Last night Greg and I watched Fed Up, Katie Couric’s 2014 Documentary about food. If you have children, you should watch this documentary. If you live in the United States, you should watch this documentary. If you eat food, you should watch this documentary. If you know someone who has trouble losing weight, you should watch this documentary.
Everyone should watch this documentary.
Here’s the official trailer:
Seeing this documentary made me even more appreciative that I have the time to stay at home and prepare healthy meals made from whole foods. Packaged foods are faster, they’re more convenient, they’re tasty and they’re addictive. They’re also responsible for a health crisis in our country.
There is hope, and it starts at home. Finding time, MAKING time, to prepare real food can save our children from the obesity and type two diabetes epidemics.
After focusing on eating whole foods and eliminating refined sugars from our diet except for special occasions, I don’t crave processed or packaged foods anymore. If you reduce your dependency on sugar, I promise you that you won’t miss it. Fruits will taste sweeter. Strawberries will be a perfect dessert.
We need the fiber that comes in whole foods for our bodies to process the sugar in foods slowly. Ditch the juices, refined carbs, sodas, and packaged foods.
This film made me realize that we can do better in our house, too. The cereals my children love to eat for breakfast might not have much added sugar, but they’re not nutrient dense or high in fiber, either. Those carbohydrates are getting transformed into sugar after my children eat them. If I got up ten minutes earlier and started the oatmeal, my kids would feel full longer each morning, and be healthier in the long run.
Please, watch the film. It has the power to change your life.
I saw this during the VA Film Festival last fall – Katie Couric and Dr. Hyman were there as well, to answer questions after viewing of the film. Fed Up was extremely eye-opening to me! Great documentary.
Food Inc completely changed my life. I’ve seen the promos for this Fed Up movie and now I’ll watch it. Thanks, Kelly!
The school food blew me away… it’s unbelievable. I hadn’t thought about my memories of cafeteria food in a long time, and it was devastating to watch those portions of the film and think about the children getting such unhealthy food, day after day, in a place that’s supposed to improve their well-being. I haven’t seen Food Inc (this is shocking, I know!) and will add it to my watch list. I also want to see Uprooting the Leading Causes of Death by Greger, and More Than an Apple a Day by Greger. He’s the nutritionfacts.org guy and I love his quick videos from that site.
Amen! I took my 83 year old mom grocery shopping this week. She lives in a suburb of Milwaukee, but what I saw is typical of the entire country. It almost made me cry to see so many overweight, lethargic people, in an almost zombie like state pushing their carts through the aisles. I even counted four people who were so morbidly obese that they had to sit in those wheelchair type shopping carts because it took too much energy for them to walk through the store. I took notice of what kinds of things were in those carts. Lots of boxes, cans, meat and dairy and very little if any fresh fruits and vegetables. I left the store feeling depressed and angry.
I live in an atypical area of the country, where most people are fit and healthy in relation to outlying areas. When I get out of my little “bubble” it freaks me out. I wish schools would show this movie to kids in elementary school, then middle, and again in high school.
I live in a similar “bubble” and when I return to the area in Maine where I grew up, I also wish people had the resources to live healthier lives. It’s not just knowledge, it’s also the time… I spend a great deal of time preparing healthy, home cooked meals, and I’m lucky to have that time. There are so many necessary ingredients for healthier living – time, availability of good produce, knowledge of what to eat, knowledge of how to prepare it, will-power to consistently make healthier eating decisions. I am so passionate about how worthwhile it is, but that doesn’t mean it’s easy. I wish it were.