Documentaries about food... was - Supplements, was Weight loss and Vitamix

[Guest guest]

Another excellent documentary is, "The Future of Food" you can watch the entire documentary, free of commercials here:http://www.thefutureoffood.com/see%20the%20film.htmlThis documentary is mostly about Monsanto, and GMO foods.Sadly, because "Big Agra" (AKA Food Inc.) controls the USDA (much like "Big Pharma" controls the FDA) we don't have labels on our foods that tell us ALL that is in the food. Because the Organic label is supposed to automatically mean NON-GMO, many people only buy organic for this reason.Google GMO labeling for a load of information on this thorny issue. Europe is ahead of the curve on this one - they've banned GMO crops. Sadly, America is way behind on this one.

Blessings,Lea Ann SavageSatellite Beach, FL(321) 773-7088 (home)(321-961-9219 (cell)))><'>www.VitamixLady.comwww..com<))><

On Jan 7, 2012, at 12:29 PM, MO wrote:

Tom - there's an excellent documentary called "Food, Inc." that I recommend watching. Very well done. It's been awhile since I watched it, but I believe Pollan, author of The Omnivore's Dilemma and other books is in it. Others have answered very well in regards to other reasons to eat organic. I have read extensive articles on the subject myself. I know there was a consumer reports study done, and they basically concluded that it's worth the expense for everything but the items like bananas that have a very thick peel, or grains. I don't know if they were accounting for genetically engineered ingredients when they did the study, however, or if they were just checking pesticide content. Environne produce wash is sold at Trader Joe's and is supposed to remove a lot of pesticide residue. I agree with others, though, that many items grown outside of the USA using pesticides outlawed here are better avoided. And esp. avoid the gmo/gei items. Corn and soy are the two most prevalent crops in this category.

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> Healthy soil, soil that has not been subjected to "shock and awe"

> applications of herbicides and pesticides and burning chemical fertilizers

> for years, is host to millions of micro-organisms per cubic foot. And it's

> the micro-organisms that process organic material and make the nutrient

> materials available for uptake into food crops. That's one of the primary

> reasons factory-farmed food crops are impoverished of so much of their

> nutritive value: the soil has been sterilized and burned to a crisp.

> If you're eating organic, from farms that protect and nourish the living

> soil, your produce may be an excellent source of all the nutrition you need.

> Otherwise, informed, wise supplementation may be a good idea, depending on

> your own unique health profile. And, by the way, cheapo vitamins that are

> merely compounds of dead chemicals are pretty much a waste of money and a

> waste of good sewer space. Our bodies are NOT machines; they are living

> beings and need to be feed living food (and possibly living supplements.)

> Neil on the left coast in Calif.

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> Supplements, was Weight loss and Vitamix

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> There are a couple of reasons I know of for using supplemental products.

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> If you are not certain of your foodstuffs and their growers, it is

> likely that they were commercially grown. Land used for decades (and

> longer) becomes depleted of nutrient content and therefore has no

> nutrient to convey to plant material. Generally, so long as the plant

> grows well enough to sell a product, this fact is ignored--only if the

> plant dies or produces poorly or slowly is money wasted on fertilizers

> and other soil amendments are almost never considered in a commercial

> situation. Much of our commercially-available food supply is produced

> on just such land, therefor is apt to be deficient in many if not all

> the good things we think we're getting. The defense on this one is to

> either grow your own, organically, so that the soil is cared for/fed,

> yielding a healthy soil with nutrient material to make available for

> transfer to plant material, or to know well your grower and his/her

> practices and reliability.

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> The "organic" foods "certified" by the USDA are not even close to what

> we've actually known to be organic over the past 50 years or so....if

> you are curious about what they consider to be organic and to be organic

> practices and growing conditions, go to their website and you will see a

> giant disconnect there....the point, rather, seems to have been to

> provide a way for agribusiness to cut into the existing (actual) organic

> market. If you must purchase foods when you don't know the grower, find

> a certification agent that you can trust (takes a fair amount of

> research, I know) and then stick with it. The main reason I moved 25

> years ago to where I am now was for the active organic farming and

> gardening activity, with an excellent certification program, and I've

> never regretted that.

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> Other than sick soil, problems that prevent our foodstuffs from being as

> nutritious as we'd like to think are pesticides and herbicides, some of

> which interfere with the processes by which materials are transferred to

> plants, air pollution with some of the same problems, contaminated water

> supplies (a growing problem), and the practice of breeding for and

> harvesting unripe plant material so that it can withstand the trip to

> market while it "ripens".

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> As to tablets/capsules not dissolving.....that's another big mixed-up

> mess, with some things not even designed to dissolve in the stomach but

> in the lower parts of the tract, each of which has it's own digestive

> "aids", and any (or all) of which may well be out of kilter due to any

> number of digestive/nutrient causes...or other unrelated causes such as

> physical (even a hernia can play havoc depending on the location and

> degree of/frequency of incarceration) or environmental. So it's all tricky.

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> So there are a few of the issues very sketchily outlined. And having

> said all that, I reared 3 kiddos and have always maintained myself

> without supplements of any kind, including through pregnancies, etc.

> But I've been blessed to be able to raise my own food on my own terms.

> If I'd not, am not sure what the path should have been....just glad we

> didn't have to go there. Each of us has to work it out ourselves.

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> SJ, in snowy Maine

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