Politics and profit of your diet

[conntom]

I just watched fat Head.

Fat Head - Blog site for the comedy-documentary Fat Head

Interesting information on the American diet and the movie Supersize Me.

The politics and money trail of what is supposed to be good for us was very interesting.

It proves two things I believe:

1) Don't trust your gov't.

2) Don't trust corporations.

 

[B_VinylBoy]

Either that, or use a bit of common sense when dieting.
If we want to look at food and how corporations & politics play a major part in how it's processed in this country, that's one thing. But whether or not someone wants to eat an entire package of Golden Oreo cookies every night to rebel against a few health nuts trying to give out weight loss advice is another.

 

[helgaleena]

That guy does not address the issue of pre-diabetics who may also have cholesterol problems. Atkins-style diets are the answer if cholesterol is not an issue. Vegan diets can work if fat and protein are sufficient. Too much fiber can cause as many deficiencies as too little; it's all about balance.

Where the food we eat comes from is pretty scary all by itself, let alone what choices we make among it all.

 

[Bbucko]

Where the food we eat comes from is pretty scary all by itself, let alone what choices we make among it all.

Agreed. I've always been careful to eat as much whole, unprocessed foods as I can, but things got really severe when a change in medications necessitated a strict no cholesterol/no fat/never/no kidding diet (under the supervision of my doc and a nutritionist) in 2001. After that, I couldn't buy anything without reading all of the labeling first; you learn a lot that way.

As to the OP: it's been old news since I was a teenager that sugars and enriched starches are not our friends. Anyone who pays attention knows this. I'm unclear what the point of Fat Head really is.

 

[Stretch]

If you really want to know about the state of the corporate food industry in America, please watch the documentary "Food, Inc.," directed by Robert Kenner, based on the book An Omnivore's Dilemma by Michael Pollan. It will, and should, scare the hell out of you.

Food, Inc. (2008) - IMDb

Food, Inc. - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

Food, Inc. :: rogerebert.com :: Reviews

Looking forward to discussing this with anybody who has already seen it and those who will see it. I can't recommend it enough if you're interested at all in this topic.

 

[maxcok]

It proves two things I believe:

1) Don't trust your gov't.

2) Don't trust corporations.

It's very interesting to see how even some of our hard core "conservatives" are coming around to the realization that the evil behind the curtain -- that which controls and destroys our lives in so many deleterious ways on so may levels; that which is the real threat to our freedom of choice, our independence, our life, liberty and pursuit of happiness; that which most people are distracted from or completely ignorant of -- is corporatist Borg power. Now if you would only apply your same curiosity and investigative skill to uncovering the real power and the agenda behind the Republican party and the Tea Pary movement, there might be some hope for us as a people and a nation after all.

As for your points 1) and 2) - they are essentially synonymous.

 

[D_Gunther Snotpole]

I don't have Netflix.
Is Fat Head available in video stores?

 

[B_crackoff]

I feel for anyone that's got some kind of genetic imbalance.

For anyone who wants to lose weight, I keep on hearing that not eating after lunch really works. You can train your body to accept almost any regime.

I grow/raise half of what I eat in summer/fall anyway. That bloody keeps the weight off too. Tastes better as well, though you've got to eat what's ready.

 

[conntom]

It's very interesting to see how even some of our hard core "conservatives" are coming around to the realization that the evil behind the curtain -- that which controls and destroys our lives in so many deleterious ways on so may levels; that which is the real threat to our freedom of choice, our independence, our life, liberty and pursuit of happiness; that which most people are distracted from or completely ignorant of -- is corporatist Borg power. Now if you would only apply your same curiosity and investigative skill to uncovering the real power and the agenda behind the Republican party and the Tea Pary movement, there might be some hope for us as a people and a nation after all.

As for your points 1) and 2) - they are essentially synonymous.

Max...I am a democrat at heart. I was raised by a Kennedy loving generation. I put people first.

I currently vote republican because I find them the lesser of two evils. I;ve tried to say this before but no one wants to listen. You say you are republican and conservative and after that they just label you.

Anyways....back to fat head.

I;m going to watch Food Inc like suggested above. Should be interesting.

 

[midlifebear]

I grew up on a rather large farm/ranch operation until I was 16. And I have my own ranch out in the middle of nevada.

1. Regardless if you eat poultry or prefer cow, you cannot possibly believe the quantity of antibiotics that are regularly fed/injected into the food that poultry eat (including the hormones mixed in poultry mash they eat in the first two/three weeks of feeding and burns out their sex glands so they get really, really big).

2. Even happy free-range cattle that we let run around in Nevada are eventually sent off to a feed lot where they live in the filthiest conditions possible, shot up with even more antibiotics and anti parasite drugs. And then they remain in feed lots where they eat a corn-based feed, often mixed with chicken shit full of undigested grain from an egg-laying operation, and a dash of growth hormones that are illegal for weight lifters to use.

And that's just your meat. Want cleaner meat? Eat lamb, rabbit, goat or farm-raised trout. Trout Chow is relatively chemical/hormone free, because trout can't process lots of chemicals.

As for your vegetables? Don't get me started.

But anyone who eats processed foods might as well as also smoke a pack if red dog Pall Malls twice a day. Sugar, by itself, is not so bad. A packet or teaspoon or sugar contains 16 empty calories that can make you feel pretty good when mixed in coffee or tea with a bit of milk in the morning. But pancakes or waffles covered in fake maple syrup are disgusting. The corn industry is currently trying to tell everyone that corn syrup isn't as bad as the regular disaccharide table sugar. Wrong. Corn syrup is to table sugar as heroin is to tea made from dried opium leaves. It's sweeter and they use more of it in soft drinks, cookies, Twinkies, etc. Avoid it at all cost. And to raise corn, it's common to treat millions of acres with one of 12 different herbicides that prevents anything except grains from growing in the same soil for more than 10 years. Just check out atrazine, the most common herbicide that DOES NOT decay or degrade into less harmful molecules. But it does, eventually, make it into all aquifers.

It's amazing that any of us are alive in the USA, Canada, or Mexico.

 

[helgaleena]

I grew up on a rather large farm/ranch operation until I was 16. And I have my own ranch out in the middle of nevada.

1. Regardless if you eat poultry or prefer cow, you cannot possibly believe the quantity of antibiotics that are regularly fed/injected into the food that poultry eat (including the hormones mixed in poultry mash they eat in the first two/three weeks of feeding and burns out their sex glands so they get really, really big).

2. Even happy free-range cattle that we let run around in Nevada are eventually sent off to a feed lot where they live in the filthiest conditions possible, shot up with even more antibiotics and anti parasite drugs. And then they remain in feed lots where they eat a corn-based feed, often mixed with chicken shit full of undigested grain from an egg-laying operation, and a dash of growth hormones that are illegal for weight lifters to use.

And that's just your meat. Want cleaner meat? Eat lamb, rabbit, goat or farm-raised trout. Trout Chow is relatively chemical/hormone free, because trout can't process lots of chemicals.

As for your vegetables? Don't get me started.

But anyone who eats processed foods might as well as also smoke a pack if red dog Pall Malls twice a day. Sugar, by itself, is not so bad. A packet or teaspoon or sugar contains 16 empty calories that can make you feel pretty good when mixed in coffee or tea with a bit of milk in the morning. But pancakes or waffles covered in fake maple syrup are disgusting. The corn industry is currently trying to tell everyone that corn syrup isn't as bad as the regular disaccharide table sugar. Wrong. Corn syrup is to table sugar as heroin is to tea made from dried opium leaves. It's sweeter and they use more of it in soft drinks, cookies, Twinkies, etc. Avoid it at all cost. And to raise corn, it's common to treat millions of acres with one of 12 different herbicides that prevents anything except grains from growing in the same soil for more than 10 years. Just check out atrazine, the most common herbicide that DOES NOT decay or degrade into less harmful molecules. But it does, eventually, make it into all aquifers.

It's amazing that any of us are alive in the USA, Canada, or Mexico.

:shocked: you've no need to see the movie then

 

[B_crackoff]

And don't forget about those GM seed merchants Monsanto!

The GM genocide: Thousands of Indian farmers are committing suicide after using genetically modified crops | Mail Online

Everyone should try growing some of their own food, even if only in pots. It's rewarding, a good work out, the food tastes a hell of a lot better, you realize stuff like spinach actually tastes wonderful fresh, you keep bees & birds happy, & encourage a very diverse ecosystem in your own backyard.

 

[phillyhangin]

If you really want to know about the state of the corporate food industry in America, please watch the documentary "Food, Inc.," directed by Robert Kenner, based on the book An Omnivore's Dilemma by Michael Pollan. It will, and should, scare the hell out of you.

I haven't seen the doc (yet) but I have read the book. It's part of the reason I have a large, raised-bed, organic garden in my backyard!

 

[phillyhangin]

I grow/raise half of what I eat in summer/fall anyway. That bloody keeps the weight off too. Tastes better as well, though you've got to eat what's ready.

I usually end up with so much food from my garden that I fill up my freezer before the season's over and there's still so much left that I can't even give it away. I grow a lot of heirloom varieties, and the flavors are amazing. Sadly, local zoning laws prohibit livestock - even chickens - or I'd be going for fresh eggs too!

 

[phillyhangin]

It's amazing that any of us are alive in the USA, Canada, or Mexico.

I know, right? I try to avoid conventionally raised beef and poultry (not always easy!), I don't particularly like fish (although I go for wild, line-caught when I do eat it), and I grow as much of my fresh vegetables as I can in season and freeze the rest for off-season.

I've only had lamb once (don't remember it really), but never tried rabbit or goat. Not sure where I'd even go to find goat!

It all comes down to short-term profits vs. long-term stability: Too many people are willing to sacrifice the long-term health of the population in the name of quick, short-term profits. And then they complain about the cost of government health initiatives that are designed to deal with the consequences of their choices. The sad part is, they pay the price no matter what: It's either more expensive to grow crops and raise animals, or more expensive to pay for health care; the "savings" of industrial farming are illusory.

 

[maxcok]

Max...I am a democrat at heart. I was raised by a Kennedy loving generation. I put people first.

That would be refreshing if true, because honestly the impression I've had from your posts in the past is that you put your ideology and your financial bottom line first

I currently vote republican because I find them the lesser of two evils.

In overall terms of looking out for the interests of "the people", I don't think so, not by a long shot.

It all comes down to short-term profits vs. long-term stability: . . .

And therein lies the root of most all of our problems. The rest of the noise is just a distraction.

 

[phillyhangin]

And therein lies the root of most all of our problems. The rest of the noise is just a distraction.

I've come to the conclusion that just about everything wrong with society eventually boils down to someone chasing a short-term benefit while ignoring the long-term costs. And it's not just society, but all sorts of things: smoking (feels great now, kills you horribly later), drinking (feels great now, destroys your liver later), drugs (feels great now, kills you later), overeating (ditto), and so on. Humans are essentially a short-term species, and that was fine when all we had to worry about was "Are we going to hunt some antelope today?" In the modern world, the focus on the short-term is killing us by a thousand cuts in the long-term, but hey, at least the rich aren't suffering - for now...

 

[midlifebear]

I'm sure you've all heard about rendering plants. You know, those factories where large, bloated, dead farm animals are carted off to and rendered down into their basic elements for fertilizer, protein additives for you dog's and cat's food, and the gelatin used to stabilize artificial flavorings -- and also used as the base for J-ELLO?

Well, in those areas where there are no large-scale rendering plants their is always the Chex logo on a building that indicates "some form of Chow is made here." Chow is a registered trademark. They make monkey Chow, trout Chow, Salmon Chow, dog Chow, cat Chow and most importantly Poultry Chow. So, you can imagine my fascination when I was 8 years-old to follow a big truck that came by our farm and picked up several recently dead sheep, a cow, and a horse. I got in our pickup and accompanied my dad to the local Chow plant where I watched all of the dead animals dumped into what, for lack of a better description, was the biggest tree chipper I'd ever seen. Imagine the smell.

Everything was quickly reduced to ground dead stuff which was then mixed with grains past their human consumption date full of mouse/rat shit. In turn, this was all ground into a light and fluffy mash and returned to our farm in a feed truck, the contents we used to fill al of the feeding troughs for 250,000 turkey pullets that arrived the same day. Those pullets had no problem with the smell. They were just out of their shells and ready to eat anything -- even tuna casserole -- put in front of them.

Just thought I'd share how the economy of a small farm operation works. Simply multiply that by whatever when picking over the packaged cuts of Tyson brand chicken in the meat section of your grocery store.

 

[phillyhangin]

I'm sure you've all heard about rendering plants. You know, those factories where large, bloated, dead farm animals are carted off to and rendered down into their basic elements for fertilizer, protein additives for you dog's and cat's food, and the gelatin used to stabilize artificial flavorings -- and also used as the base for J-ELLO?

Not to mention the lovely prions from scrapie-infected sheep that cause BSE (mad cow disease), vCJD (variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease, the human equivalent thereof), and CWD (Chronic Wasting Disease - the deer version, now found in deer herds everywhere thanks to trophy hunters feeding banned feed to deer in order to get them to grow bigger antlers just so that they can have bragging rights). Ain't modern technology grand?

Just thought I'd share how the economy of a small farm operation works. Simply multiply that by whatever when picking over the packaged cuts of Tyson brand chicken in the meat section of your grocery store.

It's a shame, but under the corporate-controlled food systems (effectively seed-to-plate), there really aren't a lot of viable alternatives for small farmers. It's either get big, or get out - and getting big often makes them entirely dependent on a number of unsustainable inputs, all of which are supplied by the major agribusinesses. Unfortunately, this is another short-term vs. long-term problem, although in this case, the farmers aren't motivated by short-term greed, they're just trying to survive in a system that's biased against them. The effect, though, is the same: the long-term stability of the food system suffers.

 

[conntom]

That would be refreshing if true, because honestly the impression I've had from your posts in the past is that you put your ideology and your financial bottom line first

In overall terms of looking out for the interests of "the people", I don't think so, not by a long shot.

I suppose I see why you would say that but I feel the threat of gov't dependent people to be the greatest threat right now.

As for putting the bottom line first, well no. But when it comes to keeping corporations accountable for their current lack of loyalty to the USA and her people well, we've done a shitty job of that - myself included.

I do not feel as more gov't is the solution. In the end - people are the solution. People who get educated, think for themselves and take action are the solution.

What would help is if we could modify our form of gov't to avoid the corporate and foreign control there exists over our representatives.

I do not trust gov't. I do not trust big business. I need them to do their parts and serve as checks and balances against each other so that I can live a happy life and my kids someday will too.

If you are picking up that I'm a bit of a nationalist, well, you got me I'm also a bit of an isolationist.