Wednesday, March 21, 2012

Hungry for Change

The latest film from Food Matters about the lifestyle of North Americans and Western society, Hungry for Change, is a series of interviews from various experts (yes, that word again) giving healthy lifestyle, not diet!, advice that the average person can truly relate too.
Yes, it will probably end up just preaching to the choir. That's usually what's happens with these films.

The free viewing is available online until March 31st. The film is about an hour and a half, take some time out of your day to watch. But make sure you do it, as with all things in life, with your brain turned on.



Here's some quotes from the film...
"We do not eat food anymore, but food-like products"
To beat the diet, you need to shift your thinking from, "I want it, but can't have it" to "I can have it, but don't want it"

And they end with the 3 questions you should ask yourself about what you eat...
Where does my food come from?
What went into the food (what attitude, care, love, compassion)?
What is my intention with the food? Is it to support me? or entertain me?


Have you watched the film?
No? Then don't read what I have to say until you do. I don't want to cloud your view of the film. Take the time to form your own opinion.

Yes? Excellent, then read on...



It was a good film. I think it touched on a lot of excellent points of our food culture.
They want us to start thinking about where our food comes from, for us to know that industrial food companies only want our $ - they don't care about our health, and to start make better choices.

Better choices to them means: plants, plants and more plants.
Eat only organic.
Make juices because they're fast and easy! (that's what we all want to hear, right?)  They focused quite a bit on juices... I have a feeling there's a "cookbook" involved.


That's great! We all need to eat more vegetables!
I love vegetables!

The one thing I'm thinking about while these experts rattle on is, "Is this sustainable?"
Not sustainable as in, "Can I personally keep up this lifestyle?" (which is also an important question to ask)
but as in, "Where are chia seeds grown?"
"Can I get aloe at my farmer's market?"
"How many miles away is Spirulina produced/processed?"
"Sure lemons, limes, pineapple, etc make these juices taste great... but they have to travel thousands of miles to get to me..."
"They didn't mention anything about eating ethical meat products..."

To those of us trying to live a locally sourced food lifestyle (diet doesn't sound right) and NOT living in California, many of these foods are out of the question.

But, we can grow our own herbs.  Parsley and cilantro are the best of the best according to the film, and both are easy to grow, even for Zone 3.

You can live a healthy life without getting organic foods trucked from hundreds/thousands of miles away.
Grow your own food.
Talk to farmers that grow produce and raise animals in your area.  Just because they're not certified organic, doesn't mean they don't practice environmentally friendly farming.
Educate yourself.  Research the research.  You might be surprised who funds some of these studies about food...
Make your own food-bullseye. Decide how and from where you will source your food.

All that aside, the values behind the film are admirable.
- Eat less sugar, in all it's forms.
- Cut out processed foods.
- Read the label before you buy it!
- Detoxify your body. Yes, your body already knows how to do this. You just need to help it along by consuming clean, healthy foods.
- Move more, Eat plants.
- Love. Love yourself. Love others.



What are your thoughts on the film?

5 comments:

  1. thanks deb,
    nice recap, hard not to agree with all of your statements.

    what is a food-bullseye?

    love love love YOUR blog...thx

    su :)

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    1. Awwww, thanks Su! :D
      2-4yrs ago if I had watched that film I would've run out and bought a juicer, etc etc. Now I explore the food world with my personal values (which took time to develop) and compare what information I'm taking in with to the lifestyle I want to create for myself and family.

      A food-bullseye is exactly what it sounds like, but the rings on your bullseye may be very different widths to others.
      The centre would be the largest, it is where you try to get most of your food from.

      My centre is Food My Family, Friends and I have Grown, Hunted, Foraged, Raised. That is what I try to make most of our diet of.

      My first rings from the centre is:
      Locally Produced Foods, Organic/Free Range - to my standards, which is only discovered by developing a relationship with the farmer (I try to keep it 100mile, but always within Alberta)

      The centre and 1st ring are largest in my bullseye.
      It then expands out to include:
      Western Canada, Organic/Free Range
      Canadian, Organic/Free Range
      Local, BigAg
      Western Canada/Canada, BigAg
      Imported Organic/Free Range/Fair Trade
      Imported, BigAg

      I made a conscious choice when making our bullseye to put Local and Canadian "commercial/BigAg" products BEFORE imported organics.
      My family and I made the decision to use Canadian products over imported. Do we get everything we want/need from Canadian producers? Not yet... but that's why we still allow ourselves to enjoy imported foods, just in much more limited quantities, and only certain items (tea, coffee, chocolate, peanuts, rice, etc)
      But, just because our Canadian,BigAg ring is before Imported,Organic, it doesn't mean that it's bigger than the imported. Practically everything we could get from the Canadian,BigAg ring is found in the previous 3rings. So, there isn't very many items we source from there.
      But, what we source from the Imported,Organic ring are things that we just cannot get/find in Canada so that ring is going to be a bit larger. One of my goals this year is to cut back on the number of imported goods we use.

      I encourage everyone to make a food-bullseye of the foods you eat now. Then, if you don't like the way it looks, make another one of where you want to be in 6months. Make a list of goals to accomplish every month into order to realize your new food-bullseye.

      I hope that helps! Enjoy your weekend :)
      - Deb

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  2. wowzers~

    love your commitment and passion about what is important to you and your family!

    i think even without mapping it, my bullseye would be mostly local or canadian at least

    thanks for sharing
    you are inspirational to me for sure

    cheers
    su ;)

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  3. Hiya,

    Excellent thoughts and tips. I am just now embracing a 'slow' and local lifestyle in a more serious way. I live on the west coast so we have a pretty long growing season.

    You are in Edmonton, my brother runs an organic farm in Opal named Sparrow's Nest Organics, have you heard of them? Just curious.

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    Replies
    1. Yep, I know of Sparrow's Nest :)
      I grew up in Thorhild, barely a stone's throw away from Opal lol

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