Yesterday I watched one of the documentaries I listed in my last posting: Killer at Large. I must say, though I knew a lot of the information since I am generally interested in food politics, I still found it to be a real eye opener. This film not only tackles the issues within the government but also with marketing, from an anthropological standpoint, consumerism & parenting. I was appalled at some of the things I saw, like a McDonalds Ad where a baby is sucking on a burger like s/he would a bottle. Disgusting. Feeding a baby this kind of food is child abuse, never mind using it in an ad!

If you are taking your children or even yourself to McDonalds, shame on you. One kids happy meal is enough food & calories for an adult! And a Big Mac meal is enough food and calories for an entire family. Unbelievable. And don’t even get me started on where that meat comes from, assuming you eat that stuff.

Thing is, they estimated that people with lower incomes were fatter than people with higher incomes. It has become a reality that cheap foods are more filling and caloric than more expensive healthy foods. They discovered that a lot of consumers will choose quantity over quality. Wow, really?

So what else are we doing wrong?

For one, as a healthy frugal person I discovered that food couponning was pretty much useless. I read a Canadian website which lists deals and coupons for consumers. Sometimes, she posts pictures of what she has purchased with coupons. When I see this photos, I am disgusted at the food I see. A lot of it consists of sugary cereals, grocery store meats, processed frozen foods and sodium packed cheese and dairy items. I don’t care how many coupons I had for sugary cereal, you won’t ever see it in my house more than once a year, and that’s just one box! (and that sugary stuff shouldn’t be fed to kids either!!)

The fact is, a lot of the food you’ll find in the grocery store sucks (yes, that includes produce and meat). And don’t get me started on that garbage you find at Costco. Do you find yourself constantly reading labels on food packages these days too? Well, if you get back to the basics of food, you won’t ever have to do that! By purchasing fresh local fruits and vegetables, staples such as rice, pasta, dried beans, oatmeal, soy milk and bread, you won’t need to be confused by all that processed nastiness you find at the grocery store. Fact is, you don’t even need it. Eating frugally can be done with all natural ingredients if we get back to basics and cut out most processed foods!

So no need for couponing, do you really want to eat all that processed junk, even if it’s free? Gee, I hope not.

But hey, eating fresh isn’t convenient now is it? If your health is a priority, you will make time for it. Health SHOULD be on the top of people’s priority list. If not, well then don’t come crying to me when you’re sick all the time.

You know what struck me as well? That 2/3 of the US population is overweight and that this is the first generation where we will see parents possibly outlive their children. Type 2 Diabetes was never seen in kids years ago, now it’s all over the place. How depressing.

75 Billion dollars a year is spent on medical costs related to obesity.

And the documentary actually starts off with a 12 year old girl getting liposuction. Oh boy….

Needless to say, we have a lot of work to do as a populace. We can no longer ignore this destructive epidemic, it’s impact on society’s health & the environment.

There are so many frightening statistics in this film that it will wake you up.

Now, I am just glad I was already on the right path regarding my health and nutrition. In fact, I am going to pick up my weekly vegetable bag tonight from a local organic farmer. Boy, does that feel good!