Monday, December 8, 2008

Feeling a little more educated.

I found this book on a fellow friend's "Good Reads" review. It looked very interesting, so I picked it up from the library & watched it sit on my piano for a couple of weeks. Finally ready to start looking at what I put into my body, I opened the cover, & was amazed at what I found. This book is NOT a eat this, don't eat this kind of read. The author is very laid back & explains how we have come to our Western diet as a society today. This is my review on my "Good Reads" account: 
Has anyone seen that commercial recently about one mom giving her kids juice, then the other mom says, "how can you give your kids so much juice? It has a lot of high fructose corn syrup in it." Which the mom pouring the juice replys,"it comes from corn, what can be so wrong with it?" 

I saw that commercial a couple of weeks ago & thought, hmmm, they make a good point. But also what kind of selfish, greedy individual would come up with that? Telling moms it's ok to drink lots of juice with crap in it because it originally comes from corn? 

This book was SUPER great at explaining how our country has arrived at how we think about "nutrition" & food. How we eat, what we think is ok, the evil politics that has hidden what is really healthy for us in order to gain more money. Then the author goes on to talk about other cultures, why they're healthier, why our studies are nothing but crap, but also talks to the people who head these studies who admit they are crap. He has researched this topic very deeply, taking in all points of views, opinions, sides, but still never tells you That you MUST eat how he says. 

His opinion is non-bias, & has quit a few humorous comments that keep you reading more. I recomend this to EVERYONE. You will learn more about what you "think" is healthy, but not feel guilty (unless you should be) about your eating habits. I still sat down & ate my sis in laws choc cream cheese frosting (thanks Lisa) & read about how to go about a healthier lifestyle. I know that oreos, crackers, cakes, fast foods are not healthy. But what about my peanut butter? My canned foods? My bread? The packages that have health claims, the laws that are made to go around really being healthy, but can claim to be. Did you know Fritos can claim to reduce some disease (don't remember which) because they now use a product called corn oil, instead of a previous ingredient, although corn oil is even worse to consume. It's ridiculous. 

Also contains interesting results to studies about our habits, how media gets us to think a certain way, & why we eat the way we do. The difference between "food" & "food products." It's all about the title: "Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants." Yes, you should read it.

So now Jared & I are trying to be a little better at cooking with more fresh "food" & learning more about what those pesky ingredients are that we can't even pronounce. Some of my favorite advice from this book was "don't eat anything your Grandmother wouldn't recognize"  "don't shop in the center aisles"  "no more than 5 ingredients" (to this my response was bun, hamburger, lettuce, cheese & bacon. That's only 5!) "try not to eat alone" "shake the hand that feeds you"  & " NO HIGH FRUCTOSE CORN SYRUP"

During the voting frenzy, a friend sent me an email about this group of women who fought for the right to vote. I placed this HBO movie on my Netflix list & waited for a couple months for it to become available. It's not that they didn't do a good job, the acting was ok, but it's the story that gets you. I had no idea about how these women were arrested & tortured. What society thought about the intelligence of women, how no one cared. I will never again not care about voting. Every chance I get, I will give my tiny little voice of opinion, if not only to show appreciation to what women fought for not even 100 years ago. 

3 comments:

The Caldwell's said...

I think I saw that movie...Was Hilary Swank in it?? She threw up food and they still forced her to eat and stuff?? I thought the movie was powerful too.

Carrie said...

Glad you liked that book. Interesting, huh?? It really makes you second guess what you put in your mouth. I'm even starting to make Charlie's baby food instead of buying jarred.

Anonymous said...

That book sounds interesting! We eat a lot that way any how but its always good good to have more information about it. Thanks for the review!