I've been on a food and nutrition documentary kick lately. There's several very interesting documentaries out there, but wow lots of contradictory info too, maybe as expected since its virtually impossible to find a good piece of investigative reporting or science that isin't biased in some form (possible agenda's?: corporate profit, continued grants and funding, self promotion, idealism etc). Regardless, there's enough compelling information and seemingly thorough science throughout these shows to really make you pause and question the dogma. Here's a quick snap of several documentaries and a summary of my takeaways at the end. For the record, I enjoyed each and recommend all of them.
Food Inc: Scared the shit out of me and made me hate Monsanto, ConAgra and big food in general. Food is big business. Big business is big money. Big money means corporations spend billions on battalions of lawyers and advertising gurus to perpetuate myth, railroad the small guys, and shamelessly spin ANY propaganda that's in their best interest. Do the food companies put the best interest of your health over their profit? I'll give you one guess.
http://www.foodincmovie.com/about-the-film.php
Forks over Knives: Great show, but heavily biased from the plant based vegans slant. Good information regardless. Essentially we are sicker than ever, and still live longer than ever - Big food and pharma don't make any money off healthy or dead people, guess where they want you.
http://www.forksoverknives.com/
Fat, Sick and Nearly Dead: Its never too late to take control of your health, never. Very inspiring story of 2 men, one morbidly obese chronically ill man with diseases, who turn it all around, become happy and healthy and able to stop ALL medications. They now spend their lives inspiring others to do the same. Inspired me to try a juice fast for a couple days, and committed to get more healthy micronutrient based foods in my diet.
http://www.fatsickandnearlydead.com/
Dive!: Alarming show about how much good food is thrown away, 3000 pounds per second in America. Again, food is big business and all about profit, efforts to deliver perfectly good food to shelters is not profitable for the grocery stores so it ends up in teh dumpster. The film shows how with a little effort huge amounts of perfectly good food can be redirected to shelters, food banks and food pantry's.
http://www.divethefilm.com/facts-about-food-waste.aspx
Fathead: Debunks the biases and misinformation in the show 'Supersize Me'. Even more importantly, paints a very compelling picture of how we've been misinformed by an ignorant manipulated government to cut animal fats and eat more grains (the base of the food pyramid). Draws a conclusion, with much supporting science and professional opinion, that America's obesity problem is due to insulin response from too much high glycemic index carbohydrate foods.
http://www.fathead-movie.com/index.php/about/
Supersize Me!: Any show that makes you think about what you
eat isint all bad. Watch this, and then watch Fathead (above) and draw
your own conclusions. Note thats rolled 'Spurlockian' bologna in Fat Heads mouth above (Spurlock is the director of Supersize me) haha.
http://super-size-me.morganspurlock.com/
Beer Wars: Again, like any huge corporation, the 2 huge beer companies, Miller and Anheuser Busch (InBev) are all about the almighty PROFIT, period. They make crappy beer by the zillion barrel batch, watered down with cheap adjuncts for maximum profitability, and spend $manymillions$ in advertizing convincing men they'll get laid if they drink it and millions more using their enormous leverage to squeeze the small craft brewers off the shelves.
http://beerwarsmovie.com/
Interesting CBS News short on the rise in Craft Beer in the US, regardless of huge advertising by the giants ($32 million spent by Budweiser advertising during the 2012 Superbowl).
http://www.cbsnews.com/video/watch/?id=7397467n
Another one that will piss you off. Starts with a 220lb 12 year old
girl getting liposuction and goes on to show former Surgeon General
stating how he was muzzled, his speeches were rewritten and he was just
flat out banned from saying anything about obesity that might compromise the profit of the big food corporations who OWN the USDA. The top officials in the USDA and the top officers in Food Inc are one entity, alternating positions back and forth, complete infiltration.
Now, before you call me a conspiracy theorist, I've never been one to blame others for issues at home, but I do firmly believe that as a whole, we, the US people have been manipulated in the name of corporate profit. The enormous profits of big food have eradicated the normal balance of opinion and sensibility, even from deep within, muzzling even the top publically funded person chartered to look out for our health, the US Surgeon General.
Watch here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KLjgBLwH3Wc
Phenomenal short 17 minute TED TV story of Dr. Terry Wahls who used
good nutrition to cure her MS and get out of her wheelchair when the latest drugs were doing little. Will not be 17 minutes of your life wasted! Reiterates again many of the points from documentaries above on the critical importance of getting more paleo foods (fruits, nuts, leafy foods, meat and fish) in your diet, and less processed carbohydrate grain foods and 'fake' oils (high profit foods).
The takeaways for me from these shows:
- Continue to enjoy my bacon and ribeye steaks, in moderation of
course. Some 'natural' fat (animal fat, nuts, olive oil etc) is
critical to proper functioning human physiology. Be weary of chemically
processed vegetable based fats, even non trans fats (corn oil, soybean
oil, cottonseed oil).
- Get more fresh fruit and vegetables in my diet. Important for cancer and disease preventative micronutrients.
- Cut back on the empty carbs, the glycemic index and insulin response of many grain based foods is actually worse than pure sugar! After a while the body quits listening to your insulin and the sugars in your blood are converted and stored as fat. Question authority on it being the base of the food pyramid.
- Keep exercising. In addition to eating worse Americans are becoming more and more sedentary. Living a long unhealthy life is exactly what big pharma wants. Piss them off, exercise your way to good health and dump the chemistry set down the toilet! I did! (with your doctors supervision of course).
- Question any 'expert' advice or nutritional guidance that comes from big companies or government. Ignorance, self serving agendas and manipulation are rampant. Shocking, right?
Cheers!
Run like the police are chasing you.
