Food, Inc.

Monday night (which happened to be our 4 month anniversary), Dustin and I rode our bikes to Blockbuster and picked up a copy of Food, Inc. As you most likely know if you are reading this blog, Dustin was recently diagnosed with Type 1 Diabetes, and also learned that he was allergic to wheat and dairy among other things. Through a lot of research, we have learned that the correlation between Type 1 diabetes and food allergies, specifically wheat and dairy, is not all that rare. So we have been adjusting our diet... a lot!!

We have been told by lots of people since Dustin's diagnosis that we need to see Food, Inc. To be honest, I really didn't want to watch it after reading the book Skinny Bitch. I was afraid that it would show too much animal cruelty. Dustin didn't want to watch it because he was afraid that after watching it he might not want to eat meat any more, and that is one of the very few things he can still eat. But after spending some time with Kim Brown last week, we knew that we needed to get educated. And watching it was one of the BEST things that we have ever done. It connected so many dots between Dustin's diagnosis and the food that we eat. It really solidified for us how important it is to know where our food is coming from and what is in it (chemicals/hormones/pesticides/etc).

Here are some of the most interesting quotes and take aways from watching the movie...

• The average American eats over 200 pounds of meat a year.
• 70% of processed food have genetically modified.
• 1 in 3 Americans born after 2000 will contract early onset diabetes; Amond minorities, the rate will be 1 in 2.
• In 1972, the FDA conducted 50,000 food safety inspections. In 2006, the FDA conducted only 9,164.
• In 1998, the USDA implemented microbial testing for salmonella and E. coli 0157h7 so that if a plant repeatedly failed these tests, the USDA could shut down the plant. After being taken to court by the meat and poultry associations, the USDA no longer has that power.
  *** All facts from http://www.foodincmovie.com/img/downloads/Press_Materials.pdf>

I think that this movie really opened our eyes to how corrupt the FDA really is, and how important it is to take responsibility for our own health by knowing what we are REALLY putting into our bodies. It is absolutely sickening thinking of how many genetically modified (GMO) foods I have consumed in my lifetime, and I can only imagine what harm that has done to my body. I pray that my children will not have to worry about this, and we will live in a world where food companies and our government care more about our health than the bottom line.

I will leave you with this quote from Food, Inc.

“Imagine what it would be if, as a national policy, we said we would be only successful if we had fewer people going to the hospital next year than last year? The idea then would be to have such nutritionally dense, unadulterated food that people who ate it actually felt better, had more energy and weren’t sick as much… now, see, that’s a noble goal.”
-- Joel Salatin, owner/farmer of Polyface Farms in Virginia, which lets his livestock graze on grass, the way nature intended.