Fast Food Nation

I stumbled upon this article about the movie Fast Food Nation and about some problems in the food industry. Someone mentioned to me this week that the scent of grapefruit could suppress appetite. I did a search in Google News using these words; grapefruit- oil- weight- loss, and this article popped up (which has none of these words. Go figure). I thought this article brought up some good points and concerns that I have about the food we give the boys. Added chemicals that give flavor and color to over-processed foods are potentially harmful. This article touches on several other issues. I thought this quote was interesting;

"In a recent example of this problem, E. coli-infected spinach from California sickened 199 people in 26 different states in September and October. This is a symptom of industrial agriculture, thinks Mel Lions, co-founder of the San Diego Roots Network. “At this time of year, spinach should grow pretty much everywhere in North America, no problem,” says Lions, “but because of the industrial agriculture system, most of the spinach is grown in Salinas or other California counties.”

“When what should have been a local outbreak of E. coli O157:H7 occurred, it shut down all spinach consumption in the whole country,” argues Lions. “That should have rung bells for most people: ‘Why don’t we grow spinach here in Maine or in Florida?’ That’s a symptom of an over-industrialized food system where the chains of production are so thin and stretched out and centralized that something like that can really disrupt the whole crop.”

I guess for me the take home message is to be aware. We try to steer the boys away from bad food choices, but the fact is we do get McDonalds from time to time. But we also buy organic as much as we can despite the bad press that organics have gotten as of late. We also buy our meat from a local rancher who raises certified organic livestock. Anyway, the article is something I wanted on the blog so I could go back and read it to deter us from getting fast food too often. Here's the trailer for the movie if you want to see it.