This was posted 5 years 4 months 26 days ago, and might be an out-dated deal.

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That Sugar Film - Free on SBS on Demand until 7/12

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The Sugar Film is free on SBS On Demand for the next 9 days. Highly recommended for anyone interested in health/nutrition.

Summary from SBS:

That Sugar Film is one man’s journey to discover the bitter truth about sugar. Damon Gameau embarks on a unique experiment to document the effects of a high sugar diet on a healthy body, consuming only foods that are commonly perceived as ‘healthy’. Through this entertaining and informative journey, Damon highlights some of the issues that plague the sugar industry, and where sugar lurks on supermarket shelves. That Sugar Film will forever change the way you think about ‘healthy’ food.

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  • +10

    May not be the most scientifically rigorous documentary, but free's free.

    • +4

      Probably as scientifically rigorous as wikipedia.

      This article needs additional citations for verification.

    • +1

      yeah, I wouldn't trust an article from SMH calling it propaganda.

      The fact remains that so many "healthy" foods contain so much sugar. I don't think his weight gain should be the lesson the viewers take away from watching the movie.

      • +3

        Ikr, SMH is almost as bad as Buzzfeed

      • Review probably paid for by Sugar industry.

  • +26

    A bargain? Along with hundreds of other free documentaries and shows on both SBS onDemand and iView?

    • +3

      Now there's a good opportunity for people to get their deal posting count up!

  • +15

    Usual bandwagon stuff.

    He has a degree from NIDA … not really known for scientific research

    • +29

      Usual bandwagon stuff.

      Nice try sugar industry :p

    • bbbbbbb

    • +3

      You're right, he has it all wrong, sugar is actually good for you

      • Well actually sugar is very good for the health
        ( of drug companies, medical supply companies, doctors, weight loss industry, food processors and funeral directors ).

    • excuse me mr Crowe went there

  • +24

    Are we listing everything on SBS On Demand? How about ABC iView?

  • +11

    Thanks OP, will watch it while eating my daily McDonald's deal.

  • -8

    It must have been some kind of miracle that all four of my grandparents lived to be 80+ when they all ate a shedload of sugar, and never had any health issues. With all this sugar hysteria, you'd think that every 2nd person was keeling over at 40.

    • +10

      That's not a logical argument.

    • +6

      My grandparents smoked and only one died in their early 60s. My auntie has smoked since she was 12 and is 88. All these medical professionals clearly have it wrong.

      • A sample size of 5. Seems scientifically rigourous.

        Does she enjoy smoking?

        • +1

          And the sample size in this movie is… 1!

      • Imagine how much longer they would live with their genes if they didnt smoke!

    • +1

      This is the 'availability heuristic' cognitive bias at work.

      Pretty interesting!

      https://www.verywellmind.com/availability-heuristic-2794824

    • +1

      Did your grandparents drink a 2 litre bottle of Mountain Dew a day?

  • +5

    Sweet! Thanks OP.

  • Makes you think a bit more about your diet and had me flipping products to check out the sugar content of products.

  • +13

    This makes number one on the page. Quarter Pounder for $2 is number two.

    • +2

      Just don't eat the bun. ;-)

      • Some of the big burger chains in the US now offer burgers without the buns !! ( in a tray ) hopefully coming to Aus soon !!

    • +3

      Meanwhile Super Size Me documentary is available on ABC iView ;)

      • +3

        which is also a questionable documentary/ "experiment".

        i.e. results have not been replicated by anyone else.

        • Results are easily replicated, if you're stood enough to do it

        • That's because he was the only one lucky enough to survive

        • Replicated by the 30% obesity rate

        • +1

          Morgan Spurlock is a recently self-admitted longtime alcoholic, including the period of filming of Super Size Me. Remember the infamous scene where his doctor says his liver looks like that of an alcoholic - was the damage from Big Macs or booze?

          See Fat Head (2009) for an entertaining rebuttal of Super Size Me.

  • I read as "the sugar slim", must be a nice sugar

  • What's the rating for this movie?

    • G

  • +1

    I love that McDonald's is the next deal down

  • After McDonald's!

  • +5

    How is this a 'deal'- SBS on demand is free. It's just a movie recommendation. Sounds like a good movie, not a good deal.

  • -5

    Anti sugar hype. Most people eat hardly any fruit and avoid sugar - probably need more sugar in their diet

    • +2

      No you dont. unless you are doing long distance endurance exercise and you need that sugar boost at a specific time to replenish energy quickly, noone needs extra sugar. even from fruit.

      It does not hurt to eat an apple or orange a day. If you dont you will still be perfectly healthy. sugar is one of those food that you do not need to supplement.

      • +14

        In fact you can survive perfectly well for life without consuming any sugars, any carbs whatsoever. There are essential proteins you need and essential oils but no essential carbs. The body is perfectly capable of making the tiny amount of sugars it needs for a small part of brain function in the liver. Otherwise you are quite capable of running on fats.

        One of the problems with the modern high availability of foods is that most peoples bodies are constantly spiking insulin in response to regular carb intake. This insulin, combined with the excess carbs (more than demand) tells your body to store this 'lucky find' as fat for the lean periods when food is in short supply. That 'short supply' never comes and the weight continues to accumulate. I have applied these principles to my own life and my diabetes has gone into remission completely and I have lost 40Kg since May with zero exercise and virtually no hunger or cravings. The body has evolved to cope with a feast and famine cycle, not just a feast one.

        Sugar, in and of itself, is not 'evil' it is just that the amount and frequency that most people eat it at is unhealthy and has lead to things like massive world-wide increases in type 2 diabetes, heart disease and so on.

        • I like your post, but 40kg in six months? You should write a book.

          • +1

            @mrau: No magic. Gone from 9xl to xl now. Planning to be medium or small in 6 months. No magic really, no expensive pills or potions, in fact my food bills have gone down 65% and I feel a lot better and more capable of living life. I would post my 'secret' but I don't want to be just one more of those people who proclaim a 'miracle diet'. I will just say though to people struggling with weight loss that it is possible to do it without exercise if you eat better, with little to no hunger. You can learn to be the boss of your diet rather than the other way round. I am not young so it is never too late.

            • +1

              @Rayve: Was this based on keto?

              • @badonde: I was gonna ask the same question.

                • @nahkk: Modified, yes. My modification essentially being relying on my own body fat reserves instead of trying to maintain some 'macro ratios'. Body fat is there to be used in the lean times and so I let my body do it. It is surprisingly easy. I am way less hungry now than when I was eating a lot of carbs and having large swings in blood glucose and satiety hormones. My doctor is very pleased, my blood work has consistently come back better in all respects (except some minor electrolyte issues which were easily fixed) than it has since my early 20s and things like my fatty liver have completely resolved despite still having regular condiments of cream cheese and sour cream - but no more sugar filled tomato sauce (I make my own now from real tomatoes). I spend far less time now worrying about food and prep time is also far less. And yet I eat simple delicious meals full of colour and flavour.

                  • @Rayve: Thanks for detailed info. I have also cut off carbs (not exactly keto) and seen amazing effects.

                  • @Rayve: Go Keto !!

            • +1

              @Rayve: is your secret by any chance, the rare use of determination combined with will-power, championing success in self-discovery, using discipline, and rewarding yourself with the feeling of knowing your actions are making a positive impact on your life?

              good work and congrats on your achievement. youve done really really well.

        • Tried running on fats. It was bad for my health imo.. hair loss and fungal infection.

          Just because we can live without doesn't mean we can thrive without it. It's too simplistic to blame this thing for your bad health. Inability to burn sugar is probably a sign of a deteriorating metabolism

          • +1

            @ChurchMouth: Congratulations @Rayve , and @ChurchMouth you have a point too, however, there is also a happy medium where it's not a matter of all or nothing, we don't need to completely cut out sugar and run on fat but we can greatly reduce the sugar intake, especially those hidden in soft-drink, fruit juices, flavoured milk and processed foods aka cardboard boxes, but can still eat natural sugars like fruit in moderation, carb veggies like potatoes, some unprocessed grains etc…

            I don't think we need to blame ALL sugar for bad health and our growing diabetes and obesity problems which as you say oversimplifying the demonizing of sugar, but rather the amount and way we are consuming sugar in the first world is the bigger issue.

            OFC this is ozbargain though, we rarely go a few days without HJ/KFC/Maccas deals, yet to see a deal for a 5KG bag of spuds and broccoli.

    • Probably need to watch the doco to get more up to speed on sugars, especially the refined crap.

    • I've been wearing a blood glucose tracker device for fun which graphs my blood sugar for the last few weeks. When I have sugars from refined, fruit, carbs to complex carbs, you can tell what you are eating just by looking at how the blood sugar spikes after sugars and carbs are consume. Refined kick up massively and are gone pretty quickly - not much use unless your in the middle of exercise, complex carbs on the other hand keep your energy going all through the day.

      You dont need refined sugar or fruits because various carbs are much better at providing useful energy.

  • +1

    You don't need to wait for quackery to be free on Ozbargain, plenty of unqualified nutters on YouTube already provide this service.

    • Sugar is bad = quackery ????

      • +4

        Everything in moderation. If you gain weight it's because you ate too many calories, not because sugar is inherently harmful.

        "A 2001 study published in International Journal of Obesity followed overweight subjects whose diets derived either 10 or 5 percent of calories from sucrose.[4] On a 2,000-calorie diet, this would be the difference between 50 and 25 grams of sugar per day. After eight weeks, there were no significant differences in weight loss or BMI. In fact, the high-sugar group lost about 1-1/2 pounds more, but this effect was statistically insignificant.

        This finding jived with a huge six-month study on more than 300 people, in which subjects demonstrated no differences in weight loss or body composition with a diet higher in sugar versus a diet lower in sugar—when calories, protein, and fiber were the same."

        • Isn't the premise of the movie he changes what he eats to be high in added sugars (but maintain same daily calorie intake as previously). Might be worth watching to see what impact that had…

          • +4

            @anthonyw: You're more than welcome to watch a documentary and believe a film makers anecdote over actual science, I'm just pointing out it's not supported in the data. Hell, perhaps it's even an interesting watch. It's super trendy right now to demonize sugar. Here's a quote from a dietitian in regards to the film:

            "I'm not convinced that in a perfect lab setting, with perfect measurement, the same human would gain eight kilograms over two months on a sugar-heavy diet if the kilojoules were the same," she said. "All calories are equal, that's thermodynamics. You can't gain weight unless there's more energy going into your body."

            For some reason regarding diets everyone wants to believe so hard that there's a small trick that will turn you into a Baywatch hero overnight, it's just not the case.

            • -1

              @mintymoose: This 'all calories are equal' has been proven not to be true in vivo. Fats of the same calorific value as carbohydrates will produce only a relatively tiny insulin response thus making storage of fat in our cells far more difficult physiologically. Studies have shown this.

              • +3

                @Rayve: I'm sorry but that's complete BS, perhaps illustrated alone by your lack of citation.

                A good write up is here:

                https://examine.com/nutrition/carbs-fats-and-carbs-plus-fats…

                Regardless, I'm not suggesting carbohydrates can't be the thing that makes you fat, it's just confusing times in which fat is regarded as some hero macronutrient when it's 9 calories per gram over carbohydrates 4 calories per gram…Which is going to blow out your caloric budget quicker? Why are we living in a time where everyone is losing their shit over a chocolate bar but fried food filled with trans fats is seemingly not on the radar as being a problem. Eat everything in moderation, don't consume more energy than you expend - there's no magic to it. The science based fitness and sports crowd understand this and manipulate their bodies accordingly, it's just the general populace that seem to have no idea and think "bIg SuGaR" are out to get them.

                • +1

                  @mintymoose: Really? How about: "Effects of a low carbohydrate diet on energy expenditure during weight loss maintenance: randomized trial" from the BMJ last week? The conclusion was "Consistent with the carbohydrate-insulin model, lowering dietary carbohydrate increased energy expenditure during weight loss maintenance. This metabolic effect may improve the success of obesity treatment, especially among those with high insulin secretion.". And there are many other studies but this an emerging area of study. And unfortunately your 'eat less, move more' paradigm has lead to an epidemic of obesity and metabolic diseases like diabetes.Do you want a few more recent citations that indicate that lowering carbs but eating the same total kilojoules results in more weight loss?

                  • +1

                    @Rayve: Are you actually arguing against moving more and eating less? When has anyone ever in the history of time become MORE obese from eating less and moving more? These are the two cornerstones of weight loss. The only people to ever to debate this (incorrectly) are in the fat acceptance movement, because pretending that you're already 'doing so much exercise!' and 'barely eating anything!' is easier than taking responsibility for lack of discipline. I do appreciate the study you referenced however and will read, but as you said yourself - this is emerging science. I'm talking about the countless studies we have already and the accepted science that the less you eat the less you weight, the more you eat the more you weigh. This is why there are also cases of people consuming nothing but 'unhealthy' food from McDonald's and still losing weight when calories are accounted for. I actually really love this video 'The Scientific Landscape of Healthy Eating' with Dr. Mike Isratael: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TYeZVfPxwKM

                    • @mintymoose: No not against it as such. Simply saying that this way of thinking as a culture has not produced the results we wanted. Perhaps a new approach is required. Simply put the last 75 years have not shown that 'Eat Less, Move More' works for our culture's health and certainly not for the average individual.

                  • +2

                    @Rayve: Respectfully disagree. The 'eat less move more' message has most definitely not lead to an epidemic of obesity and diabetes. The media likes to sensationalise things as if there is a magic way to reduce weight. The fact is people are just not eating less and moving more on a consistent basis over the long term. That's why they are not succeeding, not because 'too many carbs'.

                    The study you mentioned "Effects of a low carbohydrate diet …" showed an average of 209 calories per day difference in energy expenditure between the highest and lowest carb diets. This is a significant amount of calories and can be used as an additional tool to combat obesity and diabetes but seriously, 209 kcals/d is not enough to cause our obesity/diabetes epidemic. It does come down to eat less move more. People that are obese are just eating too much. Eating low carb and having their energy expenditure go up by 200kcals/d may help but it won't solve their problem if they are eating a surplus of 500kcals/d. It is not a magic bullet. The importance of sugar vs fats in the scheme of things is hugely overblown and making people focus on the wrong things. Better to focus on eating less and moving more than the individual macros.

                    The reason I am against this vilification of carbs/sugar is that from my experience the likelihood of someone succeeding in keeping weight off in the long term is that they choose a diet that they can sustain. Also because.. YOLO. I love carbs. I like to eat pasta/bread/chips. It has nothing to do with cravings and not being able to control myself. It is something that makes me happy and enhances my life. If that means I have to eat 200 kcals less per day than the guy eating a low carb diet then I am more then happy to do so.

                    I eat a high carb diet. I find it optimal for my body especially for performance in the gym. I am fairly muscular and lean. I know many people who are lean and eat a high carb diet. It is possible. If the average Joe reads that sugar and carbs are evil but they love sugar/carbs and try to go on a low carb diet they are more likely to fall off the wagon than simply eating a balanced diet but less quantity.

                    Either way, there are many ways to eat and be a healthy weight. Overly vilifying one macro or overhyping one diet is counterproductive.

                    • @Xastros: Well I have been on a Keto lifestyle diet now for 10 months, its all meat, seafood, cheese, butter, saturated fats, ( but not canola / sunflower etc), berry fruits, salads. No Carbs to speak of, No bread, pasta, rice, sugars or anything with sugars or added sugar. I have lost 29 KGS so far.I basically gorge to excess on the foods that I eat, and although with little carb intake, I go to the gym three times a week, weight training, for two hours at a time. Do physical work outside in the heat in Qld, mixing and repouring a concrete drive and I'm 68. If carbs were that important I should be completely stuffed up with zero energy or dead.I have regular doc checkups and my blood work has never been better. According to a govt heart heath site I'm at the lowest risk of heart disease, which I was not two years ago.
                      I wonder how many readers here know who thought up the idea that carbs and sugars were good for you and fats bad ? Well the answer is Dr Ancel Keys, who was actually a psycologist, so he was well qualified, and how many scientific studies to support his one ( proven to be "doctored" report ), well there aren't any. So if you think everybody is maybe getting fatter and obese, well now you know the answer !!
                      As most Keto / low carbs sites say, don't believe them, do your own research and be prepared to be shocked !!!!

                      • @tonyp: I am happy for you that you lost all that weight and you are healthy at 68. I hope I can be that healthy if I reach that age.

                        However, nowhere in my post did I say that carbs are super important. I said I am against the vilification of carbs/sugar and that there are many ways to eat to be healthy and maintain a healthy weight. I said I eat a high carb diet and function better on high carbs personally just to show that there isn't just one holy grail diet everyone should be following. You need to find a diet that you can stick with and that suits your body.

                        Scientific studies work on averages. They don't reveal what is best for every individual. Say you do a study with 100 people of the effects of a weight loss drug. If 50 people lost 10kg and 50 people gained 10kg the 'result' is that the drug has no effect on weight loss when clearly that is not the case. There are many individuals who don't respond well to the keto diets and many can't tolerate it (their lipids go out of whack). A browse of any fitness/bodybuilding forum will show a multitude of people who have gone on keto and had poor results in subsequent blood work. There are individuals who see spikes in cholesterol from eating dietary fats and dietary cholesterol despite studies saying that on average, dietary fats/dietary cholesterol should have minimal impact on blood lipids.

                        The problem is that when a person finds a diet that works for them they now think it is god's gift to mankind and the ONLY way. I have personally experimented with a huge amount of different diets. High carb, low carb, eating 8 times per day, eating once per day, intermittent fasting, IFFYM etc. And when I experiment I don't do it half hearted. I weigh myself daily at the same time every day to track moving averages. Regular progress pics. Logs of how many reps x weight achieved in every workout log everything I eat. From those years of experience with different approaches I can say from my personal experience that all those finer details like meal frequency, high carb/low carb etc don't make a significant difference compared to total amount of calories consumed. That is obviously for my body, may not be the same for someone else. The point I am making is that you have found something that works for you, it may not work well for someone else AND/OR other diets may work for you as well if you stick with them.

                • @mintymoose: How many oranges can you eat at once, not many, but I bet you can drink a big orange juice which would contain five to six oranges with ease and get that boosted sugar intake. Now calculate how many calories are in that orange juice and then apply them in proportion to a block of cheese. See if you can eat all the cheese.
                  How long do you think the orange juice with keep you feeling satisfied and full, and what about the cheese. The carbs might be the same, but the cheese / fat keeps you feeling full for a much longer time. That's the basis of low carb and keto diets, you just don't feel as hungry, so you actually eat less…

                  • @tonyp: No, the basis for keto and low carb diets is you restrict the window of foods available to you which in turn usually equals a caloric deficit. I believe the science supports that on a keto diet you burn more fat, but you also STORE more fat. On a higher carb lower fat diet you burn LESS fat but also store less fat. The result of this is weight loss is comparative on either of these diets when calories are adhered to. I'm completely for you cutting out food groups if it helps you stay on track but it's not because there was anything inherently harmful about them or any science to suggest they were causing you to be overweight if calories are accounted for (unless you have a bad reaction to gluten). The most obvious example to why calories are king to weight maintenance is that in every extreme category of diet we have individuals with improved health markers, whether it be keto, paleo, vegan, vegetarian, high carb low fat - any of them work if your calories are right.

        • +1

          I think the biggest problem is the people don't know how much sugar there is in common foods. I look at the people around me as work who are always complaining that they cant lose weight, yet drink coke, eat sweetened yoghurt, muesli bars, "healthy" sugar filled breakfast cereals etc etc

          • @slow: Think about how long you have to run to burn 500 kcal.. your energy expenditure is probably mostly based on your base metabolic rate which can be impacted by poor nutrition and lack of carbohydrate.. It's not simple as excercise or sugar.

            • @ChurchMouth: The issue with eat less and move more is that it doesn't take into account the psychological aspects.

  • +5

    Seen it. It's entertaining, but not much more beyond that. Agreed that this is a questionable deal as there's plenty of other content in SBS On Demand which is also 'free'.

  • +1

    I’ll watch this on McDonalds free wifi while eating my $2 Quarter Pounder

    • And your large Coke?

    • You realise that there's not much sugar in a quarter pounder, right?

      • +2

        Total carbs equivalent to 8 teaspoons of sugar, 2 actual teaspoons of sugar. I would call that a lot actually.

      • A lot of it's in the bun, I don't eat much sugar so I'm sensitive to it and when I chew on it I can taste how damn sweet it is

        • Yup, your right, throw the buns away, that's where the sugar is. In the US some of the big chains are already selling burgers without the buns - I suppose that really makes it a rissole with salad !

  • +4

    Can we all agree to not have a single free film posted here as a ‘deal’ when there are hundreds of others available on both SBS On Demand & iView?

  • +1

    It was on tv last week, similar to "supersize me" but focus more on food that it is believed to be healthy like cereal, yogurth and fruit juice.

  • +4

    true story, after this film i cut sugar for a month and saw the results with minimal exercise. now 8 months later i’m 15kg lighter.

    • Did you just cut stuff with added sugars or did you cut sugar as carbs like potatoes, rice, flour?

      • +2

        cut stuff with sugar, i still eat carbs but minimal.
        didn't want to make my life miserable.

  • +9

    SBS free to air replays are not deals.
    This movie has good information but also has a bunch of feel good filler crap with his wife having a baby and going shopping for strollers and crap - you can fast forward that crap on the stream and save yourself 40 minutes of BS

  • Does anyone recall another sugar related doco/special that aired on Australian TV in the past few months or so? Perhaps on another channel? I remember quite a few people were talking about it afterwards, but I can't work out what it was. I doubt it was a re-run of this, but could've been.

    • +1

      Michael Moseley has done a few on this topic.

      • Thanks, I'll have a look

    • +1

      I think you are recalling this documentary Sugar Coated.

      • Could be it! I honestly have no idea though. I want to watch as much as I can on the topic :) -thanks!

  • Would have been hilarious if OP put it in the Dining and Takeaway category.

  • I watched this on TV the other night. I think his weight gain is probably due to retaining a heap of water. He only gives his weight and not BF%.

    Also his dietician is listed as a naturopath in the credits.

  • He doesn't calorie control his meals, he estimates. Even nutritionists are poor at estimating their calorie intake.
    I've been interested in nutrition for a while and sugar isn't bad for you and doesn't cause obesity because of some magical pathway in your body. Sugar is often in foods that aren't very filling i.e. soft drinks, lollies etc and it's therefore easy to overconsume those foods.

    But did you know that per weight, an apple has the same sugar content as a can of coke? Does this make them equals? No because sugar isn't the issue. What is the issue is the high access to delicious foods at a small price. If you consume them in moderation you are just as healthy as someone who abstains (probably mentally healthier than abstainers tho).

    This black and white thinking of sugar = bad, actually increases the incidence of eating disorders and prevents obese people from losing weight because they develop an unhealthy relationship with food that ends up in cycles of guilt/shame when they consume something they have been told is 'bad'.

  • +2

    Was told by an integrative doctor who gives lectures and stuff that I'll need to be on a diet strictly consisting only of: fresh fruits, fresh vegs and pure, fresh activated nuts. No meats, fish, seafood, breads, gluten, dairy, anything processed. I think the only way is to experiment and find out what works for you rather than blindly follow what was being told.

    • He sounds like a vegetarian, let's not go there.. I'm Keto, the exact opposite !

  • +2

    Eat real food mostly plants and not too much ;)

    • They don’t serve this in Maccas.

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