Elizabeth Barrette (ysabetwordsmith) wrote,
Elizabeth Barrette
ysabetwordsmith
  • Mood: busy

Food Inc.

This is a very disturbing article about a very disturbing movie about a thoroughly mangled part of America: our food supply. It confirms much that I have heard elsewhere. While our budget won't stretch to an all-natural diet, we're trying to move in that direction. I just don't trust the food supply anymore. Too much of it makes my body scream "Not Food!" Okay, it's probably still safer than food in places like Mexico or China. That does not make it safe by my standards.
Tags: activism, food, networking, news
Subscribe

  • Post a new comment

    Error

    switch
    default userpic

    Your IP address will be recorded 

    When you submit the form an invisible reCAPTCHA check will be performed.
    You must follow the Privacy Policy and Google Terms of use.
    Help
  • 4 comments
ladyqkat

ladyqkat

June 26 2009, 04:22:21 UTC 11 years ago

I know that when I can eat close to pure, and not over-processed or chemically bastardized, food, I feel better.

I wonder how much of the current obesity 'epidemic' is being caused by the chemical additives we put into our consumables. They have (supposedly) checked for detrimental effects, but most studies are concerned with short-term effects, not long term, cumulative problems.

Obesity in such rampant numbers did not become a problem until most of our food supply was routinely treated with either chemical processing or chemical additives.



ysabetwordsmith

Thoughts

ysabetwordsmith

June 26 2009, 05:08:49 UTC 11 years ago

>>I know that when I can eat close to pure, and not over-processed or chemically bastardized, food, I feel better.<<

I tend to do better on less-processed food also.

>>I wonder how much of the current obesity 'epidemic' is being caused by the chemical additives we put into our consumables. They have (supposedly) checked for detrimental effects, but most studies are concerned with short-term effects, not long term, cumulative problems.<<

Much of our generally poor health comes from the massive assault of chemicals on our bodies -- in the food, in the cleaners, in the cosmetics, everything and everywhere. I think that certain additives do contribute to weight gain, particularly high-fructose corn syrup which now appears in a great many products and adds tremendous calories (but little or no nutrition). However, there are two sides to weight gain: caloric intake and energy expenditure. At the same time we've made our food more fattening, we have also made most jobs less physically active and increased time demands so that people have less time to exercise. So of course people get fatter.

We've created a society where it is easy to live an unhealthy lifestyle but difficult and usually more expensive to live a healthy lifestyle. That means that most people live an unhealthy lifestyle, which quickly destroys their health. The resulting surge of poor health is contributing to the collapse of our health care system.

This part of it isn't something that can be fixed with pills. It requires a change to healthy habits, and removing some power from the megacorps that have gotten a stranglehold on our food supply.

It will be very difficult to pass laws improving our food supply. It will be a lot easier to alert people that the food supply is not very good for us anymore, and to do other things such as growing a garding, shopping at a farmer's market, joining a CSA, etc. The companies will certainly take notice if their profits drop because nobody trusts their products anymore.