PARK CITY, UTAH—There was a 92-minute wake-up call that found its way into this year’s 30th annual Sundance Film Festival that could change the way we look at grocery store shelves forever.

Fed Up is a riveting documentary, narrated by American newscaster Katie Couric, that exposes the evils of processed foods and examines the plight of a group of obese kids, including a 212-pound 12-year-old girl whose tearful confessions will tear your heart out. While the subjects struggle to make changes in their eating and exercise habits over a two-year period, their results are both limited and short-lived.

The filmmakers claim the food industry is to blame for getting us addicted to sugar, insinuating government could be doing a lot more to ensure healthy eating, and suggesting that food companies be accountable for their harmful products, the same way the tobacco industry is.

Spearheaded by Couric, and produced by Laurie David, who brought us the eye-opening An Inconvenient Truth, the film has a high-profile Toronto connection: Indigo CEO Heather Reisman helped with financing, and is coexecutive producer. I caught up with Reisman and Katie Couric at the world premiere of Fed Up at the Sundance Festival this week, and talked with them about their passion for what’s quickly becoming a public health crisis.

J: It’s the first time out for both of you in certain ways — first time, Katie, that you’re exec producing a documentary of this magnitude, and the first time for you Heather, as an exec producer. What drove you to take on this project?

H: My good friend Laurie David told me Katie had brought her the project, and from the second they described the idea of making us aware of what we eat, and how we can be so much healthier, I was hooked. You know at Indigo, we sell tons of books that deal with this subject, and we’ve seen the subject become more and more important, with titles like Sugar, Salt, Fat and Fat Chance. We know that there’s a tipping point coming, and we want to be aware — both for us and for our children.

J: Katie, you’ve spent the past three decades involved with the issue of childhood obesity — diving into research and becoming very aware. What point do you decide to step out of your comfort zone and take on a project of this nature?

K: Well I have a habit of stepping out of my comfort zone! This isn’t the first time. Basically, I saw a steady drip, drip, drip of coverage in my years in broadcast news with very little in way of solutions. The problem just kept getting worse and worse. And this is not a niche documentary, because everybody eats, and everybody needs to be aware of what they are eating and how it’s affecting their health. So as a mother, and as somebody who cares deeply about health — I’ve done so much cancer-related work — this just seemed like a natural fit for me. I was just so thrilled that Heather got on board! And Stephanie Soechtig, our director, did a brilliant job. She’s such an incredible filmmaker. And to take such a behemoth — you can go in 80 million directions — but to put it into one coherent 92 minute documentary is a real feat. There’s still a lot left to be said. We already said we could do Fed Up Part 2 because there’s so much information.

H: And a book!

J: You could actually do an ongoing series, just to keep building on the awareness.

K: The science keeps evolving and people keep learning more and more about this issue. We have it as up to date as possible. But each week, new information becomes available that adds to our body of understanding.

J: In the past three decades, Americans have doubled their sugar intake. The documentary suggests that our children may have shorter life spans that us.

H: There are such stunning facts in the doc about the amount of sugar we consume that we’re not even aware of. And what about the fact that most public schools and high schools have soda pop machines in the schools? Kids are just being fed this stuff! We’re doing it, and we’re doing it to our kids. And a lot of sugar is hidden. You don’t even realize what you’re having. You don’t have to commit to changing your whole world, but you just have to cut out a bit.

J: Another heartening thing to me is seeing this team of women that have assembled to put this documentary together. There must be a great spirit of sisterhood on the project.

K: My fiancé is still dealing with the estrogen level in the room! There were a lot of women with a lot of strong opinions. And I do think there was something really wonderful about this group of women getting together.

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H: This is an issue that’s up to us. We are the mothers and the grandmothers, and we have a responsibility to help our kids and ourselves become as healthy as we can be. The fact that women have put this together is pretty special. But while this documentary focuses on children in America, this is a global issue. And the cost of the health care that will result from our overeating sugar and processed food is really significant. It will cost Canada billions and billions of dollars. So it’s not only for our wellness. It’s also an economic issue.