Food Fight! Hip Hop Video Compares Diet to Drugs

“Poor diets kill more brothers than pistols.”

It’s a stark message, but an apt one, portrayed as part of a hip-hop gangster movie turned on its head and aimed at teaching young people the reality of the food industry stacked against them—and how to fight back.

“Food Fight” is a video produced by SOS Juice, a non-profit/for-profit hybrid startup that wants to sell fresh juice, smoothies, and compost in food deserts in Oakland, Calif. and across the country to help raise awarness among young people about the importance of healthy diet and nutrition.

To help raise awareness for their cause, the group produced the “Food Fight” video and accompanying free curriculum for high schoolers.

But the message is anything but juvenile.

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In the video, junk food junkies get their brains blown out by soda, overdose on nacho cheese sauce, and are garotted by Twizzlers. Thankfully, a Matrix-esque guide shows up and offers the overweight boy at the center of the fight a choice between a Red Bull and a carrot. Empowered by the boy’s choice, the former junkies are able to stand up to the corporate food mascots and take back their streets.

It’s comedic, but at the same time extremely sobering. And the lyrics drive home the point without pulling any punches:

What’s Beef?
Beef is when you’re 12 years old and obese
clogged arteries, can’t see your own feet
until you’re up in ICU, guaranteed to be an ‘I see you”
From that processed food.
Suicide. It’s a suicide.
Don’t want no microwaves, no pesticides.
Fast food’s a slow death in disguise.

Want to know more? You can watch and share the video, download the curriculum for your school or group, and even donate to SOS Juice‘s Indigogo campaign to get their first juice truck off the ground.

Photo Credit: SOS Juice Food Fight

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