Monday, November 29, 2010

Food, INC

I watched Food, INC. last night with my husband. If you know me, you know that I am already very concerned with what my family eats & try my best to feed them healthy meals. I may post a lot of sugary & fattening recipes, but in actuality, I rarely make food like that. This movie just fanned the flame of my slightly granola-ish hippy eating habits. I seriously was dreaming about inhumane chicken coops last night!

The condition of our nation's food industry really concerns me. More and more people are developing life-altering diseases like diabetes. And the more "advanced" our society gets in the technological world, the lazier we as a people become as we spend increasing amounts of time in front of electronic gadgetry. Childhood obesity is rampant! I don't know about you, but when I was young there were one (maybe two) fat kids in my grade school class. Now I walk into a school & I swear that half of the children are overweight! The cost of insurance & health care is going through the roof & I believe it's because our "healthy habits" are going down the toilet.

Here are a few ways you can change the way the system works. Make your own meals & use as little processed foods as possible, try to buy organic when possible, buy locally grown produce & free range meats. It may cost a little more, but do you really want to be putting ammonia treated beef, arsenic laced turkey, and ethylene ripened tomatoes into your body? Supply & demand! If we refuse to buy unhealthy food & opt for only nutritious food, then grocery stores & food companies have no choice but to provide consumers with what they want.

If you haven't seen this documentary I urge you to take 90 minutes and watch it, maybe while you're walking on your treadmill to counteract the "laziness" factor of movie watching ;). I thought that I knew a lot about where the food we get comes from, but I learned a lot! After watching the movie, I felt a little overwhelmed. After all, I am just one person in a country of 310 million people. How could I possibly solve this HUGE problem? But I realized that it has to start with me...and hopefully with you too.

1 comment:

Joanna said...

I can't remember if I've already recommended these books to you, so if I have, I'm sorry. Good reading on the topic:

Fast Food Nation
The Omnivore's Dilemma
Animal, Vegetable, Miracle
In Defense of Food (I just checked this out from the library and haven't started reading it yet, but it looks good)

I agree with you on the feeling at the end of the movie. "Can my efforts really cause change?" I think they can.