Hungry for Change

 

The biggest snowstorm in years has taken over the television and Kelly and Michael is not airing.  Tragic, I know.  All I wanted to do today was curl up with some tea and watch my favorite show.  I suppose the Midwest's safety is more important than me seeing Kelly in Disney World today so I'm moving to the next thing on my list: blogging. Oh, and yes, I know I have a "list" problem.  I can't even take a snow day without making one.  It's a problem I am fully aware of.  

Time to discuss the other documentary I watched on my TV filled Saturday.  While I enjoyed Vegucated, I LOVED Hungry for Change.  I mean, REALLY loved it.  I completely agreed with everything they said, and all the sugar stuff I relay to you on my blog is covered in this documentary.  It is a MUST watch in my opinion.  I don't want to write tons and tons on this because really, I just want you to go watch it.  So go.  Blog post over.

Just kidding.  Here are my notes, but I'm not going to make it all fancy because if I sum it ALL up for you, what do you have left to watch?

• Diets don't work.  You may lose weight, but eventually, you'll gain it all back.  (And more, sometimes!)
• Sugar is the cocaine of the food industry.
• People are overfed, but starving at the same time.  They are overfed, but undernourished.
• We are programmed to put on fat (survival) for the winter, for shortage of food, etc.  Now days, no "winter" comes and we never shed the extra fat.
• We are chronically starved of nutrients so we are always hungry.
• We aren't eating food anymore, we eat food like products.  The goal of the companies is for food to last and it be appealing.  They don't care if it's nutritious.
• MSG is in 80% of processed foods and it can be hidden behind 50 different names.  (This was shocking to me!)
• Anything labeled fat free=full of sugar. (Ex: you could put "fat free" on a 20 lb. bag of sugar.  This is why on low fat diets you are constantly hungry.)
• Of the bad fats, partially hydrogenated oil is the worst.  Healthiest: avocado, (sigh of relief for me!) salmon, and chia seeds.
• High fructose corn syrup obviously comes from corn, but because it's so refined it is horrible for you.  They linked this to cocaine.  The coca leaf is what cocaine is made of.  In it's original form, the coca leaf is not addictive, but once it's refined it becomes highly addictive.  The same happens with corn syrup.  Corn is great; once it's refined, it's addictive.
• High fructose corn syrup is in many more products than you think.  *Side note: I JUST discovered a new one.  I usually buy tomato soup at Traders Joe's so I haven't bought a can of Campbell's in awhile.  Our church does a canned soup drive every Superbowl Sunday weekend.  They call it "Soup-er Bowl Food Drive".  Clever, right?  Anyway, I grabbed some tomato soup while at the store and guess what was in it?  You got it-high fructose corn syrup.  I was enraged.   Poor Josh.  He had to hear me go on and on about it on the way to church.  It's just not right, though.
• Fructose (fruit sugar) is okay when you consume 15-25 grams per day.  Today, the average person consumes 70-80 grams a day.
• Your definition of "sugar" REALLY needs to expand.
• I talked about my strong feelings on aspartame in the past.  This documentary supports everything I've said and more:
• The only studies out there that claim there are no side effects to aspartame are those done by the food industry.  Aspartame has side effects and also make you crave carbohydrates.  The manufacturers fund the studies to send to the regulators.  The manufacturers know their ingredients/chemicals are addictive.  (MSG, sugar, aspartame) and just like cigarette companies add nicotine, they will add these addictive ingredients to their food so people come back for it again and again.
• It is not fat that makes us fat, it's sugar.  Sugar is like a drug-it's that addictive.
• Jamie Oliver (who I'm a HUGE fan of) says the amount of sugar added to flavored milk that kids are required to take in school should be called child abuse. 
• What to do?  Limit man made foods.  Look for high quality animal protein.  Increase your green veggies!  Green veggies help detox the body. 

Have I convinced you to watch yet?  If I still haven't, take a look at this clip. 

I realize I am fascinated with this kind of stuff, but just watching the trailer gets me all fired up.  Clearly, the manufacturer's aren't going to change, so it's up to YOU to be educated and get back to the basics of clean eating. 

Did I mention you should WATCH THIS DOCUMENTARY!  You won't regret it.