"Sugar in the morning, sugar in the evening, sugar at supper time..."

This compelling documentary describes the deterioration of American health, especially that of our youth, as obesity and childhood diabetes have reached stunning levels. It also shows us how sugar, in its many forms, pervades all of our processed foods; how low-fat foods promise a cruel lie; how overweight teenagers suffer from social fallout; how the cafeterias in America's schools are "sponsored" by Coke, Pepsi, Pizza Hut and McDonald's; plus the shocking and ever-increasing incidence of health problems seen in our children that are a direct by-product of obesity: heart attacks, strokes, cancer, diabetes and reduced longevity. Many children are TOFI (Thin outside and fat inside.) Diet and exercise alone are NOT the answer.

Here's how it works:

• * Farm subsidies from OUR government make the growing of corn enormously profitable.
• * FDA regulations enable the providers of corn sugar to disguise its presence with a variety of names: high fructose, sucrose, dextrose, the list is in the documentary and it's staggering!
• * The disclosure of the sugar RDA is exempt from items we buy. Many times what we eat at breakfast ALONE exceeds our Recommended Daily Allowance for sugar!
• * School lunches and vending machines provide highly disguised sugary junk food.
• * Health care costs soar exponentially.
• * According to the experts interviewed in this shocking piece, "A tsunami of diabetes is coming!" (Watch the trailer.)

I remember first reading "Sugar is poison" from an ancient interview with old-time movie star Gloria Swanson. I next heard that same message from Carol Channing (remember "Hello, Dolly?"). The message hasn't changed and is still delivered by politicians, health care professionals and parents. The problem is, the message cannot be acted upon because of the enormous power of the food industry lobby. According to Congress, pizza is a vegetable.

Director Stephanie Soechtig and TV's Katie Couric lead us through this exposé that is a call to arms which offers a hopeful game plan.

What to do? The same thing we did to the tobacco industry:

• * Vilify sugar like we did tobacco! (Fred Flintstone used to advertise cigarettes before he started pushing sugary cereals.)
• * Outlaw the advertising of sugary foods to our children. Mexico is only one of a growing number of countries that have outlawed ads to children for sugary food.
• * Ban junk and processed foods in the schools. Have school cafeterias offer only their own food again. If junk food is an alternative, real food loses.

And in our homes, we need to cook our own food again...from scratch! Remember how much power we had when tobacco was defeated? We can do it again. See this movie, I can't begin to tell you everything it contains; buy the DVD so you can loan it out; and above all, spread the word!