Friday, June 24, 2011

Nourishing Your Body

This past week we watched a documentary on Netflix titled Food Matters. It was very enlightening on many levels. Some of the information we already knew or suspected and other information was new to us. The basis of this documentary is we are what we eat. There are so many minerals and nutrients that we are depriving our bodies. Our country grows tons and tons of corn to make thousands of processed food products that have very little or no nutritional value. These same farmers and big agri companies could be growing more of what are considered the super foods and we would be so much better off as a nation. Students in medical school are receiving very little if none at all education in nutrition. Many diseases, etc. can be treated and cured with eating right and mega doses of certain vitamins and minerals. One thing that really struck me was when one of the doctors said an individual could eat two handfuls of cashews each day and would receive the same benefits as taking Prozac. This information would have been very helpful to me when I was suffering from depression 11 years ago after the birth of my second child. Of course please check this information out for yourself. Research and prove it is true before trying yourself. I have also viewed episodes of Jamie Oliver's Food Revolution. Again lots of great information. We are wrecking our families bodies with junk. My family has been just as bad as everyone else. Too much fast food, sugar laden foods, processed foods, etc. One step at a time is all I can promise to do. At some point we have to say enough is enough. Snack time has definitely changed around this house. Nuts, fruit and raw vegetables. I am working on meal planning. It is a slow process but with growing our own garden this year it has helped to implement lots of greens, potatoes, etc. As I have said before, it is a step by step process for our family. Sometimes it is one step forward and two steps back, but we won't stop.

3 comments:

Renee said...

I just saw the same movie last week on netflix,too and thought it was amazing!I've been realizing that all this store bought food is making us sick and tired.I have been trying to buy more organic foods and make more stuff at home lately so that it is a little better for my family.We haven't eaten fast food in over a year....I take that back,we have eaten pizza a couple of times and I will tell you this,my husband eats lots of veggies & maybe 3 times in the past 4 months,he went out to eat fried chicken & sometimes he'll eat red meat,but he's asian so he loves veggies and he's tall and thin & just found out his cholesterol is 800!Since he doesn't eat that much red meat,I think I have obviously concluded it to be due from those impulse buys of oreos and other junk every so often & we usually have chips every week or 2 weeks.So even though we don't really load up on junk like most people,I think it must be really bad for my husband to more than doubled his cholesterol in less than 2 years!You even have to watch our for what foods you think are healthy but are not. :(

I think it's really sad that doctors don't know about nutrition like they should and don't care to learn about how we could fight diseases naturally.it was funny b/c on the new last night they were talking about foods that can make you gain weight and they were saying how potatoes are bad for you b/c they will make you gain weight.It's really annoying when one day they tell you something is good and the next day they say it's bad.Then you have to worry about the pestisides in veggies and fruit so that doesn't kill you...ugh!I'm just so frustrated over what our government has been allowing us to eat all these years and it also goes back to I think around the 1950's with the invention of frozen foods....another bad thing.

I've also been watching Jamie Oilver and can't believe they won't let him in the school.I will say that as a kid and now it's hard to eat healthy since that's not what I'm used to eating.It's so hard to break bad habits,but you do need to start kids off by eating healthy foods so they don't get used to the bad stuff.I wish we could all just protest somehow to get all these bad things off the shelf....like they say,out of sight,out of mind.Eventually we wouldn't miss the bad foods and would aquire taste for the good stuff.

Ok,well,enough of my novel.I just had to comment on this great post. :)

Unknown said...

Renee,
Thanks for your comment on this post. I too believe that alot has changed in our food since the 1950's and not for the better. Your husband's cholestrol at 800 is just plain frightening. This is definitely a process. One of the big wins for us over the past month or so is getting my daughter off of chips. Chips were her go to snack of choice and she would eat it with her lunch too. Very proud of her that most of the time she now will choose nuts, grapes, etc.
Blessings
Diane

Staci@LifeAtCobbleHillFarm said...

Diane - so true about it being one step at a time. It really comes down to changing our habits, don't you think? And making healthy food easily accessible and ready so it's not easier to grab something processed. We too are making the slow transition. We don't eat a lot of processed and never have, but obviously even a small amount is not healthy.
Great post!
Staci