Plated screens with a side of bite sized wisdom.
This month we revolve around the very thing that makes us revolve around -Food. How we miss fine dining! But readers, mask up, stay safe!
We sculpt every part of our lives, from the media that we intake, the clothes we wear- and obviously, the food we consume for our sustenance, isn’t any exclusive to this. We follow fad diets, fixated on an ideal body. We inhabit food streets and get entwined with all the aroma wafting off stalls. If asked whether we live to eat, or eat to live, even though one of the answers may not receive a clean majority, I am sure in this case, there are only two kinds of people.
Several documentaries are available that do exactly the same, turn passion for food into righteousness, calling out the practices in the industry.
1. Food Matters
Released in 2008, Food Matters is a fast-paced, blunt look at the state of health in the United States.
Packed with nutrition experts and doctors, the documentary lays out a compelling case that investing in the food you eat can be just as important as funding research for cancer treatment, because nutritious food can save you from chronic illnesses in the long run.
From going on restaurant dates and cooking breakfast together, (the most wholesome scenarios I can think of), to sneaking in poison in a royal dining and starting bio wars, the universality of this very essential commodity has seeped even into the big screen- in the forms of intense cook-offs, face-slapping reality checks or just for the love of it.
Personally, I spent half my time off in childhood watching channels like TLC and Fox Life. And all of them were shows on food. Food alone is an indicator to years of accumulated culture.
Lauded local ingredients, exotic spices and the sheer art that is cooking… there is a reason talking about it has become inevitable.
There is a childlike excitement in watching Masterchef, season after season, country after country. At a point of time, you become a part of it as much as it becomes a part of you.
2. Folks over Knives
Forks Over Knives has an ambitious goal: to save your life.
The documentary dives into all the toxic ingredients Americans consume daily, creating a narcotic-like addiction. In a way, Forks Over Knives is the reverse experiment shown in Super Size Me where director Lee Fulkerson eats a plant-based, whole food diet for six months. By the end of the experiment, Fulkerson has lost weight, sleeps better and has more energy; he is even able to stop taking his cholesterol and blood pressure medications. Though Forks Over Knives has been criticized for its singular focus on veganism, it makes a factual argument worth watching.
And it comes without saying that anything that becomes a part of you affects your person as a whole. We say this metaphorically about the media that we intake, the things we read and see. But with the case of food, it is a little closer to an absolute truth.
Now we enter into a whole new world. And at the precipice sits the Fitness industry. Surprisingly, there are more contradictions from one source to another, than agreements on what works and what does not. Each body is different. This is absolutely true but, well, unconsidered. For an industry, especially one that generates revenue in the billions, it is important to reach many rather than cater to each and every need.
Not to mention the chemicals used to grow the crops themselves, whose environmental effects were uncovered far later than they should have been. The entwined fates of bees, moths and endangered plant species, sadly lie in human grip. It is truly saddening, and undoubtedly an urgent necessity to put the systems in place.
3. GMO OMG
GMO OMG follows father-turned-crusader, Jeremy Seifert, in a David vs. Goliath battle with Monsanto and other big corporations that promote GMOs.
Controversially, GMO OMG takes a break from statistics and studies and instead emphasizes the human impact GMOs have on farmers and consumers through dramatic scenes like Seifert dressing his children in full hazmat gear before letting them enter a field of genetically modified corn. Entertaining moments are sandwiched between real efforts to protect Seifert’s children and the next generation from the effect of GMOs.
With these few points in mind, and a few pennies richer for thought, I hope that the concept of mindful eating becomes a matter of daily concern. Happy eating!
Extended Documentary list:
- https://www.active.com/food-and-nutrition/articles/the-best-nutrition-documentaries-on-netflix/slide-10
- https://www.themanual.com/food-and-drink/best-food-documentaries/
About the author: Supraja Vaidhyanathan is a poet slowly falling in love with cinema and its art.
