All Jacked Up: Hungry for the Truth? is a documentary that shows the lives of four teenagers: Melissa, Danny, Michael, and Raquel.  Each teen faces their own struggles with food and their emotions affect their eating habits.  This documentary also explores how we are surrounded by unhealthy foods, and are often deceived by companies that these foods are “healthy.”  People have grown up eating unhealthy foods in school, as well as parents giving it to their children; we are told that junk food is not good to eat, yet it seems inescapable.  Experts are shown throughout this documentary offering advice and their input on the unhealthy trends happening with the younger generation.  In the end, the experts help each teen with their specific problems and guide them to a healthier life style (Zoilezzi et al., 2008).

One expert in the movie, Michael F. Jacobson, who is the founder and executive director of the Center for Science in the Public Interest, said that labeling items with their calories on fast food menus would make people think twice about what they order.  He claims that people would order a medium soda, instead of a large soda after seeing how many calories are in each (Zoilezzi et al., 2008).  In class we had talked about McDonald’s is labeling the calories of items on their menu.  Professor Maroto said it is good to label the calories, and it may make people think twice about ordering the biggest size, but people also need to be educated about nutrition so they can tell what is a lot of calories, versus what is an appropriate amount to eat for one meal.  Just putting calories of items on a menu is not enough, since so few people know the correct amount of calories they should be eating at each meal, and how many calories they should eat in a day.

This documentary is very similar to, Bodega Down Bronx.  Both films were driven by teen angst and the social norms of eating unhealthy foods at fast food restaurants and convenient stores, like bodegas.  Both films talked about how people do not know what is in the food they buy.  When looking at the food labels, the first ingredient in many packaged foods is high fructose corn syrup; something our body does not need, however we consume so much of it.  In this film they talk about how in order to maintain the “freshness” of an item, the company puts chemicals in it; one expert says a packaged food item can last on the shelves for two weeks, for it stays in our body for that long, too.  Both videos urge consumers to take charge of the food they eat and look at what they are consuming.  So often people buy things and are not aware of what is actually in them, or people consume products that look or sound healthy.    However, when one actually looks at the ingredients, one can see all the chemicals and unhealthy items that the food contains–just because a company claims to be “healthy,” or puts fruit on their packaging to seem “healthy,” does not mean it is a healthy choice to eat.  Both documentaries encourage people to voice their opinions and make a change, since this issue is in the hands of the consumers.  In All Jacked Up they said companies will start being healthier, if there is a demand for it.  In Bodega Down Bronx, the bodega owners said they would supply healthier foods, like produce, if their costumers demanded it.  If people demand healthier products, then companies will supply stores with healthier options.  Unless people do something to stop companies from deceiving consumers of what is healthy versus unhealthy, they will continue to trick customers to buy unhealthy products and people will continue to consume unhealthy products.