Edible food like substances. Yummy!

Do you know where you food comes from and what is in it?  Last night, I watched a very interesting Oprah show about our  over-mechanized, underregulated food industry.  The episode highlighted the documentary Food Inc. where we get a peek at where our food is really coming from.  What I found to be the most interesting was the less Americans spend on food, the more they spend on health care and doctor bills.  We as Americans eat a lot of processed foods and meats with a lot of added fats and sugar.  Kids are drinking twice as much soda as they are milk, and the drive through at the corner fast food restaurant is no longer a special treat but a weekly occurrence.  Mass produced foods are cheap and easily accessible as they line the shelves of every sprawling supermarket across the country.  Oprah’s guest made the argument that what you find on those supermarket shelves isn’t real food, but edible food like substances.  Gross.

What we should be eating is real food that has an expiration date and doesn’t say low carb, diet or low fat on the package.  The example Oprah gave was fat-free yogurt that has more calories than full fat yogurt because of all the added sugar.  This is my favorite line from the show...”The low fat kick America is on has made people really fat!”

Processed foods affect our health.  At the turn of the century, before all of this (fast food/processed foods/meats that are more antibiotics than meats) was available to us, hardly anyone dealt with high blood pressure, type 2 diabetes, obesity and heart disease.  If this isn’t a wake up call, I don’t know what is.  Be picky about what you eat.  Plan your meals out for the week and cook your own food.  Learn to love everything that comes from the earth and is humanly grown.  Eat grass fed beeef (it’s expensive but it is sustainable!)  Try not to put harmful chemicals into your body.  I promise you will feel healthier, have more energy and your body will thank you!

Oprah’s guest had a ton of great guidelines for good eating.  Of course I don’t remember all of them, but here are the ones that stuck with me:

1: Eat food.

2: Don't eat anything your great-grandmother wouldn't recognize as food.

3: Avoid food products containing ingredients that a third-grader cannot pronounce.

4: Eat only foods that will eventually rot.

5: Eat all the junk food you want as long as you cook it yourself.

Finally, what I found heartbreaking was the truth.  It is cheaper to eat processed foods.  A family can have a fast food meal for a fraction of the price of a meal from your local farmers market.  One dollar can buy 1,250 calories worth of food found in the processed food isle and only 250 calories of broccoli or carrots.  It is easy to rationalize unhealthy eating habits.

I apologize I don’t remember the guy’s name.  If I have a second today I will look it up.