Movie Review: Food, Inc.

I watched Food, Inc. on Friday night. I found it informative & similar to The Omnivore's Dilemma, yet I was surprised at the amount of information I didn't already know. Over the past few years, I've read books like Fast Food Nation & The Omnivore's Dilemma; I've watched Super Size Me & the recent Oprah episode with Michael Pollan & Alicia Silverstone; I've watched friends participate in local CSA programs; & I've watched lots of friends become vegetarians. I've certainly been aware. But I've also been a lot more ignorant than I realized.

As anyone who knows me can attest, I am perpetually trying to lose weight. In doing so, I've spent the past 10-ish years buying low-fat, low-carb foods, paying little attention to anything else. I am now realizing that I've been pumping my body full of a variety of foods & chemicals that aren't actually food, at least not in Michael Pollan's opinion. God knows what's in the 1,000,000 Lean Cuisines I've consumed in my 33 years. I'd probably bleed high fructose corn syrup if you cut me open.

So here's my plan:

Buy locally when I can

Buy only grass-fed, antibiotic-free meat

Buy cage-free eggs

Buy organic milk

Read all ingredients labels
Buy less processed foods
Be more aware of what produce is in season

John & I had a long talk about all of this over the weekend & he's on board. Of course, he'll still continue to eat a Wendy's combo meal for lunch every day, but that's neither here nor there. Actually, that raises a good point. I've decided to not be a nazi about this & to realize I can only control what I buy. For instance, on Sunday my mom cooked a roast. I didn't ask her if the roast came from a grass-fed, antibiotic free cow, I just ate it. And it was delicious.

My friend Kat forwarded me a good article that reiterates a lot the things I'm saying here, albeit better articulated. Highly recommend reading it. You can find the article here.

This is definitely a work in progress. This is also the first time I'm making an attempt to change my eating habits for reasons besides weight loss. I'm doing it because I'm kind of pissed off. I feel like I've been duped by the food companies, USDA, FDA, advertising, misinformation, mislabeling, etc. Food, Inc. raises a good point at the end about how we're all voters & every time we go into the grocery store & buy some chemically altered non-food, we're saying (voting) that it's okay to sell us this crap. I'm paraphrasing here, but basically, things won't change if we don't demand it.

If you haven't seen Food, Inc. & you're interested in these issues, I highly recommend it. On the other hand, if you don't want to know what's in your food or where Tyson & Purdue get their horribly disfigured chickens, stay away.

I give it two hooves up & a snap!