Food, Inc.

I watched a very interesting movie the other night called Food, Inc. It was a documentary that allowed a look into the food industry and our nation's food supply. It showed how our food production has become controlled by a few corporations. It might not have taught me anything new about how unhealthy our food is, but it really opened my eyes to why our food has become so unhealthy. Unfortunately, as with most things in our country, it all comes back to big business. A company can't patent an organic apple that you can buy at any farmer's market, but they can patent and mass produce a crop that has been genetically modified to resist chemicals and pesticides that will otherwise kill everything else around. All while we get sicker and sicker as a nation.

An insert with the movie gave a list of 10 things you can do to change our food system. Here is a few of them...

1. Action: Stop drinking sodas and other sweetened beverages.
Fact: If you replace one 20 oz soda a day with a no calorie beverage (preferably water), you could lose 25 lbs in a year.

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

3. Action: Buy organic or sustainable food with little to no pesticide or antibiotic use.
Fact: Over a billion lbs of pesticides are used every year in the U.S. and an estimated 70% of all antibiotics used in the United States are given to farm animals.

If want to get a behind the scenes look at our food system and the food you and your family are eating every day, watch this movie. It may just make you question how your food is made. If nothing else, you will see how bad the chickens you are eating are being treated!

Merry Christmas! Give yourself and your family the gift of good health this year!

Live Well.