‘Oh, great, another real food documentary.’ That’s the unenthusiastic thought that went through my mind when I saw the notice about a new movie, Hungry for Change, that is premiering this week worldwide. I’ve watched several food related documentaries over the past few years, and though I found them all interesting (except one in particular that I couldn’t make myself watch through the end – Fathead), there’s only so much you can watch on the same topic without it becoming tiresome.
But for some reason despite my lack of enthusiasm I watched the short trailer, and that made me sign up so that I could receive free access to this movie until March 31. I watched the entire thing today, and I enjoyed it so, so much – more than any of the other food films I’ve watched before.
It was intelligently done, so that someone without a background in health and someone with a lot of knowledge would still come away with something. But what was really different, was that it wasn’t all about food. Yes, it started off discussing obesity and ill health, and how food is manufactured to create addiction. This is a huge issue. But when I hear people talk as if eating healthy food is all you need to be thin, I feel frustrated because that hasn’t been my personal experience. What if you don’t eat any processed foods and haven’t for years? You can’t blame MSG and artificially concocted chemicals for your health issues. Since my eighth child was born four years ago, I’ve been unable to get back to my ideal weight (after my seventh I did), despite an extremely good (WAP) diet.
Yet after this part of the film, it went on to talk about solutions – solutions that go beyond buying local or organic (though you can hear this referenced in comments, it’s not a main focus). The way juicing was presented made me rethink my position on it, which I suppose was good since I haven’t seriously considered it since I mentally put it to the side years ago along with low fat vegetarianism as a path to health.
I loved that they then they went on to discuss the non food related aspects of ill health – stress, exhaustion, and the thoughts you put in your mind. I think all of these are really critical issues, and the latter topic is one I have a special affinity towards. In all of these points I was able to see areas where I had room to improve (I tend to burn the candle at both ends), and I felt inspired to make positive changes as I watched.
Where I’ve found other programs interesting, I found this something I would really strongly recommend. I really, really liked this. I’m going to rewatch it sometime in the next week, despite the pre-Passover period being, hmm, slightly more busy than usual. 🙂
Here’s a link for the film – http://www.hungryforchange.tv/. To get free access, you have to sign in at the top right hand of the screen with your name and email address; at first I couldn’t find this and was a little frustrated that it was supposedly free and I couldn’t view it!
Avivah
(This post is part of Real Food Wednesdays.)
Hello, Thank you very much for this link. We generally don’t watch movies, neither are the children allowed, but this time I asked them to please watch this movie. It is very educational and brought in a pleasant way. Right now our 6 year old daughter is watching it, even she picked some things up and commented on it. By the way what is a WAP diet you are talking about? Currently I try to avoid all wheat and sugar products and as you probably know it is in everything. I always cook from scratch, passed on by my mother, but there is so much to learn yet. Always enjoy reading your blog, keep it up if possible. You will of course be busier a soon as your baby arrives, I hope you are feeling OK. You must be very tired, but is so nice to get a little one again. Our youngest(a daughter) is 7 years younger than her brother. We really enjoy her and it keeps you young! http://www.co-creative-health-solutions.com/ This is a link which I think will be of interest to you.
I’m glad you enjoyed it! Kids really can absorb so much, even at a young age – my ds4 was laying his head on me when I was watching it, falling asleep, when he suddenly popped his head up and said, “Is a chemical good for you?” LOL.
WAP stands for Weston A Price, which means a real food approach to nutrition – this includes raw milk, pastured eggs, high quality fats, and preparation techniques for grains, nuts, and vegetables that maximize nutrition (soaking, sprouting, and fermenting), in addition to no processed foods and everything being cooked from scratch. I’ve written a lot about specific aspects of that but you’ll have to dig through the nutrition or health archives if you’d like more specifics! I also had no flour or sugar of any sort for several years.
Avivah, you may be interested in the movie “Simply Raw”. Go to http://www.rawfor30days.com While I do not agree with the philosophy of raw foods diet in its entirety, I do think that juicing and adding more raw doof to the diet can add important enzymes to the diet as well as more fruits and veggies, especially greens, so necessary for alkalinizing the blood.
Rena, I looked at the trailer and it looks interesting. (I’d watch the entire thing if I could view it for free. :)) I also have some hesitations about the raw food approach, but think most of us would benefit from a lot more vegetables in our diets.
Thanks for the link!
I think it is an important movie to watch especially around Pesach. There are so many processed Kosher for Pesach foods on the market today.
The part about addiction is very relevant as well. Once we were slaves in Egypt and now we are slaves to our addictions. Overcoming an addiction is like becoming a free person.
I also like what one of the speakers said about starting to add good foods to our “bad diets”. It’s like what Rav Kook says about adding light to darkness.
Not eating when you’re upset, good sleeping, laughing often, and loving our family and friends as well as positive affirmations were some of the suggestions I appreciated hearing.
It’s challenging to maintain a healthy diet and be part of a social group, since the majority of people in this world today eat junk. In some ways I see it as a balancing act when interacting with others.
Another benefit of juicing is mevtaling insects, making it more convenient to ingest leafy greens.