Myth Buster
The documentary heavily debunks this popular weight-loss mantra that treats a calorie from _____ the same as a calorie from soda.
Almonds
This U.S. government department responsible for promoting agriculture is also tasked with issuing dietary guidelines, creating a major conflict of interest.
What is the USDA (United States Department of Agriculture)?
When you consume excess liquid sugar without fiber, this primary organ is immediately overwhelmed, forcing it to convert the sugar into fat.
What is the Liver?
Under president Ronald Reagan, the USDA famously attempted to classify this popular fast-food dip as a vegetable to save money on school lunches.
What is Ketchup?
This acronym stands for people who appear healthy on the outside but carry dangerous metabolic fat around their internal organs.
Tofi
This 1977 U.S. Senate report originally warned Americans to eat less meat and sugar before industry lobbying forced the government to rewrite it.
What is the McGovern Report (Dietary Goals for the United States)?
This hormone, produced by the pancreas, stores fat and blocks the brain from receiving the signal that you are full.
What is Insulin?
According to the film, over 50% of American high schools served this brand of fast food in their cafeterias by the early 2010s.
What is Fast Food / Commercial Brands (e.g., Domino's, Pizza Hut, or Taco Bell)?
When food manufacturers removed this nutrient from products in the 1980s, they added massive amounts of sugar to make the food taste good again.
Fat
Because of government subsidies, this cheap liquid sweetener made from corn became the dominant ingredient in American processed foods and sodas.
What is High-Fructose Corn Syrup (HFCS)?
Unlike fruit juice or soda, whole fruits do not cause an immediate sugar spike because they contain this essential dietary component that slows digestion.
What is High-Fructose Corn Syrup (HFCS)?
The passage of the Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act in 2010 set new nutrition standards, but was heavily watered down by lobbying from companies that supply this major, cheese-topped entree.
What is Pizza?
The film argues against this popular excuse, which places the total blame of obesity on individual willpower rather than food chemistry and addiction.
What is Gluttony and Sloth (or lack of personal responsibility)?
Congress famously protected fast-food interests in public school cafeterias by classifying these two popular menu items as "vegetables."
What are Pizza and French Fries?
This organ in the brain receives signals from fat cells via the hormone leptin, telling you when to stop eating—a process blocked by high insulin.
What is the Brain (or Hypothalamus)
Because public schools face massive budget cuts, many cafeterias replaced traditional home-cooked meal programs with branded "food courts" provided by this multinational food service corporation.
What is Aramark (or Compass Group / Sodexo)?
This government-backed fitness initiative, spearheaded by First Lady Michelle Obama, is criticized in the film for focusing on physical activity rather than food regulation.
What is Let's Move!?
What is the Big Tobacco (or Cigarette) industry?
The documentary compares the modern food industry’s lobbying tactics and science-denial directly to this former powerful American industry from the 1950s and 60s.
This condition, formerly known as "Adult-Onset Diabetes," had to be renamed because so many children were developing it.
What is Type 2 Diabetes?
The film shows that sugar-sweetened beverages sold in school vending machines were protected by agreements often called "Swell" or "___ contracts" made directly between schools and soda companies.
What is an Exclusivity contract (or "Pouring rights" contract)?