On Saturday, November 8, 2014, as part of the Virginia Film Festival, Charlottesville Tomorrow sponsored a screening of the documentary Fed Up, which examines the role sugar plays in the modern food industry.
Following the movie, Dr. Christine M. Burt Solorzano, a pediatric endocrinologist at the University of Virginia Children’s Hospital, hosted a Q&A with Katie Couric—the documentary’s producer—and Dr. Mark Hyman, author and regular contributor to the Dr. Oz Show.
Throughout the discussion, Couric highlighted what sparked her to make the film, as well as how her food choices have changed.
“I didn’t realize how sugar was so much the culprit in the epidemic,” Couric said. “It’s really changed the way I shop and what I consume.”
“I thought I was pretty well-informed and had covered this issue a lot,” Couric added.
Hyman and Couric also touched on the difficulty many consumers have reading complicated nutrition labels and encouraged families to cook whole foods as much as possible.
“We’re only one kitchen away, one family away, one meal away from changing this whole thing if we can empower families to learn how simple it really is to make real food together,” Hyman said.
And while both guests acknowledged the increased time cooking from scratch takes, Hyman said learning just the basic cooking skills can save a significant amount of time.
Couric agreed, adding that the best place to start is with kids.
“One of the things I learned making this film is how early this education has got to start for children,” Couric said.
