By Vegan Victoria, Certified Nutrition Consultant
Have you heard of the new documentary called “Fed Up”? Katie Couric is the executive producer and it’s billed as the film that the food industry does not want you to see. It opens tomorrow, May 9th but won’t be in the Bay Area until the following week when it will appear at the Shattuck Theater in Berkeley.
“Fed Up” basically exposes all the unhealthy additives put in the processed food we eat every day, even food billed as healthy or natural. A lot of people feel they’re healthy because they don’t eat only at McDonald’s or Burger King. But it’s the food that many people buy at the grocery store and put on our tables every day that is literally killing us. We’re talking about the cereal we gobble down in the morning, the potato chips we have with lunch and the macaroni and cheese we serve for dinner. Check the labels and see how much salt, sugar and fat is in each serving. And also note the serving size and compare that to the average helping consumed by you and your family to see if it’s close to the same amount.
The bottom line from this movie is exactly what I’ve learned and tried to promote for the last 4 years; we need to eat more whole food that we prepare ourselves. I remember talking to a woman who asked why I was in such good shape. I said I eat a whole-food plant-based diet. She replied, “So when you buy food, you look at the list of ingredients very carefully?” And I said, “No. I try to buy food that don’t have a list of ingredients.” That means I buy fresh tomatoes, spinach, mushrooms, corn, broccoli, avocado, rice, beans, walnuts etc.
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Does this take a lot of time? No, not really. Each weekend I spend about 20 minutes looking through healthy cookbooks to find the 4-5 dishes I want to make in the upcoming week. Then I spend about 30 minutes buying the items I need at the store. The majority of that time is in the fresh produce section. And very rarely do I need a special item that requires a trip to a store other than Safeway. I usually cook 2 dishes on Sunday afternoon, one on Tuesday and one on Wednesday. And I usually put 2-3 servings in the freezer each week so on weeks when I’m really crunched for time, I can just grab something out of the freezer. It takes a little time to get into the habit of doing this, but it’s so worth it.
