Happiness is Chic: inspiration

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Hello there,

I've spent a lot of time watching health food documentaries lately. A. Lot.

You could attribute this predisposition to natural health interests to my home birth to obsessively natural parents or possibly a certain Paleo trainer I spent the better part of three years with. Most likely, it is because I don't have cable and there are only so many Deadliest Catch reruns one can watch on Netflix before the mind starts to wander.

There are essentially two different genres of health food documentaries:

The Scared Straight Documentary

An excellent example of this is the widely popular Food, Inc. King Corn also falls into this category. Basically, these are the documentaries that expose the underbelly of the food industry, describe how it is now a corporate machine that is spiraling out of control and how the FDA is widely influenced by the food industry itself. I would recommend watching these documentaries if you think cows are milked by a kindly looking dutch girl each morning or that eggs are painstakingly gathered one-by-one at dawn. I'm not trying to be condescending. That was pretty much me a year ago.

The Heal the World and Yourself Documentary

I'm naturally inclined to these types of documentaries because they are more uplifting, they show tangible steps an individual can take and there is a dash of "you will look and feel awesome" incentivizing thrown in. That never hurts.

I really liked the documentary Food Matters. It described how eating a plant-based diet and avoiding packaged, processed "food-like products" will not only yield incredible results in our personal health and happiness but also turn our health care industry upside down.

I always thought of myself as a hardcore cheese worshipper but Forks Over Knives presents an incredibly strong case against dairy and meat. It was an interesting and insightful watch.

Another fun documentary that I recommend is Fat, Sick & Nearly Dead. A charming Australian businessman cures his rare autoimmune disease by juicing and helps a trucker from Iowa (woo hoo!) do the same.

Disclaimer: I don't 100% agree with everything I read and watched. The two most impactful things I learned were:

1. The food that is being produced and marketed to us is not, in general, produced for optimal nutrition and is not serving us well.

2. You cannot go wrong by eating loads of leafy green vegetables and cutting out as many processed foods as possible.

Since December 2012 I've cut out many sugars and processed foods and started exponentially increasing my intake of fresh produce. The results have been mild but amiable. I've lost one or two pounds, feel more sustainable energy and more importantly am taking a small step towards doing my part in being an informed and conscientious global citizen.

What has inspired you to make a change lately?

Thanks for reading and have a wonderful MLK day!

Genevieve

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