And Scariest Movie of the Year goes to...

Back to the Food Inc. post. Yes, I have seen the movie; actually I saw it earlier this fall at a lecture I had to attend for my global studies class, and never posted about it because I wanted to develop my opinions fully first (like most propaganda-doc's, such as Super-size Me or anything Michael Moore, it's a bit much to take in) so I wouldn't end up just rambling. Which.... I guess is sort of not in tune with the rhetoric of blogging... but... crap.

So now, as a punishment, I'm going to have to rely on my sub-par memory and what info I can glean from the Interwebs in order to talk about this.

In essence, the movie showcases the industrial, mechanized food industry, which is basically America's entire food industry. Wrapped up in this are several themes: the firm grasp corporate head haunchos have not just on what we eat, but on the federal regulatory commissions (FDA, USDA) in which we are supposed to place our trust, the ways in which farmers are being undermined and subjugated by laws and patents, the abominable health and safety regulations at these factory farms, the lack of worker's rights in meat factories, how much cheaper it is to buy unhealthy vs. healthy, devastating health effects of diseases like E.coli.... maybe now you realize why I was wary to write about it. I could spend a year. And wind up with a book. (And there already is one, so that's pointless.)

The movie is eye-opening, truly. It's honestly terrifying to realize how warped our food industry is, how far removed we as consumers are from the production of our food (do you know EXACTLY where a single thing in your fridge came from? What about the state? Or even the country?) and, perhaps most terrifying, that this is not a simple mistake. People in this industry are not sitting at their desks, eyes popping out of their skulls, hands glued to cheeks in an Edvard Munchian pose, screaming "WHAT HAVE WE DONE?!" Nah, they are just counting their bucks.

Looking back, I remember now that it was also the emotional impact that kept me from writing. I saw it only a couple weeks after I started this blog, and the effect of the movie was somewhat PETA-esque, in that it made me feel really really bad, but instead of just abstractly feeling bad for little baby chicks, I felt bad for my life. It was like someone ramming down my throat EVERYTHING YOU EAT IS BAD FOR YOU EVEN IF YOU THINK IT'S NOT and I was like, Jesus, I am not doing nearly enough. I mean I eat meat! And meat that is not from a tiny farm where I know for sure how the animal was raised! This was also before I started going to farmer's markets regularly, so I was like Okay so now simply buying fruits and vegetables is not enough, I have to track down where they came from. These feelings of inadequacy irked me. And I suppose that was the point of the movie: to scare you into eating healthier, or just being more conscious of what you're eating. And I totally support the latter part of that equation. I'm just not so sure about the path to it.

The one point in the film where I really remember being like Oh COME ON, was the beginning of a scene in which the words "Lifting the Veil" appeared on the screen. BUT, (and my memory may fail me a bit on the exact details of this one) right before "Veil" appeared the "e" and the "v" were switched so it said for a brief nanosecond, yes: evil. I don't think everyone noticed this, and I probably only did because I pay a lot of attention to words. And it doesn't really matter, I guess, in the larger context of the more important issues discussed, but I just sort of feel like, to me, this stuff is scary enough on its own; the facts alone are enough to make me change my lifestyle. Why do you need to insult our intelligence with the scare tactics?

So this pseudo-review ended up being more negative than I intended... most likely because the details of the movie have slipped from my consciousness but, like most things, the emotional impact has stuck with me. But in all honesty, I do encourage everyone to see it. Seriously. Just don't get hung up on negative feelings like I did. Focus on what they are actually, beyond the rhetoric, showing and telling you. Because it's really important for anyone who eats food in this country, and, unlike Super-size Me, it's not just about McDonalds--it's ALL food.

If you want to read reviews written by people who didn't wait three months, I found a list of them here. And check out Food Inc.'s website for more information. Photo from the review by the NYTimes.

Food Inc. Trailer

Funny--I posted about contaminated chicken today before I read Lukas's comment on my post about buying locally, in which he talked about health risks from eating overly processed foods.

This is definitely, definitely a concern for the conscious organic/local buyer, and one I meant to address more explicitly by now, instead of just in ambiguous references to the chemicals that are put in our food. Unfortunately I don't have the time right now to go into it, but will leave you with this: a trailer to a documentary that came out this past summer called Food Inc. While very propaganda-y and one-sided, it is eye-opening as to the present grip corporate agribusiness has on America and all the different ways it affects us: economically as buyers, as workers in these slaughterhouses, our relationship with animals, our health and weight, our relationship with farmers.... I could go on. And will, later, I promise.

Unsafe Chicken Trends

Lovely. Found out via a post on Well that two out of three broiler chickens (which are pretty much any chicken raised for consumption) are contaminated with either salmonella or campylobacter bacteria, which can both cause food poisoning, but the latter can lead to "meningitis, arthritis, and Guillain-Barré syndrome, a severe neurological condition." (Read the rest of the post here.)

Argh. This is pretty much why I've cut back on meat in the past year or so. I mean not just bacteria; there are other factors too, particularly that raising animals for human consumption requires so much more energy--both in feed and fossil fuels--than just growing plants. But I haven't become a vegetarian yet because... well I guess because I don't believe in diets (and vegetarianism or veganism is a form of a restrictive diet.) Because I know myself too well: if I want to eat meat, I will. And anyway, it's not the meat itself I disagree with--it's the way it's raised, butchered, transported, etc. (If, years after declaring vegetarianism, I was at a small farm and they butchered a chicken that they raised from an egg--you'd better believe I'd want some.)

And it doesn't matter to me to be able to say "Oooo I'm a vegetarian/vegan," like it's some sort of a badge to wear. And I know it's not to everyone; to some it is a deeply personal and value-laden commitment. But I can't help thinking that to some, the trendy aspect is a bit too alluring....

The Skinny

I spent this past weekend with my mom and sister, my lone comrades in the natural health crusade. All three of us have had similar difficulties with health throughout our lives, since we're, you know, related and all, and so I'm able to talk to them about my problems and achievements, knowing they'll understand on a level my friends cannot.

Probably the most striking similarity between us is that, despite our obvious and vocal efforts to be healthy, none of us are thin. Thanks to that smiling angel named Genetics, we all carry our weight around our middle, the most dangerous place on your body to store extra pounds, since it is home to your guts. We're not obese by any means-- my sister and mom are quite small, in fact, both in frame and stature, whereas I'm... not. We're just not skinny.

Which is an interesting concept to most Americans, where we associate weight with health: If I'm skinny, I'm healthy.

This is so, so not true. You can be underweight and undernourished, or nearing overweight with no detectable health problems, granted you eat well and exercise. It's all about how you take care of yourself.

Example: I have a friend who has lost her grip since starting college. She drinks too much, but has managed to not gain any noticeable weight. I was baffled by this until one day, I asked her what we were going to do for dinner. She said she wasn't going to eat much so she could drink more later that night. I hesitated, fighting my desire to yell are you STUPID?! and instead shrugged and went into the kitchen to make myself some food.

People do this, and think it's a good idea. She knew if she ate and drank, she would gain weight from all the calories. So she sacrificed one, thinking as long as she kept her weight steady, she was okay.

This friend of mine is an extreme case of unhealthy tendencies, but people do things like this all the time. I'm going to have cheesecake with my boyfriend tonight, so I'll skip lunch. It's not just the average population that has this mentality, though; I've seen it advertised. There is a TV commercial for some sort of health snack thing, where this little crudely drawn woman limps into a room with her friends, saying she did four hours of aerobics because she indulged in a hot fudge sundae. Although I'd promote an exercise trade-off like this one over deprivation, because it is technically healthier, the fact that they are advertising exercise as a punishment irks me.

If you view exercise as something you have to do to balance extra caloric intake, it will never become something you want to do. It will be torture. All that huffing and sweating will wrongly translate in your mind into abuse for bad deeds, instead of a treat for your body, which it is. (We're made to move. Why do you think kids play so much?) You will push yourself too hard in your workouts, hating every agonizing minute, because you'll think it is necessary for the trade-off. I have to do this to be skinny.

I'll tell you right now, if your focus is entirely on weight and outward appearance, not on health and inner harmony, you need to reevaluate your priorities, because you'll never get what you want. I promise if you focus on doing what's good for your body, instead of punishing yourself for missteps, you will become healthier. You may never be Kate Moss, but you'll look and feel the way you were meant to, inside and out.

Why should I care, you damn hippy?

First, I'm going to be honest with you so you don't get your panties in a bunch later on: I am not a nutritional expert. I don't claim to be. Any health advice given in this blog should be taken with many grains of salt (or maybe not because you could then die of a sodium-induced heart attack.) I'm just a semi-normal Midwestern girl, circa 21 years since birth, grappling with newfound mortality and the fact that I have a body that is mine and will be until the day I die.

Like many modern Americans, I have struggled with my weight my whole life, winning and losing various battles. I spent most of my childhood overweight, feeling imprisoned in flesh. Come junior high and puberty and an apparently lightning fast metabolism, I shed weight and could suddenly eat what I wanted and stay slim. But "slim" is a word I use in retrospect-- throughout high school my mirror falsely painted me as chubby, and I mentally punished myself for those extra Cheetos.

Then I went to college, and the mirror wasn't lying anymore: the fabled Freshman Fifteen came true. That spring, my doctor informed me that I had extremely high cholesterol for my age. I mean it's not like I was going to die or anything (yet), but it was the first time I realized that I was not invincible. Just because my outside was smooth and shiny and smiley and young, didn't mean that inside there wasn't a sticky monster lurking in the depths of my arteries.

Since then, I have overhauled my lifestyle. And I've made discoveries along the way, gems that I think elude many Americans blinded by beacons of neon M's seen from the comfy seats of their sedans. But I don't blame anyone for falling into this unhealthy trap, because there's no reason or need to fight for food in our society anymore; if anything, we have too many choices. Even in our present recession, instead of people thinning out like our grandfathers in the Great Depression, we are gaining weight, courtesy of an abundance of cheap processed food products.

So to put my views in the simplest way: I try to eat real foods. Lots of fresh fruits and vegetables. Whole grains. Lean meat and dairy. Things that have been manipulated and morphed by humans as little as possible. But I'm no martyr; I still have pizza, ice cream, and other junk that I know is bad for me. But I don't keep them in my apartment, because I treat them like the indulgences they are.

Most of what I think about food seems like common sense to me, and it is, but it's overlooked in our society, where people define "diet" as temporary torture to lose a few pounds, instead of the way they eat everyday. "Flavor" consists of fat, salt, and sugar, instead of the myriad other spices in our cupboards. Biologically, we have not changed much in the past few thousand years. But within the past fifty, the way and the things we feed ourselves have. And so has the quality of our health.

So I'm here to tell you how I (and others) have given the ol' bod some much deserved and needed love and respect. Hopefully America will do the same before we all find our bodies giving us one last chance, with a gun to our thick, fat skulls.