Documentary 'Fed Up' blames food companies, gov't for obesity crisis

Every day new social media posts and fitness websites show stories of individuals who overcome their battles with weight and obesity, dropping sometimes hundreds of pounds, and touting their weight loss success.

Though it undoubtedly takes willpower and determination to make that kind of life transformation, a new film is adding to a conversation questioning whether relying on individual resolve alone can really help curb the mounting obesity epidemic in the U.S. That way of thinking, some suggest, stigmatizes patients and leaves food manufacturers off the hook.

“Everything we've been told about food and exercise for the past 30 years is dead wrong,” claims a film released in May called “Fed Up,” from executive producer and narrator Katie Couric, and producers, Laurie David (producer of “An Inconvenient Truth”), Regina Scully (producer of “The Invisible War”) and Stephanie Soechtig (who produced “Tapped”).

Soechtig follows a group of children for two years as they attempt to control their weight through traditional methods of diet and exercise.

“They are undertaking a mission impossible,” filmmakers said. The film attributes the lack of success to a “misinformation campaign” orchestrated by food manufacturers and supported by the U.S. government. “Even those of us who look thin and trim on the outside are facing the same consequences, fighting the same medical battles as the obese among us,” they said.

The viewpoint of “Fed Up” is just one among attempts to rethink where responsibility should lie on addressing public health in the United States, with more fingers being pointed away from the individual, and more toward manufacturers and government.

For example, in a paper published this week in the journal Social Currents, a researcher criticized efforts by some food manufacturers trying to look better to the public by participating in philanthropic efforts that promote health. The rhetoric really just helps to boost their bottom line, said Ivy Ken, from the sociology department at George Washington University.

“By framing corporations as vital community partners poised to 'work together' across sectors to solve the childhood obesity 'crisis,' these organizations hope to inspire the public to participate in this imagined community in one predominant way: by buying their products,” Ken wrote.

A 2013 report from the U.S. Public Interest Research Group found that since 1995 the U.S. government has spent more than $292 billion on agricultural subsidies, and about $19 billion of those subsidies have helped to support corn- and soy-derived junk food ingredients. According to the report, 75% of the subsidies go to just 3.8% of farmers, supporting only a few commodity crops, including corn and soybeans—which food manufacturers process into additives like high-fructose corn syrup and vegetable oil, among other uses.

In May, Sens. Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.) and Tom Harkin (D-Iowa), introduced legislation to put an end to federal tax subsidies for junk food marketed to children. The Stop Subsidizing Childhood Obesity Act of 2014 aims to “to protect children's health by denying any deduction for advertising and marketing directed at children to promote the consumption of food of poor nutritional quality.”

While the debate about accountability continues, the effect of obesity and poor nutrition on health in the U.S. remains disquieting. Obesity has more than doubled in children, and quadrupled in adolescents in the past 30 years, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. More than one-third of U.S. adults, nearly 35% of the population, is obese.

The medical cost of adult obesity in the United States is estimated to range between $147 billion and $210 billion per year, according to an annual report from the Trust for America's Health. If rates continue on current trajectories, by 2030 more than half of the population of most U.S. states could be considered obese, the report found.

Follow Sabriya Rice on Twitter: @MHSRice