

to get them to change.

But you have to change
the diet of America.
That's the most important thing.

The exercise is important.

All these things
are important.

But we've gotta change
the way we produce
and consume food.

[ Tinna ] My mom always said
people make time
for what they want to.

It's a matter of priority,
you know.

Being willing to put forth
the effort and the time
that it takes to change.

The kids' health,
my health,
my husband's health...

definitely more important
than any chocolate I have
in the cabinet,

more than any piece of cake.

And even as much as I want to
take the chocolate and hide it,

it still has made me think.

I've gotta choose.

I've gotta choose between...

helping Brady...

or--

or getting rid of the chocolate.

I know what's more important
in here.

It's just hard.

But it's a matter
of priority,

and I really
want to change.

Ohh!
What?

[ Tinna ]
This is our new recipe
we're fixin' to taste.

I am excited.
I can't believe
how different I feel.

And I'm so happy
that, um,

a light switch
just came on.

It's not an easy transition
to real food,
but it starts locally.

It starts, really,
as local as our fork.

And everybody has a choice
three times a day
what they put on that thing.

The most important thing
you can do--

and it's challenging
for many people--
is cook real food.

You can forget about nutrients.
You don't have to worry
about sugars.

If you cook real food,

your family will be
eating much better.

[ Ludwig ]
Does it look like
it comes from nature?

Or is it a product
with a long list
of artificial ingredients?

That's a distinction between
real and fake foods...

that even
a five-year-old can get.

[ Tinna ]
Lot of sugar, huh?

Third ingredient.

That's not real.

[ Brady ]
I thought I knew the way
it was supposed to be,

but in truth I had no idea
what the truth was.

And I think so many kids
in America...

don't even know
what it really means
to eat healthy.

[ Tinna ]
Nicholas,
you are eating asparagus!

I'm so proud of you!

[ Brady ]
This is the way we're
supposed to eat all the time.

Not just for a diet
or detox.

We're supposed to eat like this
for the rest of our life.

And that's what I want it
to be.

[ Tinna ] John is eating
his sweet potatoes.

[ Couric ]
It started out
as such a small story...

about weight, diet
and exercise.

For the majority of kids,

there is no happy ending.

It's time for a new story
about the food we eat...

and the environment
we want for our children.

[ Kessler ]
This has to be about the food,
not the weight.

I mean,
why don't diets work?

Sure, for 30 days, 60 days,
90 days I can deprive myself.

I can lose the weight.

But then I go back
in the environment,
I get cued again,

my brain gets hijacked.

So of course I'm going
to gain the weight back.

Unless we dramatically
change the environment,
take away all these cues,

we're never gonna be able
to protect our kids.

♪♪ [ Guitar: Pop ]

[ Man ]
♪ How long have you waited

♪ For someone to come
to your rescue? ♪

♪ Called up
and calculated ♪

♪ Some kind of hope
to hang on to ♪

♪ Will the wait be over soon?

♪ Feelin' so fascinated

♪ Set on a course
to continue ♪

♪ Discussed and demonstrated

♪ With all the sight
to see right through ♪

♪ Another world created

♪ Another life belongs to you

♪ When you're surrounded by

♪ Something strange

♪ And so brand-new

♪ It's not complicated

♪ It's just another
point of view ♪

♪ So now let's celebrate it

♪ A change is
so long overdue ♪

♪ And we should be home
by now ♪

♪ And we should be home

♪ By now

♪ I know
we'd find a way ♪

♪ Forever starts today

♪ We should be home by now

♪ We should be home by now

♪ We should be home by now

♪ If time permitted

♪ I know we'd find a way

♪ Forever starts today

♪ If time permitted

♪ I know we'd find a way

♪ Forever starts today

♪ Forever starts today

♪ Forever starts today

♪ Forever starts today ♪

♪♪ [ Ends ]