How much do we really know about the food we buy at our local supermarkets and serve to our families?

Today’s Re-Powering Information – with so many people away and busy this summer, I am not going to do a grocery shopping tour this camp. But I still want to you to be savvy shoppers. Summer is an easier time to eat healthy – at least I think so. The freshest fruits and veggies are readily available, there is usually less baking than in the winter, at times you are too hot to even think about food and because of the heat you may drink more water helping you to feel full and reducing the calories from food.



This article also mentions Food Inc – the new documentary about our food supply. http://www.foodincmovie.com I had mentioned it in an earlier e-mail. It’s playing in theaters in The Legacy Shops in Plano. I was thinking of taking a trip to see it next Friday if it’s still playing. Yoshie saw it and said it truly make her re-think what she was eating. Angelika Film Center & Cafe (15.2 mi)

7205 Bishop Road, Plano, TX 75024
(800)326-3264
Directions





Below are some tips on being a savvy shopper!



How much do we really know about the food we buy at our local supermarkets and serve to our families?

In Food, Inc., filmmaker Robert Kenner lifts the veil on our nation's food industry, exposing the highly mechanized underbelly that has been hidden from the American consumer with the consent of our government's regulatory agencies, USDA and FDA. Our nation's food supply is now controlled by a handful of corporations that often put profit ahead of consumer health, the livelihood of the American farmer, the safety of workers and our own environment. We have bigger-breasted chickens, the perfect pork chop, herbicide-resistant soybean seeds, even tomatoes that won't go bad, but we also have new strains of E. coli—the harmful bacteria that causes illness for an estimated 73,000 Americans annually. We are riddled with widespread obesity, particularly among children, and an epidemic level of diabetes among adults.


Also from their website:

10 Simple Tips for making positive changes in your eating habits.

Learn more about these issues and how you can take action on Takepart.com

1. Stop drinking sodas and other sweetened beverages.
You can lose 25 lbs in a year by replacing one 20 oz soda a day with a no calorie beverage (preferably water).

2. Eat at home instead of eating out.
Children consume almost twice (1.8 times) as many calories when eating food prepared outside the home.

3. Support the passage of laws requiring chain restaurants to post calorie information on menus and menu boards.
Half of the leading chain restaurants provide no nutritional information to their customers.

4. Tell schools to stop selling sodas, junk food, and sports drinks.
Over the last two decades, rates of obesity have tripled in children and adolescents aged 6 to 19 years.

5. Meatless Mondays—Go without meat one day a week.
An estimated 70% of all antibiotics used in the United States are given to farm animals.

6. Buy organic or sustainable food with little or no pesticides.
According to the EPA, over 1 billion pounds of pesticides are used each year in the U.S.

7. Protect family farms; visit your local farmer's market.
Farmer's markets allow farmers to keep 80 to 90 cents of each dollar spent by the consumer.

8. Make a point to know where your food comes from—READ LABELS.
The average meal travels 1500 miles from the farm to your dinner plate.

9. Tell Congress that food safety is important to you.
Each year, contaminated food causes millions of illnesses and thousands of deaths in the U.S.

10. Demand job protections for farm workers and food processors, ensuring fair wages and other protections.
Poverty among farm workers is more than twice that of all wage and salary employees.
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