Food , Inc. documentary ;(

[Cliffmeister2000]

As for Asian seafood, got bad news for you. All US consumed shrimp comes from farms in Asia.

I believe I have read that the US consumes huge amounts of shrimp farm raised in South America?

Tapia is a carp used to eat the waste of Black bass and sold as a health conscience fish.

Actually, Talapia is a Cichlid, a native of Africa. You can buy Cichlids in most pet shops.

Food will kill you. So will air, and most water. I've come to the conclusion that I am terminal. It's just a matter of how long I live, and what I do with my life while I'm here.

"If you like sausage, then don't watch it being made."

Seriously, I don't bury my head in the sand, but I don't panic either.

[mk10108]

All US consumed shrimp comes from farms in Asia.

Being from Florida, I kinda doubt that point. Like "Casey" says domestic shrimp is available otherwise I wonder why I see shrimp boats at all.

changed to most and should clarify due to logistics the west coast gets most of its shrimp from Asia

[mk10108]

Food will kill you. So will air, and most water. I've come to the conclusion that I am terminal. It's just a matter of how long I live, and what I do with my life while I'm here.

"If you like sausage, then don't watch it being made."

Seriously, I don't bury my head in the sand, but I don't panic either.

Food doesn't kill you. What does...over time....is calorie creep. People see the calories listed on a food label but have no real understanding of the energy content contained in it. Single serving 180 calories. Servings per package 2 = 360 calories.

What is not relayed is (and I'm not suggesting new labels)...there's enough energy in this bag to propel your body for 80 minutes. and should you get a large latte after your walk, you've gained an additional 320 calories. And most adult bodies need between 1700 and 2000 calories a day just to function. Contrast that with what most take in is 2500-3500 calories. Do less movement/motion/exercise and your continually overfilling your body with energy you cannot use.

My claim is once people understand the energy content of food and can connect its effect to our everyday lives...only then can one make food / eating decisions that can improve their lives. Everyone needs to develop their own trigger as to what propels them into making food intake choices. Mine is food intake vs. time on my bike. For example if I'm riding 40 miles tomorrow, and want to lose weight, I'll limit my carbs but also know that my average speed will be lower. If I'm riding hard, I'll take in more fuel knowing I'll need it to maintain a higher speed.

Choosing organic, grass feed beef, 100 calorie packs, fruits & veggies, where seafood comes from, large corporation production techniques, the food pyramid, masks the real argument of what is a healthy choice. Our bodies really do not care where food comes from. What our bodies need is motion relative to our food intake.

[caseydog]

Food will kill you. So will air, and most water. I've come to the conclusion that I am terminal. It's just a matter of how long I live, and what I do with my life while I'm here.

"If you like sausage, then don't watch it being made."

Seriously, I don't bury my head in the sand, but I don't panic either.

Food doesn't kill you. What does...over time....is calorie creep. People see the calories listed on a food label but have no real understanding of the energy content contained in it. Single serving 180 calories. Servings per package 2 = 360 calories.

What is not relayed is (and I'm not suggesting new labels)...there's enough energy in this bag to propel your body for 80 minutes. and should you get a large latte after your walk, you've gained an additional 320 calories. And most adult bodies need between 1700 and 2000 calories a day just to function. Contrast that with what most take in is 2500-3500 calories. Do less movement/motion/exercise and your continually overfilling your body with energy you cannot use.

My claim is once people understand the energy content of food and can connect its effect to our everyday lives...only then can one make food / eating decisions that can improve their lives. Everyone needs to develop their own trigger as to what propels them into making food intake choices. Mine is food intake vs. time on my bike. For example if I'm riding 40 miles tomorrow, and want to lose weight, I'll limit my carbs but also know that my average speed will be lower. If I'm riding hard, I'll take in more fuel knowing I'll need it to maintain a higher speed.

Choosing organic, grass feed beef, 100 calorie packs, fruits & veggies, where seafood comes from, large corporation production techniques, the food pyramid, masks the real argument of what is a healthy choice. Our bodies really do not care where food comes from. What our bodies need is motion relative to our food intake.

Agreed.

However, the issue is not necessarily about obesity, although there is a lot of added calories in processed food that are not present in fresh food cooked at home.

The issue originally brought up in this thread is knowing where your food comes from, how it is raised, slaughtered and/or harvested, and what happens to it between then and when you buy it.

I don't get a paycheck from any activity related to food, but I am a consumer of food, and I want to eat good food, and know what I'm eating. And, antibiotics in my meat does bother me. Shrimp farmed in filth does bother me.

Since you earn your living in the food packaging industry, you may have a different view on this subject. I don't know what you package, but if it is shrimp from Asia, I would expect you would have a much different view of that Asian shrimp.

Calorie intake and exercise are absolutely important. But, so is choosing foods that are produced in healthy, humane and yes, sustainable ways.

CD

[mk10108]

I sell packaging equipment / consumables (corrugation-plastic film) and have access to food processors, medical, and industrial accounts. Unlike the general population, this puts me in a unique position to observe various methods of food processing and can comment on what I see. Like your salad in a bag...we get it into that bag.

Most folks do not understand why processors add stuff to food. If they could forgo adding anything they would elect not to. Take dried fruit. Every slice is gassed with sulfur dioxide. Why, to kill any remaining bugs that might inhabit the fruit. Every sliced apple is bathe in citric acid, to preserve color. Otherwise your Gala Sweet becomes brown in 5 minutes.

We have so much milk that we can get rid of it. So we turn it into cheese and processors figure out ingenious ways to use it. No one really needs a pepper stuffed with cheese and deep fried, but sitting at a bar sucking suds and craving salty appetizers, the food industry will find a way to accommodate.

Beef is fed corn because its cheap, and puts enough weight on the animal to bring it to market in 14-18 months instead of the 3-5 years for grass feed beef. Since a cows stomach is not built to process corn efficiently, antibiotics are used to kill bad microbes that develop in the cows digestive system. Cows are the processors used to reduce the vast mountains of corn grown in the US. and the mountain keeps growing. So much so that the food industry (because its so cheap) is engineering products (corn syrup, sweeteners, flour replacements, fillers, coloring, the list keeps growing) to take advantage of it. Folks do get alarmed when they see how meat is processed, but that's reality. No real humane way to kill a 2000 pound animal and regardless of what people think, we have the most sustainable agriculture system in the world. I should apologize for taking the thread in this direction instead of agreeing with information presented as to a "call to arms" against food processors, I feel a responsibility to tell what I know.

Our culture has changed from the stay at home mom raising kids to everyone gets a chance to make money, but there's no free lunch. And the food industry has responded with prepared meals and value added food products. It used to be a TV dinners in a carton or food in a can, now its quick frozen and deposited in a bag. Growing up in the 70's we had a butcher & bakery and now we replaced food gathering with our supermarket hub and spoke system. I welcome the ease in which I obtain calories and don't worry how my calories are processed. An overwhelming majority of processors do an outstanding job.

ALL food choices are contingent on location, income and needs. I'm very lucky to be in California's central valley and have access to the most diverse food selection imaginable. 8 months ago I was 300 lbs and now I'm 240 and still managing to lose more. I ate "healthy" choices and over 15 years put on 85 pounds. Only at the edge of Type II diabetes was I able to realize the need to change. The missing element of "healthy choices" was exercising efficiently so the pounds would come off. No pills, prepared foods or super secret method relayed after your part with your cash but really plowing through the marketing BS and learning energy content in food consumed became the most effective way remove the excess energy stored on my body. Often the idea of consuming healthy food somehow is translated as the right thing to do, however without adding efficient exercise into ones lifestyle, you can eat all the healthy food you want and your body will continue to deteriorate.

[caseydog]

Excellent post. I agree totally.

Salad in a bag may not be the best choice, but it is WAY better than a McDonalds Value Meal in a bag.

Your corn comments are right on, too. It's so cheap (and subsidized) that it is being used as a feed for cattle that cattle aren't well equipped to digest, and as filler for all kinds of processed foods. But, consumers don't know that unless they take the time to learn it. ADM isn't going to advertise it. We have to demand to know what's in our foods so we can decide what to eat, and what not to eat.

It's all about choices. And, the more we know, the better our chances of making good choices.

Good luck with your continuing quest to lose that weight. At 5'11" and 175 pounds, I'm not overweight, but I am out of shape. I could use more exercise than I get.

CD

[Laredo]

I've worked for years in public health.
Feedlots are a disaster looking for a place to happen. They're overcrowded and undercleaned, and the same is true of most commercial dairies. It's not just feeding cheap corn to the animals; it's the confinement and crowding.

I was a farm kid before Reagan and the "efficiency" knock on family farms that led to the overrun of the American ag industry by a handful of corporations (Archer Daniels Midland, ConAgra, Monsanto). Convenience and corporate profits are driving the move away from smaller operations, still, nearly 40 years on from the "inefficiencies of small farms" and the "poor management" family farmers were accused of relying upon.

It is difficult to get anybody to understand this, but ... if you're a TV watcher, a few episodes of Mike Rowe's show about "Dirty Jobs" will help. That's where I learned how tilapia are fed ("reminds me a little bit of ... bass") on fish farms in the desert (fish farms. In the desert. Give that a little thought.) and that's one of the places you can find out what conditions in CAFOs are like (and yes, I'm tree-hugger /animal lover / health nut enough to think we need to go back to a better way -- not just of producing food but of living in general).

Gardening is your friend, and that makes this a good time to start, as it's raining in late spring in my part of Texas. You don't have to go so far into the organic craze that you get an $80 tomato (yes, that can be done. No, it shouldn't be.) but you can invest a little elbow grease, a few seeds and some recycled pop bottles (instructables will teach you how to make your own topsy-turvy tomato gardens out of washed pop bottles, all for a few minutes' fairly entertaining research on the Web) into a simple start.

The exercise involved in gardening helps with that calorie imbalance, too...

[Cliffmeister2000]

Every time I try to grow vegetables in the Phoenix Valley, they spontaneously combust when the temps stay over 100º for a few days...

[caseydog]

I've worked for years in public health.
Feedlots are a disaster looking for a place to happen. They're overcrowded and undercleaned, and the same is true of most commercial dairies. It's not just feeding cheap corn to the animals; it's the confinement and crowding.

I was a farm kid before Reagan and the "efficiency" knock on family farms that led to the overrun of the American ag industry by a handful of corporations (Archer Daniels Midland, ConAgra, Monsanto). Convenience and corporate profits are driving the move away from smaller operations, still, nearly 40 years on from the "inefficiencies of small farms" and the "poor management" family farmers were accused of relying upon.

It is difficult to get anybody to understand this, but ... if you're a TV watcher, a few episodes of Mike Rowe's show about "Dirty Jobs" will help. That's where I learned how tilapia are fed ("reminds me a little bit of ... bass") on fish farms in the desert (fish farms. In the desert. Give that a little thought.) and that's one of the places you can find out what conditions in CAFOs are like (and yes, I'm tree-hugger /animal lover / health nut enough to think we need to go back to a better way -- not just of producing food but of living in general).

Gardening is your friend, and that makes this a good time to start, as it's raining in late spring in my part of Texas. You don't have to go so far into the organic craze that you get an $80 tomato (yes, that can be done. No, it shouldn't be.) but you can invest a little elbow grease, a few seeds and some recycled pop bottles (instructables will teach you how to make your own topsy-turvy tomato gardens out of washed pop bottles, all for a few minutes' fairly entertaining research on the Web) into a simple start.

The exercise involved in gardening helps with that calorie imbalance, too...

Here in Texas, I grow peppers and herbs (basil, rosemary and oregano). Tomatoes grow well here, but you can't go away for a week like I do. I can set a timer to water once a day for what I grow, and they'll do okay while I'm gone.

I really miss the peach tree I had at my last home. It was a lot of work, but the peaches were incredible. You had to eat them outside or over the sink, they were that juicy.

My dream home will have a greenhouse. I love fresh produce. It tastes so much better than what I can get at Kroger.

BTW, I just came from Central Market, where they had Certified Angus ribeyes and NY strips for $7.99 a pound. No antibiotics, no growth hormones. Probably still corn fed -- not sure about that. Good looking meat -- well marbled. I bought a couple of ribeyes. Steak is my treat -- I can do just fine without sweets. I'm going to grill one up this weekend while I'm camping in my TD.

Central Market also has all of their seafood marked with point of origin. I appreciate that.

Good food is out there, if you look for it.

BTW-2, how can a person be an avid camper and not be just a little bit of a tree-hugger?

CD

[Laredo]

You live in a town with a Central Market ....


I am now, officially, green with envy.

[TwilightLane]

Wife and I saw the film. Were horrified. Modified our diet.

We bought a freezer. Eating a lot more organic produce. Working out buying organic meat by the animal (or partial animal) from the grower instead of the grocery store. Garden in the back. Love it.

[bobhenry]

We are rim people..............

Yep were the folks that shop the rim of the store. Ever notice the outer walls are all you need Fresh produce , baked goods , meat , dairy and eggs.

I have noticed recently Kroger moved a large portion of their canned goods to the first aisle now placing them in our direct path.

Very seldom will our shopping cart actually leave the rim. We may walk down an aisle for a can of coffee, a bag of flour or some sugar or such but we do not shop each and every aisle.

I can not even guess the last time a box or frozen preprepared food item was purchased in our home.

Dry goods such as beans , rice and pasta are good budget stretchers and are kept on hand. Potatoes and onions are a must have in our home.

Yep we are rim people. Ya think that might be why my beer is directly across from the cheese/dairy aisle

[asianflava]

I watched it last night, eh there was nothing that was really big news.

As a matter of fact there was even a CSI episode where a farmer was sued by a seed company because pollen had blown in from neighboring farms.

[caseydog]

You live in a town with a Central Market ....


I am now, officially, green with envy.

Actually, I meant to say Market Street, which is a similar type of store. There are two Central Market stores within about 30 minutes of my house, but Market Street is 10 minutes away -- and I like it a little better.

CD

[caseydog]

I watched it last night, eh there was nothing that was really big news.

As a matter of fact there was even a CSI episode where a farmer was sued by a seed company because pollen had blown in from neighboring farms.

That stuff about Monsanto suing corn farmers over seed corn that was pollinated by the wind from Monsanto farms is pure BULLS--T!!! Buy our seed or we'll sue you into bankruptcy. That's just wrong.

CD