NEW RELEASE: Film Explores Sugar and Health
“If you want to know how sugar politics really works, see this film!”
- MARION NESTLE, AUTHOR OF SODA POLITICS
What happens when public relations is taken more seriously than public health?
A startling new study published earlier this month reveals that the sugar industry funded decades of scientific research on heart disease. This research, going back to the 1950s and 60s, downplayed evidence that sucrose was a significant dietary risk factor in Coronary Heart Disease and instead targeted fat and cholesterol. As the New York Times reported, “five decades of research into the role of nutrition and heart disease, including many of today’s dietary recommendations, may have been largely shaped by the sugar industry.”
The study was co-authored by Cristin Kearns and Laura Schmidt, two of the featured interviewees in Sugar Coated, an important new documentary release from the Media Education Foundation. The eye-opening film examines how the multibillion-dollar food industry has waged a series of adept public relations campaigns to discredit and distract from mounting scientific evidence about the toxicity of #sugar.
Ranging from the industry’s first major PR campaign in the 1970s to its continuing offensives today, the film brings us face to face with an industry – and a public health system – at a crossroads. Will the PR specialists of the food industry continue to prevail? Or will accelerating public alarm about sugar-induced obesity, diabetes, heart disease, and liver disease in children force Big Sugar – like Big Tobacco before it – to finally confront reality and put people’s health before profits?
Sugar Coated is an indispensable classroom resource. Ideal for courses that look at public health issues, nutrition, public relations, communications, and media.
Featuring Dr. Bob Lustig, Gary Taubes, Cristin Kearns, Laura Schmidt, and Dr. Yoni Freedhoff.
Praise for Sugar Coated:
“Sugar Coated hits a home run.”
– James Bawden | Blogspot
“Michele Hozer makes BIG SUGAR required viewing for all in Sugar Coated.”
– T-Mac World
“This is one sharp doc.”
– Cinemablographer
“The great thing about this feature doc is its point of-view film making.”
– Brendan Kelly | Montreal Gazette
“Must see… a beautifully crafted documentary.”
– The Muff Society
“We’re all taught to think of sugar as the most natural of sweet things, bringing smiles from cradle to grave. But it’s actually more poison than benefit, Michèle Hozer persuasively argues, in an exposé that gives sugar and its corporate pushers many lumps… A good companion piece to Robert Kenner’s recent Merchants of Doubt.”
– Peter Howell | Toronto Star
