Thursday, October 21, 2010

And I'm Drinking Water While I Type

S and I stayed up until midnight last night watching Super Size Me on Hulu. I know we are about 7 years late to the party but I was just as grossed out as I had heard I would be about this film.

Of course, we kind of knew the premise of the documentary as well as some of the results since it came out so long ago. Still, it was unbelievable. In case you've been under a rock like me, the film maker ate nothing but McDonald's for 30 days. He gained 24 pounds and pretty well pickled his liver.

We don't eat McDonald's a lot, but that's not to say we never eat fast food. I've been wary of Mc Donald's for quite some time now although....at some point in my life I think I liked it. Once you see the pictures of Happy Meals that have sat untouched for years and HAVEN'T CHANGED AT ALL...you really can't enjoy eating there. WHAT is that bread made of that it won't mold? Ug.

The most interesting thing to me was how he sort of became addicted to it. He would be feeling all down and as soon as he started eating he would feel better. Hmm. It made me think of our recent diet changes with my husband's diabetes. Getting off sugar cold turkey is what S did. I don't know if I could have done it. I don't strictly follow his diet, although mine has improved greatly since he was diagnosed.

They showed how what used to be a normal sized drink (fast food joints used to have only one size of drink) is now the children's size. Everything has gone bigger from there. Some drinks they showed were roughly the size of a 2 liter--depending on how much ice you put in. I used to drink a Route 44 from Sonic all. the. time. I am so grossed out. Can you imagine the sugar in my body? Goodness sake.

It encouraged me to make even further changes to our diet. I'm not going to pull the girls off of all sweets in one sweep. They have already been reduced greatly and I don't think they ate as much as the "average" child in America to begin with. But whatever sweets they have will be homemade from scratch. I'm determined to make a lot more food from scratch.

I've gotta go refill my water now. I'm drinking it out of a McDonald's cup. Don't you just love irony?

**Note: If you haven't seen the movie, it's not for watching with your kids. There are a few cuss words--not excessive--and some talk about the filmmaker and his girlfriend's private life, ahem. I would recommend it for the facts it gives you and the encouragement! But it's not a family movie night option. Just wanted to let you know. You can watch it free on Hulu.**

7 comments:

  1. If you want to further disturb yourself about the food industry, Food Inc. is super informative without being political at all. (as in not produced by PETA) I don't mind eating something with a face, but I liked to visualize it on a farm having led a relatively happy life.... then I watched food inc. Its disturbing how they raise and handle our food with so many chemicals. I will have to netflix supersize me through the wii, that sounds interesting.

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  2. That's the next one I want to see. Can't find it online though. I've heard a lot about it.

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  3. King Corn was also eye opening. Rather dull, but worth the viewing.

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  4. I agree with Jennifer, since I was diagnosed we have watched many movies that go along this line. I was rather upset with some of it the more I investigated into healing the body through consumption.
    Food Inc is on Netflix's watch immediately as well as Food Matters. Both of these are very good and are interesting to watch. I no longer drink any milk whatsoever, nor do the children.

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  5. Also the Future of Food is one I've heard of as well.

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  6. I found Food, Inc. at my library! You might check there. I haven't seen Supersize Me, but I did read a lot of books after watching Food Inc., that completely disturbed me. Our eating is completely different now than it was even 6 months ago because of what I watched and read.

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I don't get to talk to a lot of actual grown-ups during the day, so your comments make me really happy! :)