Have you seen the movie Food Inc? Great article review of this movie!

You are what you eat: 'Food, Inc.'
Posted by Shawn Levy, The Oregonian June 19, 2009 04:39AM

Showing a film such as "Food, Inc." to an audience that has already purchased its buttered popcorn, jugs of soda and boxes of Mike and Ikes and Sno Caps seems slightly evil. I'm reminded of Edmund O'Brien in the first scene of "D.O.A." telling the police that he has been murdered: The damage has been done before the opening credits have rolled.

"Food, Inc." is an expose of the food we grow and eat, revealing the policies that shape agricultural trends; the provenance of the seeds from which our corn and wheat and soy are grown; the processes by which beef, poultry and pork products are raised and brought to market; the state of food safety inspection and regulation; the labor conditions in the agriculture and food preparation businesses; the marketing and packaging that guide our food choices; the impact of diet on individuals and whole populations; and more.

We've had a spate of movies with similar themes in recent years, all telling us that we eat poorly and that we're being hoodwinked by corporations that are in cahoots with political powers, including the documentaries "Super Size Me," "King Corn," "The Future of Food" and "Our Daily Bread," and the feature film "Fast Food Nation."

That last one was an adaptation of journalist Eric Schlosser's book of the same name, one of the first widely digested attacks on the American way of eating. Schlosser is a producer of "Food, Inc." and appears as one of its principal talking heads, as does Michael Pollan, the author of "The Omnivore's Dilemma" and "In Defense of Food," two other key texts in the burgeoning movement to remake the food system into something more rational and healthy.

Director Robert Kenner allows these two ample room for their ideas about the dangers, health risks, political machinations and just plain illogical practices of modern food production.

These are illustrated with visits to chicken farmers (some in the corporate industrial system, some working all naturally on their own), to an organic yogurt magnate, to the fields and homes of farmers who want to collect the seeds from their crops rather than buy genetically modified (and patented) seeds from litigious corporations, to trailer parks where the undocumented immigrants who work at meat-packing plants are rousted by immigration agents, to the halls of Congress, where a woman wages a campaign for stricter food inspections in the wake of the death of her young son, who ate contaminated ground beef.

The film makes its points in several ways. There are disturbing images of the production -- the only word for it -- of cattle and chickens in deplorable conditions and the industrial treatment of meat with ammonia and chlorine to fight the bacteria that results from these breeding practices. There are attacks on the influence of corporate interests on farm/food policy. There are also sentimental tugs on the heartstrings which rather overload an already loaded deck.

Kenner mounts it all with a pleasingly fluent and varied style, which makes it more or less easy to absorb his arguments, even if they're familiar from other books and movies and are presented with unopposed certainty. Indeed, the closing credits are a zealous call to consumer action. Probably, though, by then you'll already have been convinced in your heart of hearts that Mike and Ike are truly not your friends.

I have heard MSG is bad-but this article is horrifying!

This article was forwarded to me by my whole raw food guru Jennie at www.jensrawtruth.com great important info for everyone!

Slow Poison...

MSG The food additive MSG (Mono-Sodium Glutamate) is a slow poison. MSG
hides behind 25 or more names, such as "Natural Flavouring."

MSG is even in your favourite coffee from Tim Horton's and other
brand-name coffee shops!

I wondered if there could be an actual chemical causing the massive
obesity epidemic, and so did a friend of mine, John Erb. He was a
research assistant at the University of Waterloo in Ontario , Canada ,
and spent years working for the government. He made an amazing
discovery while going through scientific journals for a book he was
writing called The Slow Poisoning of America.

In hundreds of studies around the world, scientists were creating obese
mice and rats to use in diet or diabetes test studies. No strain of rat
or mice is naturally obese, so scientists have to create them. They
make these creatures morbidly obese by injecting them with MSG when they
are first born. The MSG triples the amount of insulin the pancreas
creates, causing rats (and perhaps humans) to become obese. They even
have a name for the fat rodents they create: "MSG-Treated Rats."

When I heard this, I was shocked. I went into my kitchen and checked
the cupboards and the refrigerator. MSG was in everything -- the
Campbell 's soups, the Hostess Doritos, the Lays flavoured potato chips,
Top Ramen, Betty Crocker Hamburger Helper, Heinz canned gravy, Swanson
frozen prepared meals, and Kraft salad dressings, especially the
"healthy low-fat" ones.

The items that didn't have MSG marked on the product label had something
called "Hydrolyzed Vegetable Protein," which is just another name for
Monosodium Glutamate.

It was shocking to see just how many of the foods we feed our children
everyday are filled with this stuff. MSG is hidden under many different
names in order to fool those who read the ingredient list, so that they
don't catch on. (Other names for MSG are "Accent, "Aginomoto," "Natural
Meat Tenderizer," etc.)

But it didn't stop there.

When our family went out to eat, we started asking at the restaurants
what menu items contained MSG. Many employees, even the managers, swore
they didn't use MSG.

But when we ask for the ingredient list, which they grudgingly provided,
sure enough, MSG and Hydrolyzed Vegetable Protein were everywhere.

Burger King, McDonald's, Wendy's, Taco Bell, every restaurant -- even
the sit-down eateries like TGIF, Chili's, Applebee's, and Denny's -- use
MSG in abundance. Kentucky Fried Chicken seemed to be the WORST
offender: MSG was in every chicken dish, salad dressing. and gravy. No
wonder I loved to eat that coating on the skin -- their secret spice was
MSG!

So why is MSG in so many of the foods we eat? Is it a preservative, or
a vitamin?

Not according to my friend John Erb. In his book The Slow Poisoning of
America, he said that MSG is added to food for the addictive effect it
has on the human body.

Even the propaganda website sponsored by the food manufacturers lobby
group supporting MSG explains that the reason they add it to food is to
make people eat more.

A study of the elderly showed that older people eat more of the foods
that it is added to. The Glutamate Association lobbying group says
eating more is a benefit to the elderly, but what does it do to the rest
of us?

Betcha can't eat [just] one," takes on a whole new meaning where MSG is
concerned! And we wonder why the nation is overweight!

MSG manufacturers themselves admit that it addicts people to their
products. It makes people choose their product over others, and makes
people eat more of it than they would if MSG wasn't added.

Not only is MSG scientifically proven to cause obesity, it is an
addictive substance. Since its introduction into the American food
supply fifty years ago, MSG has been added in larger and larger doses to
the pre-packaged meals, soups, snacks, and fast foods we are tempted to
eat everyday.

The FDA has set no limits on how much of it can be added to food. They
claim it's safe to eat in any amount. But how can they claim it's safe
when there are hundreds of scientific studies with titles like these:

"The monosodium glutamate (MSG) obese rat as a model for the study of
exercise in obesity." Gobatto CA, Mello MA, Souza CT, Ribeiro IA. Res
Commun Mol Pathol Pharmacol. 2002.

Adrenalectomy abolishes the food-induced hypothalamic serotonin release
in both normal and monosodium glutamate-obese rats." Guimaraes RB,
Telles MM, Coelho VB, Mori C, Nascimento CM, Ribeiro. Brain Res Bull.
2002 Aug.

Obesity induced by neonatal monosodium glutamate treatment in
spontaneously hypertensive rats: An animal model of multiple risk
factors." Iwase M, Yamamoto M, Iino K, Ichikawa K, Shinohara N,
Yoshinari Fujishima. Hypertens Res. 1998 Mar.

Hypothalamic lesion induced by injection of monosodium glutamate in
suckling period and subsequent development of obesity." Tanaka K,
Shimada M, Nakao K Kusunoki. Exp Neurol. 1978 Oct.

No, the date of that last study was not a typo; it was published in
1978. Both the "medical research community" and ?food manufacturers"
have known about the side effects of MSG for decades.

Many more of the studies mentioned in John Erb's book link MSG to
diabetes, migraines and headaches, autism, ADHD, and even Alzheimer's.

So what can we do to stop the food manufactures from dumping this
fattening and addictive MSG into our food supply and causing the obesity
epidemic we now see?

Several months ago, John Erb took his book and his concerns to one of
the highest government health officials in Canada . While he was sitting
in the government office, the official told him, "Sure, I know how bad
MSG is. I wouldn't touch the stuff." But this top-level government
official refuses to tell the public what he knows.

The big media doesn't want to tell the public either, fearing issues
with their advertisers. It seems that the fallout on the fast food
industry may hurt their profit margin. The food producers and
restaurants have been addicting us to their products for years, and now
we are paying the price for it. Our children should not be cursed with
obesity caused by an addictive food additive.

But what can I do about it? I'm just one voice! What can I do to stop
the poisoning of our children, while our governments are insuring
financial protection for the industry that is poisoning us?

This message is going out to everyone I know in an attempt to tell you
the truth that the corporate-owned politicians and media won't tell you.

The best way you can help to save yourself and your children from this
drug-induced epidemic is to forward this article to everyone. With any
luck, it will circle the globe before politicians can pass the
legislation protecting those who are poisoning us.

The food industry learned a lot from the tobacco industry. Imagine if
big tobacco had a bill like this in place before someone blew the
whistle on nicotine?

If you are one of the few who can still believe that MSG is good for us
and you don't believe what John Erb has to say, see for yourself. Go to
the National Library of Medicine at www.pubmed.com. Type in the words

"MSG Obese" and read a few of the 115 medical studies that appear.

We the public do not want to be rats in one giant experiment, and we do
not approve of food that makes us into a nation of obese, lethargic,
addicted sheep, feeding the food industry's bottom line while waiting
for the heart transplant, the diabetic-induced amputation, blindness, or
other obesity-induced, life-threatening disorders.

With your help we can put an end to this poison.

Do your part in sending this message out by word of mouth, e-mail, or by
distribution of this printout to your friends all over the world and
stop this "Slow Poisoning of Mankind" by the packaged food industry.

Blowing the whistle on MSG is our responsibility, so get the word out.