Food Matters

Last night I watched a documentary that is instant streaming on Netflix right now. It is called "Food Matters" and it was actually really good. The basic premise is that we are unhealthy as a society because we haven't given our bodies the appropriate nutrients. Many of us have vitamin deficiencies and if you really think about it you can see why. How many people (adults especially) follow the food pyramid guidelines and really get enough fruits and vegetables in our diets? Even those who do are eating produce from supermarkets where the food is not as fresh as it should be. The documentary says that a large percent of nutrients are lost due to the time it takes to ship the produce.

To keep our family healthy, I want to try to start doing better about getting all of our vitamins and minerals. I am hoping to do a better job of serving fruits and veggies with every meal and we will probably start taking multivitamins too. I generally try to make sure Kyler gets a fruit and vegetable with every meal but Brett and I are definitely lacking in that.

I would recommend watching this documentary if you get the chance. They make a good (and alarming) case for why this isn't a well-known thing. They also offer several potential remedies for things like depression, cancer, and heart disease that involve high doses of certain vitamins. I am a little skeptical in that I don't think this is a cure-all, although I do think the number of these diseases would be much less if we were all getting the nutrients we need. I also think there is a place for medicine and doctors but they are probably right in that we are over-using them and shouldn't be taking a pill (with adverse side effects) for everything. Instead, we should be treating our bodies better so that pill isn't even necessary. They didn't mention this in the documentary but I think the problem is more with people being lazy than the medical field prescribing pills and treatments to cover up the original problem.

Overall, this did open my mind a little to more holistic approaches to medicine. I agree that as a society we are over-medicating ourselves and that we don't maintain a healthy diet. If there are more natural and healthier ways to treat a problem, I would much rather take that route because there is little chance of them causing harm even if they don't work.