That Sugar Film Page #4

'cause it's got enough sugar

to keep it going.

It is your most important organ

in the body, in that way.

When you eat something

that's really sugary,

like lollies or fruit juices,

that sort of thing,

your blood sugar will spike

really quickly

and then it will crash down

again really quickly.

The reason it crashes

really quickly is because,

in response to that sugar,

the body releases insulin,

the hormone that takes it into the cells

so it can be used for energy.

So, that big crash though

means that your brain's no longer happy,

so, in response to that,

we get the release of stress

hormones like adrenaline,

which is then signalling the brain

to tell you to eat something

sugary again

so that we can get it back up again.

And so, once again, we get

more insulin and it dips down,

and that's why you get

the fluctuations in your mood,

from that sugar spiking and falling.

And the problem with the adrenaline

is that that can lead to anxiety

and even panic attacks

because of those mood changes.

Given my experience

of fluctuating blood sugar levels,

I couldn't help but think of children

struggling to learn at school.

Could a diet full of hidden sugar

be contributing to the problem?

This has had a very profound impact

on children's behaviour,

on mental illness.

It has exacerbated many different types

of neurological disorders,

but we don't actually name

what the cause is,

which is the sugar that's in the diet.

Sugar Crisp is candy-coated

right down to the last

wheat puff in the box.

- As a cereal it's dandy.

- For snacks it's so handy.

Or eat it like candy.

Post's Sugar Crisp.

Don't laugh. It's for the...

You know why I'm doing it.

The speed at which my high-sugar diet

was affecting me

took us all by surprise.

I was going to have to expand

the scope of the experiment,

and this would take me

out of town for a few days.

In 2002 I spent some time with

an Aboriginal community

and was stunned by the amount

of sugar they consumed.

Like so many indigenous cultures

introduced to a Western diet,

their relationship with sugar

seemed particularly destructive.

The Aborigines

have remarkably little sugar

in their diet.

Two or three small pieces of candy

would be equal to the sum total

of the amount of sweetness

that an Aborigine would get in one year.

In 2008,

Coca-Cola claimed that

Australia's Northern Territory

was their highest-selling region

per capita in the world.

This was, in large part,

due to the local stores

in the Aboriginal communities.

Just 100km from Uluru

is the small town of Amata.

It has always been alcohol-free,

but in 2007 its population

of just under 400 people

consumed 40,000 litres of soft drink.

So one Aboriginal man decided

to do something about it.

His name is John Tregenza.

This is his case, this is his putaru

and this is his nickname.

Why?

'Cause I cut through the bullshit.

When I first come up here, in 1973,

I would estimate that,

say, 10% of the people's diet

came from the store,

and now it's almost 100%.

So it was obviously critical

that people's health

depended on what they were

carrying out the store door.

This reliance on the store

has been caused by a variety

of environmental changes.

The main one being the

introduction of a foreign grass

that took over the plains

and drove away the native plants

and animals

that had provided bush tucker

for centuries.

Being in Amata, it was hard to

believe that only 40 years ago

these people were living

predominantly off the land.

All our families and old people,

all our grandfathers

and great-great-grandparents,

they only eating bush tucker,

like emus, kangaroos, turkey,

wild tomatoes, wild beets.

And they were healthy,

no sickness.

And then the white fella

came into Australia,

he bring all the sweet things

like lollies... biscuits, everything.

With stores filling up

with highly profitable sugary items

and the community's health

rapidly declining,

John, his colleagues

and a local health council

established a program

to ensure people had access

to fresh, healthy produce.

They called it Mai Wiru

The Mai Wiru quickly went to work.

They removed deep-fryers,

added free cold water fountains

and hired a nutritionist to

educate the community.

For the children, they made music videos

with psychedelic vegetables

and put up these signs

on the store's fridges.

I put this one to the test

and I think they might be

onto something.

But, most importantly, the local

people were empowered

and began making their own

decisions about their health.

The community at Amata decided

that they were wanting to reduce

the amount of sugar intake

that they were having

throughout the community.

The first high-sugar item to go

was the black fizzy stuff.

Then they've said, "We don't want Coke,"

so they don't have Coke.

So no-one is upset about it,

it is a decision by the elders.

And so we don't have Coke.

Mai Wiru was working

and in a very short time Amata had

the lowest rate of sugar

consumption in the region.

With the level of sugar consumption

in other communities I've been

in, it's astronomical.

It is over the top.

I think the Mai Wiru group,

in itself, could teach a lot of

the other communities a lot.

But just when everything seemed

to be headed in the right direction,

the government slashed

Mai Wiru's funding.

The organisation is now left

with a skeleton of staff,

the nutritionist was the first to go.

The Pitjantjatjara

Yankunytjatjara people

really feel it

because it was their idea.

Like, they're the ones

who saw the problem,

they're the ones who bury

their own people,

they're the ones who wanted

to make a change

and they've been totally ignored,

overridden and having

funding taken off by

the Federal and State governments

and given to

a non-Aboriginal organisation.

It's really quite outrageous.

The thing that struck me about Amata

is that although Coke is gone,

without a nutritionist to

continue the education

people are still consuming

vast amounts of sugar

in other products.

And their health is suffering

as a consequence.

There's a perception abroad

that the problems

with obesity and diabetes

may be related to alcohol,

but here at Amata it's been

a dry community

ever since it was established,

so all of the health problems,

including diabetes and kidney failure,

is all related to the diet.

John offered to

take me to a special place

where the full effects of a

disabled Mai Wiru can be felt.

I've known almost everyone buried here.

I've got family members buried here.

These five graves here

are all people under 40.

That's another young person in there.

A whole group up here

of two sisters and a brother

who all passed away from kidney failure.

Most of these deaths here are premature

and could have been avoided

with correct diet

and access to affordable healthy food.

It's a complete tragedy.

After four days in Amata,

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