Sugar Coated

Gr 7 Up—Dr. Robert Lustig, a pediatric endocrinologist, leads a group of researchers who detail the consequences of eating sugar: obesity and metabolic diseases, such as diabetes and heart disease. He and several others describe the lengths to which major food industry groups have gone to discredit the perils of sugar consumption, which has increased 46 percent in the last 30 years, according to the program. Additionally, Lustig emphasizes the increase in type 2 diabetes and fatty liver disease in children, while another researcher, Cristin Kearns, discusses dental cavities and massive bone loss in young children. Overall, the program covers similar ground as a previously reviewed film, Is Sugar the New Fat?? [SLJ 4/17], which also features Lustig. However, Sugar Coated is two years older and, although made for a U.S. audience, contains information that is at best more dated and incomplete than in the other documentary.