“Everything we’ve been told about food and exercise for the past 30 years is dead wrong.”

The documentary Fed Up is in fighting form. The film focuses on the food industry and follows several obese American children. We watch them try and repeatedly fail to lose weight in a heart-breaking spiral they seem powerless to break. That, say the film-makers, is because the industry has been feeding us a pack of heavily sugared lies. And they want us to fight back.

The film itself is both sobering and compelling, but the real crunch comes at the end, with the invitation for viewers to join the “ten day challenge”. Added sugar, they say, is the enemy; to get an idea about how ubiquitous and addictive it is, the challenge is to eliminate it from your diet for ten days.

Hooked

Fed Up is upfront about how that will feel: “Giving up sugar will be tough because… sugar has the same addictive properties as tobacco and alcohol. The more sugar you eat, the more you need to satisfy your craving. Cravings may persist for one to three weeks.” Even so, I was game. With a little bit of will power, I was sure I could make it.

In practice I lasted just half a day. And that’s because added sugar really is lurking in almost everything that we eat. Unless you make a dish from scratch in your kitchen, it’s virtually impossible to guarantee that you aren’t ingesting sugar. I started well, swapping cereal (even the so-called healthy ones have lots of added sugar) for porridge, but my downfall came with the salad dressing at lunchtime. It was a simple vinaigrette, but when I remembered to check the ingredients, there it was – sugar.

Public health crisis

The predominance of the white stuff in the food we eat has been described as the greatest public health crisis of our time. In the US, childhood obesity is a national epidemic. Nearly one in three people there is overweight or obese, putting them at risk of serious health problems. But the US is not alone in raising unhealthy children; the statistics in Malta are equally bad. Almost half of the diabetes cases and almost a quarter of ischaemic heart disease in Malta is caused by patients being overweight or obese. And diabetes is running at 10 per cent of the population.

The reasons are numerous and most people know them already; we don’t move enough (increasing screen time and lack of physical activity play an important part in the problem) and we eat too much sugar. The Fed Up team single out fizzy drinks as a particular concern, with a fifth of US teens drinking the equivalent of an extra meal in soda daily. They also criticise the marketing of unhealthy foods loaded with sugar and increased portion sizes as culprits. It has been popular to demonise fat for years, but when the food industry removed that fat, they added sugar instead.

Fed Up doesn’t just complain about the situation. It offers some concrete ways to reduce and eliminate sugar from your diet. The first step is easy; just choose something from the list below and sign up to the Fed Up challenge (www.fedupmovie.com).

Fizz, bang, wallop

There are plenty of sneaky sugars that will trip us all up, but one very easy way to cut out a major source is to stop drinking our calories. That means no fizzy drinks (including diet drinks – artificial sweeteners might have no calories but they slow your metabolism and their sweet taste primes your body to expect sugar, making you crave more food). Fruit juices with added sugar can be just as bad. If you want to make one permanent change for the better, then cut out these drinks.

Naked food

Nutritionists say that if you can’t recognise the ingredients in a food, you should avoid it. As often as you can, make an effort to eat real food that you prepare from scratch. Malta is blessed with a vegetable wagon on many street corners – make the most of this great resource. Or, you can start a food garden with your kids, even if you only have a couple of planters.

It will encourage the family to eat what you grow. Some ready meals still take 20 minutes or so to heat in the oven; in the same time, you can prepare fresh food. Jamie Oliver has some great ideas for healthy 15 minute dinners on www.jamieoliver.com.