But the real alarm sounded when I had developed fatty liver disease after just 18 days. It’s fair to say there was a spike in interest when I put on three kilograms in just 12 days. There was a real chance that all this sugar-eating lunacy might amount to nothing. None of the team monitoring me really knew what to expect.Īs a result, the film was very low budget in the first few weeks. The 40 teaspoons a day would be ‘hidden sugars’ found in foods like low fat yoghurt, cereals, muesli bars, juices, sports drinks and assorted condiments.
What if I could eat my 40 teaspoons of sugar a day by only consuming products that many people would perceive to be ‘healthy’ or at least would have no idea about the amount of sugar that lurks within them? This became the key part of the narrative and the rules were set.įor 60 days I would maintain the same level of exercise that I already did and I would eat no chocolate, ice cream, soft drink or confectionery. That hook came in aisle 5 of my local supermarket when I decided to properly read some labels and discovered that BBQ sauce, hoisin sauce and sweet chilli sauce all had more sugar in them per serve than chocolate sauce. Sugar is ‘hidden’ in many foodsīut there needed to be something to grab the audience’s attention. I assembled a team of doctors, scientists and nutritionists – all far more intelligent than myself – and went about consuming 40 teaspoons of sugar a day which sadly is what many Australians between the age of 19 and 30 are doing (this includes fruit juices, concentrates and other sweeteners like honey and maple syrup). With talk of babies now frequenting our conversations, no doubt inspired by the hand-holding strolls through the IKEA labyrinth, I thought the only way to find out the truth about sugar was to do an experiment on my own body and document the results. Some used words like ‘toxic’ and ‘poisonous’ while others cried ‘essential for energy’. Film about impact of sugar on my bodyĪt the time, there was a lot of press starting to emerge about sugar, but the camps were very divided. I had also directed my first short film, won a large competition in Australia with it, and had been approached by a production company to make a first feature film. Jump cut to three years later, and my girlfriend and I had bonded so well that not only had we purchased our first couch from IKEA, but we didn’t even argue when assembling it (love’s true test). I felt calmer and more balanced and present throughout the day.
#THE SUGAR STORY DOCUMENTARY SKIN#
People commented on my improved skin and eye brightness, I noticed that I had lost a few layers of my hibernation suit and the biggest surprise was the affect on my mental state.
Two months into this rigorous ‘wooing’ process, I began to notice the changes. As a result, and without thinking much about it, I soon went from consuming around 30 teaspoons of added sugar a day to virtually none, apart from the odd square of fancy-sounding artisanal dark chocolate. I nodded in anticipation at her kale and cucumber smoothies, feigned excitement at avocado on chia seed bread and inhaled mountains of organic vegetables and weird sounding naturopathic potions. The other thing that happens with a man, is that when he is trying to impress a woman, he pretends to be interested in a whole range of things that he has actually never even heard of before. I saw all of my current patterns of behaviour combust in front of me, like putting a lighter to a ball of candy floss. I knew the moment I laid eyes on that radiant and effervescent creature that I was done, but that I had some serious work to do Vanilla Cokes and cigarettes were not going to penetrate the healthy force field that surrounded her. I can happily report that this happened to me. I told myself I enjoyed smoking a pack of cigarettes a day and pouring two cans of Vanilla Coke into my body.īut as often happens with a man, he is wrenched from the clutches of self-destruction just in the nick of time by a nurturing and emotionally intelligent woman. My love of self had certainly been applied well to clothing choices and facial grooming but had yet to influence my nutrition. In the warm Australian summer of 2008, I was pretending to enjoy life as an early 30s single male. Damon Gameau is director and star of That Sugar Film, in which he ate a ‘ healthy’, low-fat diet for 60 days – to highlight the health impact of eating sugar hidden in foods you don’t expect.
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