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10 Things I Learned Watching Food Inc.

Food Inc. is film about our food.  About what is produced, how it is produced and who is producing it.  Check out the Food Inc official website for more details about the project and the film itself.

It questions the role of the government food agencies responsible for actually protecting us from poor practice and their failure to do so, whilst also exposing the handful of large corporations responsible for much of the food supply who are putting profits ahead of consumer health.

Not perhaps the most uplifting hour or so of viewing, but definitely worth a watch by anyone who is interested in what they are eating, how it got to the table and how it is impacting on their health!

Here’s ten things I learned or was reminded of when I watched Food Inc.

1. There has been a veil drawn between us and the food that we eat.  We are no longer really in touch with where our food comes from and how it’s produced.
2. Food labels are extremely misleading.  This is largely down to the efforts of the three or four companies that control our food chain to keep us unaware and buying the products that they want us to buy.
3. Cheap food is expensive, socially and environmentally.
4. Commercially reared chickens are treated extremely poorly.  No sunlight, poor bone and organ growth, pumped full of antibiotics, etc.
5. Large food companies squeeze food producers and manufacturers.  These companies maintain pressure on growers/farmers through fear of contract losses/huge unserviceable debts.
6. Corn is used as cow feed because it gets them fat, quickly.  Much the same is this very same corn is doing to us!  And corn is in just about everything that we eat (including ketchup!).
7. Despite advances in technology our food is actually becoming more contaminated.  E-coli contamination is a systematic problem and is responsible for countless deaths, particularly in children, every year.
8. We’re hardwired to seek out salt, sugar and fat.  These are rare in nature, but abundant in our modern day food supply.  Hence our obesity problem.
9. It is expected that 1 in 3 Americans born after the year 2000 will develop type 2 diabetes.
10. We all have choices and our decisions shape what is offered in supermarkets.  The increase demand for organic food has lead companies like Walmart to drastically change what and how they buy food.

The film finishes telling us that we all have a right to healthy food and that the decisions that we can change the world with every bite.  A bit on the cheesy side granted, but hopefully it will influence some of us to make more informed choices about what we eat and drink.  Definitely worth a watch.

Find a diet and lifestyle that you can stick to. Once you have these under control, ignore other people’s opinion on the ‘best diet’ for fat loss. What works for them might not work for you.

 
We help our members with a nutritional programme that works for them, if you’re struggling, give us a shout at our London gyms and try out our personal training and we’ll help you work out a plan that suits you.

 

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