• On average our food travels 1,500 miles from the farm to our plate

• Because of the long distances that food travels, we no longer eat with the seasons and therefore eat produce that does not provide our bodies with all their nutritional benefits

• Grocery stores now boast over 47,000 products to choose from – most of which can sit on shelves for weeks or even months

• In present day, four companies control more than 80% of our poultry and meat production

• 30% of U.S. land is fields of corn, most of which is used to feed cows because of how cheap it is and because it keeps cows fat. All of this despite the fact that cows should only eat grass

• In the 1970s the FDA conducted more than 50,000 food inspections a year, in 2006 there were only 9,000 inspections

• Kevin’s Law, while not currently passed into law by government, would empower the USDA to shut down any contaminated food plants. This would have helped the widespread salmonella outbreak  that occurred recently due to a contaminated peanut facility and could have helped prevent the many who became sick

• 1 in 3 Americans will contract diabetes

• While we have been programmed to think fast food is cheap food,  we will pay much higher health care costs from the consequences of eating this fast food

If you demand good, wholesome food, farmers will deliver. It is up to us to decide what food we want to be putting on our table. Eat in season, eat locally and plant a garden of your own. These are some of the best ways to help yourself be healthy, help your family be healthy, help your environment be healthy and help our animals be healthy, too.

If you are hungry for change, visit www.foodincmovie.com to learn more about how you can take part.

Post from: Diets in Review Blog

We are Still Hungry for Change with Food Inc.

The documentary-style feature shows how the majority of the food we consume is controlled in the hands of just a few giant food manufacturers whose sometimes deplorable and shocking processing practices have not only been hidden from the American consumer but have had the consent of the government’s two food regulatory bodies, the FDA and USDA.

The movie, which features interviews with In Defense of Food author Michael Pollan and Eric Schlosser of Fast Food Nation, is more than just a jaw-dropping expose that graphically shows our food travels from farm (or machine) to fork, but it also motivates all of us to think twice before we order a hot dog at the baseball stadium, grab a box of sugar corn popped cereal or select a few tomatoes from our mass grocer for a summer salad.

As a Variety magazine movie critic commented, “Food Inc. does for the grocery store what Jaws did for the beach.”

What is equally compelling about the movie is that Food Inc. is part of a larger and growing movement to ensure more honesty in how our food is being grown, processed and manufactured. In addition, Food Inc. doesn’t just leave you feeling like the only way to safeguard your health is to grow your own garden, raise your own livestock and hull your own wheat. Accompanying the movie is a comprehensive take-action website that helps you become involved in the Hungry For Change movement. From no longer drinking sodas and other sweetened beverages to reading food labels, eating at home more and urging Congress to pass more food safety laws, Food Inc. empowers us with tools for change that you can start employing today.

Yes, it’s a terrying look into our nation’s food industry but Food Inc. is also an incredibly important movie that is worth every dollar of your $10 movie ticket. But you will probably want to forego the popcorn and post-movie burger and fries.

Post from: Diets in Review Blog

Food Inc. is Hungry For Change

Ashtanga yoga master Sri. K. Pattabhi Jois

Yoga has become one of the hottest fitness and spiritual practices here in the U.S., but in India, yoga’s country of origin, the face of yoga looks markedly different than what we are familiar with. For the month of June and July, I will be in Mysore, India, the hub of Ashtanga yoga, one of the oldest known forms of yoga that is still practiced with enthusiasm and dedication today. Although this is my second trip to the sacred country of India, these five weeks are different because I am here studying yoga with my family, just a few weeks following the death of Ashtanga master, Sri. K. Pattabhi Jois.

Doing yoga in its fatherland is extremely different than practicing it here in a posh or not-so-posh Western studio. A combination of the sweltering heat and moist humidity, both of which have a near magical way of making your body incredibly open and flexible, and the mere energy of downward dogging on the same ground that yoga was first practiced by mankind is both humbling and awe-inspiring.

As a yoga student in India, one of the realities that strikes me as so profound is that Indians don’t do yoga. Or at least not the way it is practiced here in the States. Yoga is so intricately and deeply embedded in the colorful and dichotomous culture of India that Indians don’t need to practice it like we do. They already “get” the fundamental concept of yoga, which literally means to yoke or unite as in the connecting the mind, body and spirit entities of our selves. 

The kind of yoga you do see regularly in India is the seamless way in which Indians regard their spirituality. Daily acts of reverence, prayer and homage make any foreigner acutely aware of how entrenched this awareness is. Perhaps Indians don’t take yoga classes like we do, but it is quite common to see older men and women sitting not on chairs but on the ground positioned in lotus or padmasana pose – a posture that most of us Westerners can only dream about twisting into. It’s not just their minds that are almost unconsciously aware of their spirituality, but their bodies reflect the openness as well.

While yoga is relatively new to the West, it has been a way of life in India for the past 5,000 years, so it makes perfect sense that this powerfully subtle practice is as much a part of the fabric of their culture as The Declaration of Independence is to ours. Over the course of the next few weeks, I’m going to be sharing my insights and experiences of my weeks in India. From health to food and from yoga to meditation, I’m looking forward to cross-comparing our cultures and absorbing some of the profound knowledge of this ancient yogic land.

Post from: Diets in Review Blog

Practicing Ashtanga Yoga in India