Food 101

Do you know where your food comes from?
You have the right to know!

I was watching Oprah today, big surprise right?! ;) Well I had no idea what today's show was going to be about because I had fallen asleep to yesterday's Oprah(it wasn't entirely boring but I was just really tired) anyways so I missed what the next episode was going to be about. Well as soon as it came on today and I read the description of the show I was STOKED! I absolutely love shows like this, documentary type shows and especially ones that have a major affect on me and my family.

Today's show..Food 101 w/ Michael Pollan. I have to admit I agreed with almost everything the man said, it totally made sense as to why us humans are always sick and how an alarming number of people are diagnosed with type 2 diabetes, heart disease, and obesity. It's the Western diet we've all been eating for years..lots of processed food, added fats, and sugars. Michael made some good points and things we should avoid, let me share..

*Don't eat anything grandma wouldn't recognize as food. Those funky looking yogurt tube things she could mistaken as toothpaste!

*Avoid products that contain ingredients that a 3rd grader can NOT pronounce.

*Eat foods that will eventually rot.-Okay, I came across an alarming video on youtube a year ago, I will post the link to it..EVERYONE needs to watch this. This is why my family and I skip out on McDonald's. Check it out..http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4IGtDPG4UfI

Next..this is about our animals that we eat.

*Us humans as a whole take 3 million pounds of antibiotics, livestock..28 million pounds! YIKES!
When we're eating all that meat that's full of antibiotics our bodies become immune to it and the next time we become sick and need an antibiotic it's not going to work as effectively.

*Grass fed beef don't need antibiotics because grass is what they were meant to eat, therefore they don't get sick from it.
*Corn fed beef get sick a lot because they are not meant to be eating all that corn, therefore they're injected with an antibiotic.

We need to change the way we support our farmers even if it costs us more to buy grass fed beef and that our animals aren't filled with steroids.

Us Americans eat 200 lbs. of meat per year..that's A LOT!

We pay 9% of our income on food and 17% on health care..that should be the other way around. If we paid more for our food, it would be because it's healthy which would mean less medical problems for us. It totally makes sense, doesn't it!

Let me share something that I've NEVER forgot and it's so true. I was watching Montel Williams a couple years ago and he said about grocery shopping.
When you go to the grocery store..stay OUT of the inside aisles, it is all processed food. Everything on the outside is what you need to eat, which is the dairy, meats, and veggies/fruit. That makes perfect sense!

There's 47,000 products estimated in a grocery store...we don't need most of that!

I'm guilty just as is everyone else but after watching this show, it was an eye opener for me, I wish we could make a difference as a nation and get the fast food out of here and to bring in healthy happy animals we can eat without being injected with chemicals.
We need to make conscious food decisions, NOW!!!

Get involved..here are 10 simple things YOU can do to change our food system:

1. Stop drinking soda's and other sweetened drinks. (You can lose 25 lbs in a year by replacing one 20 oz soda a day with a no calorie beverage (preferably water).

2.Eat at home instead of eating out. (Children consume almost twice (1.8 times) as many calories when eating food prepared outside the home.)

3.Support the passage of laws requiring chain restaurants to post calorie information on menus and menu boards. (Half of the leading chain restaurants provide no nutritional information to their customers.)

4.Tell schools to stop selling sodas, junk food, and sports drinks.(Over the last two decades, rates of obesity have tripled in children and adolescents aged 6 to 19 years.)

5.Meatless Mondays—Go without meat one day a week.(An estimated 70% of all antibiotics used in the United States are given to farm animals.)

6.Buy organic or sustainable food with little or no pesticides.(According to the EPA, over 1 billion pounds of pesticides are used each year in the U.S.)

7.Protect family farms; visit your local farmer's market.(Farmer's markets allow farmers to keep 80 to 90 cents of each dollar spent by the consumer.)

8.Make a point to know where your food comes from—READ LABELS.(The average meal travels 1500 miles from the farm to your dinner plate.)

9.Tell Congress that food safety is important to you.(Each year, contaminated food causes millions of illnesses and thousands of deaths in the U.S.)

10.Demand job protections for farm workers and food processors, ensuring fair wages and other protections.(Poverty among farm workers is more than twice that of all wage and salary employees.)


After watching today's show and learning more about the food that my family and I eat on a daily basis I am going to make changes in our household. That will be another post but I hope you and your family can help make a difference.

I have NOT seen the movie "Food, Inc." YET but you can bet that I will be buying it here shortly! I recommend you do the same or at least rent it!
I know we all of our own personal opinions and views on everything but when it comes to US, I think we should all make an effort to prevent all these deaths and diseases from the food we eat...who knew that eating a hamburger can kill you instantly from E. Coli.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates that 76 million Americans are sickened, 325,000 are hospitalized and 5,000 die each year from food borne illnesses.

DO SOMETHING!

http://www.foodincmovie.com/about-the-issues.php