The Truth

Sometimes I love Oprah so much I could kiss her.
Other times, well let's just say we don't always agree.
But today, let me tell you, she was spot on in my humble opinion.
I even took notes.

She had Michael Pollan on her show.
What? You don't know who he is?!?
He is the maker of a documentary called Food, Inc.
If you have not already seen it, you MUST!
This documentary should replace all the videos shown in any health and nutrition class in any school the United States over.
Bar none.
It will literally change the way you eat forever.
You may never eat fast food or anything prepackaged ever again.
So if you like your food the way it is, stop reading now.
Ignore the problem that is America's food supply a little longer until it continues to kill you ever so slowly and painfully.
I know I'm being a little harsh, but in all honesty, it's the plain truth.
We are killing ourselves.
And it's not a pretty death.
Michael points out that things like heart disease and diabetes and obesity and high blood pressure(the list goes on and on) did not become such an epidemic until about the turn of the last century.
150 years ago food was so much simpler.

Michael Pollan wrote a book (which I'm itching to read) called Food Rules
Oprah discussed some of his rules on the show.
#2 Don't eat anything your great grandmother would not recognize as food.
Think Little House on the Prairie times.
There were no cookie and chip sections in the town grocer filled with more preservatives and flavorings than actual food.
There was no neon colored and flavored yogurt in little tubes you can just squeeze into your mouth.
If they wanted yogurt they had to make it from scratch, they flavored it with fruit or not at all.
Don't get me wrong, grocery stores are a wonderful modern convenience, and there are some things worth buying.
For instance Dannon's plain yogurt is all natural.
No thickeners, no additives, just milk and live active cultures, period.
Just how your great grandmother would have made.
If we have yogurt that's what we buy, then I blend frozen berries with a squirt of honey and mix it in and you know what, it tastes way better that the neon variety.
#12 Avoid products containing ingredients that a 3rd grader cannot pronounce.
We have got to read labels, people.
Really, we don't even buy many labeled foods anymore.
I make 95% of what we eat from scratch.
I buy brown sugar and rice and oats and wheat and spelt and barley and buckwheat and millet and rye and beans in 50 pound bags.
I either soak or grind the real food and bake or boil it.
It's really not that hard to do. I set aside 3 hours a week to bake.
I make things like granola bars, cookies, muffins, bread, bagels, English muffins, and on and on.
Not all in one week of course.
Basically, if I see something in the store that looks good, I come home and find a recipe for it and I make it.
No preservatives, no fillers. Just plain old good food.
#23(I think) Eat only foods that will eventually rot
Michael said, "Food is alive and it should eventually die"
Here we are again with more preservatives than actual food.
#39 Eat all the junk food you want as long as you cook it yourself

I don't know how I feel about this one.
I do agree that we need treats, and I do make them on a regular basis, but all the junk food I want?
I don't think this man knows how much junk food I can put away.
If there is junk in the house I eat it until it's gone.
I have the worst sweet tooth and I think I'd weigh a million pounds if I just ate all I wanted.
I have lots more to say about this, but this is already long and boring.
For now can I just say, watch the movie.
Download it, buy it, rent it, borrow it, but please, watch it!