Did anyone see the Oprah show yesterday? The topic was about the documentary Food, Inc. by author Michael Pollan. If you want a copy of the documentary - btw - Amazon is selling it for 9.99 through midnight tomorrow (Fri). I was very, very interested in the topics regarding how our food is processed, the data about whole foods, and how much meat we consume now. I especially feel like I eat so much more chicken now just to ensure I get my daily goal of 60g protein. Discussed was how different chickens mature (49 days from chick to chicken) vs. 3 months because of the antibiotics given to them. The basic premise that we have engineered animals and processed foods to make them bigger faster cheaper - for our convenience - which in turn are hurting our health. I don't have an opinion yet because I don't know enough about it. I am going to read some books by Michael Pollan and do some more research. This is the book I'm going to start with - its his latest publication:
I 've actually been quite interested in this topic for quite some time. Just before surgery, I actually took a 28 day class on basically this same topic through a company called Onvo. They didn't focus so much on weight loss but more about what types of food we are putting into our bodies. They really focused on eating "real" or "whole" foods. Basically the premise was to forget about looking at calories, fat content, etc and focus on what is actually IN what you are eating. Look at the ingreidents. If there is something on there that you or a child couldn't pronouce, you probably shouldn't be eating it. Or, another way to look at it, was if it wasn't around before 1900 or your great grandmother wouldn't know what it was you probably shouldn't be eating that either. I did that for 28 days (it was tough) but I had not felt that good in so long! Bye-bye bloat, headaches, you name it. I still try to some degree live by this (but of course do have my moments) but I absolutely think it's a great way to think about food. I may have to check out that book!
ReplyDeleteThanks and sorry for the long comment!
Awesome comment - thank you!! Actually much of what you said above - "if your great grandmother woudln't know what it is" and "if your 3rd grader can't pronounce it" is what was discussed yesterday on the show. I just checked this book and it as well as "In defense of food" is only $5. I'm definitely going to check it out. Its encouraging to hear how it made you feel. I never, ever really thought much about all the chicken I've been eating. Thinking I'm eating really healthy - and I know I still am - but I never ever realized how the chicken has been engineered and farmed over the last 30 years. Its kind of scary on the surface - again I've not done any research on this yet. I'm interested to hear more of what you think on this topic as I dive into more information! Thanks for the long comment - interesting stuff!
ReplyDeleteI agree - get rid of the processed foods with all the nasties in it and we have to do ourselves a favor. My favorite thing to remember is how did the caveman eat? I imagine lots of meat - eggs - maybe fish if they were near stream lol.. perhaps some odd greens.. and that was it. Don't know if its relevant in todays society but I do like Alexis's way of thinking esp about the spelling.
ReplyDeleteI try my hardest to eat chicken that is at the very least hormone and antibiotic free - organic is very expensive, but that is my goal.
ReplyDeleteThe other thing is dairy products - the regular ones have a ton of hormones! Organic or european (they are not allowed to have hormones) are best!
Wow - I didn't realize that about milk. I'll be looking into that. In the piece on the show, they talked about how chickens have been bred to have large breasts (funny) b/c American's prefer white breast meat and have been bred to be like 3x larger than chickens were only 50 yrs ago. I think there is a balance - breeding for certain characteristics isn't necessarily harmful - but it just makes me stop and think and want to know more. So I can be more educated about what I'm eating and what my family is eating. Really interesting stuff!
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