As I saw the doc :Fed up,I would like also to take on the alcohol abuse problem. Read my novel:Opgroeien in Dalten.(Growing up in Dalten)Editor :Boxpress(Netherlands)In the Netherlands one million people have problems with alcohol.Among them 400000 are alcohols.Fifteen percent of our youth has a problem with alcohol.

Viewers of AN INCONVENIENT TRUTH, produced by the same time, should know what to expect from FED UP.Stating its case baldly with support from a variety of experts, Stephanie Soechtig's film argues that the contemporary obesity epidemic is almost entirely attributable to the food industry. Prevented by public opinion from selling full-fat products, they have increased sugar levels instead, and purposely withheld the information from consumers. They purposely set out to hoodwink customers but promising them a healthy lifestyle by purchasing foods that are manifestly un-healthy. Add to this a conscious attempt to attract children's attention by aggressively promoting fast food products, and one can understand why a significant proportion of the American population suffers from excessive fat levels.The only snag with this film is an essential uncertainty of tone. It begins by arguing that the current obsession with losing weight through exercise and "healthy" eating is nothing more than a strategy perpetrated by the food industry to escape responsibility for its actions. In other words, it shifts attention away from the real problem on to something peripheral. Then, after about a third of the film, our attention shifts to a group of children, all of whom are overweight. The documentary claims that they have been deliberately lured into buying unhealthy foods through advertising, and for this the food industry should be held accountable.The credits end with a list of those who refused to be interviewed for the documentary, almost as it their silence proves their incipient guilt. If food industry representatives had put their case, the filmmakers imply, then perhaps they might have defended themselves.FED UP makes for entertaining viewing, but whether it argues a persuasive case is moot. By demonizing the food industry, it simply rehearses a rhetorical strategy that could be applied to any capitalist enterprise - tobacco, pharmaceuticals, health care provision, or selling arms to rogue states. In the end we begin to notice the conscious bias in the argument rather than accepting the veracity of the case it makes, which rather defeats the object of the exercise.

I saw the documentary on Netflix basically because I had nothing better to do, having no hopes or expectations about it, I just knew that it was a film about child obesity, but I was surprised to see that this fact is just the first stone. If I have to define what this documentary really is about, I would say that it is a well elaborated series of arguments against USA government and their legislations; and thank you for that. Although I was expecting to see more children's testimony (because I personally like that sort of documentary) it was amazing to get that amount of information about something that's really important in our lives: what are we eating and why. The arguments are well presented, with facts and professional opinions, everything is right there. The most unbelievable aspect of this film is not what they are telling us, but the fact, that we didn't know it before. The food industry is disgusting, they controlled pretty much our lives, but putting out their food that is harmful for us.The one thing I wish had been different is, as I said before, the lack of relevance in the children's food habits and routines. Basically, there are a couple of kids with serious overweight issues. They express their emotions in some short clips, most of the times recorded by themselves. We can see how they are struggling and suffering from their situations. I like that honesty, but I wish it could be more of that. They are what motivated this movie (allegedly) and by the end we don't even know what they are really eating, or if they were really doing something about it, because there is not a deep follow trough, just the typing a the end of the film briefly explaining where they are now. For a movie that says over an over again that the speech of diet and exercise is not the real answer for stopping childhood obesity, it is also important to highlight that if you are dealing with this problem, you have to take care of yourself and stop eating what you normally eat! Yes, there is a bigger problem, is the government, the society, but if your kid weights twice, three times his supposed weight you have to take care of it, you have to intervene. We are also part of the society, we always look next to us but not to ourselves, that's the problem, and in that sense the film fails. I was shocked when I watched that kids have for lunch, burgers and french fries or pizza, EVERYDAY. That's outrageous. Kids need vegetables, it is not a myth, not only kids, human need vegetables, we need vitamins and water. Not a bunch of junk food an later on a bunch of pills to fix the problem. Send your kids their lunch, prepare them some rice and chicken. I know it can be time consuming, but the benefits are far more relevant. I was thinking about my home situation. I live in Chile, here we don't eat processed food at schools, you either take your lunch (cooked food for home, not bread, not a snack, and actual lunch, with carbohydrates and protein, even the salad as part of it) or you get your lunch at school, but it has to be cocked there. In college, we had a cafeteria, usually there were three menus, regular, vegetarian, and healthy. Al of them were cooked right there the same day, no processed food. With your lunch you also get a salad, some juice and dessert, and there was always fruit to choose, ALWAYS, maybe there was something more fancy as well, but oranges and bananas were always at your reach. That's how we eat, and it feels okay, the main reason why the overweight rates have increased in the last few years is because fast food companies are spreading like crazy around here and more and more process products coming from the United States are in the supermarkets these days. Yes, of course a 10-year-old would rather eat a hamburger, and yes, it must be hard living in a society where everything seems to be processed food, but we are the adults, not them, we have this information, they have no idea, let's take a step further. As I read in another review, this is the documentary that every parent should watch.

They left the most important point of the equation until the very last bit. It is that nobody cooks any more from scratch. They all want a fast fix by eating packaged foods. Parents are usually the first to say they would die for the children and do anything for them. Well, why are they not cooking for their children instead of being lazy and going for something out of the box? That is the problem right there. Just because these corporations keep putting all their products on the shelf does not mean one has to buy them. Why not send a STRONG message to these companies by BOYCOTTING their products and starting to cook from scratch? Try eating rice and beans, and frozen vegetables without cheese and all that stuff, just plain veggies that you season to your liking.Unless parents are ready to take back their children's lives by actually cooking for them, then this problem will continue to grow. We as a nation have become lazy and just want a quick fix, we only have ourselves to blame.