Back to Basics; The Foods We Should Be Eating

Yesterday, as I was browsing movies to watch on Netflix, I stumbled upon the movie "Food Inc.". While I didn't have the time (or the stomach) to watch the whole movie, I watched the trailer as well as a clip I found on Youtube. Here's the link--Industrial Chicken Farming .The movie is a documentary film that focuses on today's food industry.



A couple of interesting things I picked up from the bits of the movie that I saw-

- Food corporations are trying to make it ILLEGAL to take or release any pictures, film, or any other kind of media showing the food factories where our food is being produced. Why would this ever be okay? The fact that the companies that are making our food have something to hide is a CLEAR red flag that there are some seriously sketchy goings-on.

- I knew about this one, but the idea of it really stuck with me after watching some of the movie; Our food is making us sick. Whether it is sickness in the form of fatigue and stomach aches or obesity and serious food transmitted diseases such as salmonella, it is a serious problem. And what the food industry is doing is NOT helping. Everything from chicken to bell peppers are being hormone-d, plumped up, and preserved with chemicals that no human should ever be ingesting- whatever the food corporations can do to make everything bigger, faster.

-A clip that really got to me was a clip on Youtube that showed a chicken "farm". I put farm in quotations because what the chickens were all kept in is not even close to the farm we all imagine- it is more like a scene of animal abuse. The chickens were crammed as tight as sardines, sitting in their own excriments, and they were pumped so full of growth hormones that the poor chickens couldn't even walk more than five steps before collapsing out of exhaustion. When they showed a bloated chicken who had collapsed and was gasping it's last few breaths, I began to cry out of disgust. The "farmers" have to regularly use a tracker to scoop and dump the amount of chickens who die of being over plumped and over stressed. It's sickening, and this animal abuse needs to be stopped.

The main idea that I pulled from this was that in order for America to be eating food that isn't making us sick, we need to go back to basics; fresh fruits and vegetables straight from the farm (the REAL farm), all organic, free range, and hormone free meat, and whole grains. None of this Wonder Bread crap.

I have gotten lazy lately with my gluten free eating. Eating at the dining hall can never be techincally 100% gluten free. Anything made in a facilty that has gluten will have traces of gluten in it almost no matter what. Of course, I haven't been feeling so great because of getting lazy and not eating right. Yesterday, I took a four mile walk to and from Whole Foods and I bought lots of fresh fruits and veggies as well as other fresh items such of Greek Yogurt, white cheddar cheese, whole grain crackers, and soup. I started eating strictly these foods that I bought, and I can already say that I am feeling better.

Simply put: if you want to feel better, eat better. You have one body and it does so much for you. Don't repay it with crappy food.