This documentary offers some entertaining inspiration for anyone trying to improve their food habits and health for the New Year. Here is a direct link to the trailer.
You can view the entire documentary for $12.95 here on the web.
Root for Charles, John, and Garnet as they try to buck the system of pills and procedures and outfox their heart disease and diabetes. When their doctors inform them that they can’t get better, our intrepid trio tells the doctors to think again. Charles, John and Garnet decide to take on their diseases by drastically changing their diets. We all know making resolutions is easy; sticking to them is the hard part. With lighthearted animation, piercing expert interviews and a feisty attitude, Chow Down is the moving story of the success you can achieve when you rewrite the recipe for a healthy life.
Something I would like to add here. A couple of the people in this film talk about the added time required to prepare healthy meals relative to fast food. I have heard this lament many times. One poor lady actually gives up and relapses back to a life of obesity-based disease, because she says she is doing all the meal prep for her family on top of her job outside the home and it is too much work for her to keep up. Another lady says she spent 2 hours (!) to prep healthy pizzas.
If you enjoy cooking and you have the time, making elaborate recipes can be lots of fun. I often use a few hours on a Sunday afternoon to prep some food for the coming week. But if you don’t have time or much interest, you certainly don’t have to give up on healthy eating. It is definitely great if you can enlist help from spouse and kids in meal preparation–it gives everyone a sense of buy-in and active participation in their own health. (It is very hard to help people against their will, so family members need to get on board if they are to develop good habits). But unless you are creating complex recipes from scratch on the spot (rather than some parts in advance), hours of slaving in the kitchen is entirely unnecessary. Learning to prepare healthy food is mostly a learning curve issue more than time intensive. Once you get practiced and have a repertoire of some go-to-meals, preparing clean, healthy food is actually quite simple and quick.
If all else fails (or if you prefer) tossing fresh, raw ingredients into smoothies and juicers really could not be faster or easier to do. If you hate the time or process of eating a salad or a stir fry, drink it instead! Fast, portable, healthy food, with a fraction of the prep and clean up time. All perfectly manageable even on a hectic schedule.
Either we spend some time maintaining our health or we will spend our time treating ill-health. It is that simple.
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