Food Changes—Documentaries & Donuts

We are back from the cabin and settling back into life at home for a bit.  I love all the summer fun, but it is nice to catch our breaths, check on the garden, cut some flowers, catch up on the laundry, and enjoy some lazy summer days at home.  Yesterday was just such a day and I watched a couple of documentaries on Netflix that really got me thinking about eating healthy…especially after a few weeks of vacation which usually equate not a lot of healthy eating for us.

Eating healthy is something I think about a lot.  I’ve even blogged about it here, here, here, and just last week.  I think it is important, and I am constantly looking for ways to tweak my diet, and my family’s too.  We have all gotten a bit lazy here about eating healthy…so lazy I’m embarrassed to share, but we might or might not have had donuts for dinner tonight.  It is definitely time for a change in the Cartwright’s eating arena.

Do you find the need for a similar change at your home?  Well, I have just what you need to get going, three great food documentaries:

 

Food Matters

Documentary #1:  Food Matters is a website and a movie that will start you on the path to making healthier choices in your life.  In the words of James and Laurentine, the producers and directors of the film…

Food Matters is a feature length documentary film informing you of  the best choices you can make for you and your family's health. In a collection of interviews with leading Nutritionists, Naturopaths, Scientists, M.D.'s and Medical Journalists you will discover...

• How to use food as medicine
• Who needs vitamins?
• Is organic better?
• How safe is our food?
• Natural treatments for lowering Cholesterol
• Foods that fight Anxiety and Depression
• Natural therapies for Cancer
  
• Which drugs might do more harm than good?
  
• The best ways to detox, lose weight and keep it off!

Sounds great, right!  Since watching this movie,  I have worked on taking more vitamins and eating lots more whole foods.

 

Fat, Sick & Nearly Dead

Documentary #2:  I watched this yesterday and was quite inspired!  The movie follows the experience of two men who follow a “juice fast” to lose weight and overcome health problems.  They also use their juice fast as a time to retrain their bodies to want and enjoy healthy foods.  Joe and I are seriously considering doing this…we will do the 10 days, though, and not the 60 days (unless we love it?).  Fat, Sick and Nearly Dead is also a website that will link you to a blog, the Reboot website, and great testimonials. 

 

Food Inc..

Documentary #3:  Be advised--this movie will really open your eyes to the food industry and might turn you off meat for a while…or maybe forever.  It might also cause you to grow a garden and raise a chicken or two yourself.  I’m going to make sure that all of my girls watch this…hopefully there will be less complaining about the garden and the turkey raising (more on that later).  Food Inc. is also a website that includes a blog and a great Reading List.  I’m excited to start eating reading my way through some of these books:

• In Defense of Food: An Eater's Manifesto
• Everything I Want To Do Is Illegal: War Stories From the Local Food Front
• Food Politics: How the Food Industry Influences Nutrition and Health
• Animal, Vegetable, Miracle: A Year of Food Life
• Closing the Food Gap: Resetting the Table in the Land of Plenty
• Fast Food Nation: The Dark Side of the All-American Meal
• Slow Food Nation's Come to the Table: The Slow Food Way of Living
• Stuffed and Starved: The Hidden Battle for the World Food System
• The Omnivore's Dilemma
• Chew On This: Everything You Don't Want to Know About Fast Food
• Harvest For Hope: A Guide to Mindful Eating

Food Inc. also lists 10 Simple Things you can do to help change the Food System.  I like that because sometimes it seems so overwhelming and impossible to make a difference!  This list helps you get started in a very realistic way.

Do you feel motivated to make some changes?  Me, too.  I’ll share what I’m doing to make some food changes in my life…I hope you will share some of your own changes.  Next on my list of food documentaries:  Change Your Food, Change Your Life.

P.S.  I might have ended my day with a donut, but breakfast was a green smoothie and lunch was grilled veggies.  Do you think that offsets all of the fat and sugar in a donut?  Sigh…me either.