HELLO!

This blog is inspired by the movie Food, Inc. Food, Inc wasn't the first time I had been introduced to the concept of what happens to our food. Back when I was a teenager I was in a Teen Modeling Association that required us to read Diet for A New America by author John Robbins. John Robbins is the son of the founder of the Baskin-Robbins ice cream empire! Later on I was introduced to THE MEATRIX (sadly hilarious), Fast Food Nation and probably the most influential film for me: The Future of Food.

As a little background I grew up as a pretty skinny kid in Kentucky except for a chub moment in 7th grade (which would still be considered skinny compared to today's youth).
My mother never let us eat any foods with chemicals or sugar unless it was our birthday or she wanted to bribe us with something. Our dad made a lot our bread with his bread machine and between the massive garden my grandparents grew and the one in our back yard we had a major portion of our veggies some fruits taken care of. The rest of our food came from Kroger or a food consignment shop called Aldi's, but those were usually our canned veggies since food actually grows seasonally. We NEVER ate fast food or ate out but maybe a couple of times a year. We just couldn't afford it.

It wasn't until I got to my second year of college (1995) and moved to Chicago that I began to pick up weight. Actually I wanted to gain weight at first but couldn't. I was trying to get bigger so I could be a plus sized model to pay for my college. Soon enough I was able to gain the weight, but one thing that I noticed is that the food that I was eating at the grocery stores just didn't taste fresh to me. I just attributed it to the fact that we didn't live on farms in the big city and that I would just have to trade in my fresh food that I was so used to. My weight wasn't the only change that I noticed. I began to get waves of depression. The school guidance counselor said that it was common in chicago because they have longer periods without sun. That made sense to me.

Eventually I got more weight on me than I wished for, but I eventually had the good fortune of shedding it when I went to go live in Italy for 2 years. I was eating Mc Donald's there which I would never touch in the states. The burgers were such a better quality of meat! The fish there was to die for. I seemed to eat more food in Italy, but was a lot hungrier. I eventually met someone who traded for McDonald's in Italy and he told me one of the differences in the meat at McD's in Italy and the US is they kill the animal in a high tech way which prohibits the hormone that toughens the meat when the animal is killed to be released. The explanation made sense to me.


So I came back to the states from Italy where I moved to NY. I had a HUGE struggle with my weight there and I HATED the produce (especially the fruit!). I also began to develop bad eating habits like eating one huge meal once a day. Even though I was boxing and eating better the longer I stayed in New York the worse I felt. Eventually I hated the food I ate in NY to the point that I just didn't care much about what I was eating until I got into a car accident and blew up 100 extra lbs overnight. Then I had to care.

I sincerely hope that all of these movies are hype. I'm not saying what happens to our food isn't happening. The question is if we are conscious about the food that we eat will it actually make a difference? Organic is such a loose term these days. Can a person really control where they get their food from?