Monday, August 17, 2009

There's what in my hamburger?!

We saw our first movie at a theatre in about a year and a half on Friday night with a group of friends. With all that time having passed since we last saw a film, we no doubt held out for a really good bigscreen adaptation, right? Something that just could NOT wait until it made its way to Redbox (the only way we really ever watch movies...which is about twice a month).

"Hey, look over there! A neat shiny new action adventure romantic comedy dramatic documentary everybody!"

That's right. It might have been since 2008 that we'd seen a movie together, but it's the first time in either of our lives that we went to see a documentary on the bigscreen.

Food, Inc.

It was worth it. Why?

Because it was awakening. We at Blondes, Poop & Mascara like to be in the know. And, when it comes to food, we really weren't. The basics, yeah...caloric intake, clean your veggies before you eat them, stuff out of cans isn't as fresh, balanced food pyramid, candy is bad, etc, etc. But, we find ourselves three days later left in this wake of knowledge inspiring us to take control of the food in our lives. The American consumer often feels weak. "My choices are only the ones available at the grocer." When, that's not the case at all. Money drives business. And, consumers have the money. Even Wal-Mart was in Food, Inc. as an example of a massive buyer of food who has shifted the way they do business (for the better) because their customers said to do so.

We don't blame you if you don't go pay to see the flick at the theatre, but please watch it once it comes out on DVD / makes its way to Hulu / becomes downloadable on iTunes, etc.

Watch the trailer here and check out the website. It's fantastic!



10 Easy Tips to healthier eating from the Food, Inc. website...

* Stop drinking sodas and other sweetened beverages. You can lose 25 lbs in a year by replacing one 20 oz soda a day with a no calorie beverage (preferably water).

* Eat at home instead of eating out. Children consume almost twice (1.8 times) as many calories when eating food prepared outside the home.

* Support the passage of laws requiring chain restaurants to post calorie information on menus and menu boards. Half of the leading chain restaurants provide no nutritional information to their customers.

* Tell schools to stop selling sodas, junk food, and sports drinks. Over the last two decades, rates of obesity have tripled in children and adolescents aged 6 to 19 years.

* Meatless Mondays—Go without meat one day a week. An estimated 70% of all antibiotics used in the United States are given to farm animals.

* Buy organic or sustainable food with little or no pesticides. According to the EPA, over 1 billion pounds of pesticides are used each year in the U.S.

* Protect family farms; visit your local farmer's market. Farmer's markets allow farmers to keep 80 to 90 cents of each dollar spent by the consumer.

* Make a point to know where your food comes from—READ LABELS. The average meal travels 1500 miles from the farm to your dinner plate.

* Tell Congress that food safety is important to you. Each year, contaminated food causes millions of illnesses and thousands of deaths in the U.S.

* Demand job protections for farm workers and food processors, ensuring fair wages and other protections. Poverty among farm workers is more than twice that of all wage and salary employees.

Be informed. Be healthy. Act.

7 comments:

Nook said...

man, we're really glad we saw this movie too...and in such good company, I might say. It really does open your eyes. I loved that wise farmer! He was awesome!

Sherrie said...

I went to my local Farmer's Market this weekend for the first time. I was so sad upon leaving. I was disappointed. :( The reason being - at least HALF of the items there were NOT local! ??? What's up with that? Is it like that at all Farmer's Markets or is mine just messed up?

designHER Momma said...

will this video make me barf?

BlondesPoopMascara.blogspot.com said...

@ designHER Momma: not likely. In the literal sense anyway.

redheadfrog said...

I'm assuming they did not mention GMOs, Genticially Modified Foods. For starters, GMOs have been proven to cause infertility in rats...Please do some research and you will see the many other reasons we should not consume GMOs.

Greg - TellingDad said...

I have been avoiding this video because I already violate 8 of the 10 tips. If I watch it I risk having to change from a diet of Twinkies, red meat, and Coke.

On second thought, that might not be so bad.

BlondesPoopMascara.blogspot.com said...

@ redheadfrog - pretty sure they did talk about GMO's and the requirements to label foods when they're used.

@ greg - sorry, not sure I've seen organic Twinkies before - and you didn't do all that pink boa work to blow it on some fluff filled pastries anyway