I enjoyed To Market To Market To Buy a Fat Pig because it was really focused on eating regionally and seasonally. It showcased several farmers markets and interviewed the people who work and shop there.


Another show I watched was The Meaning of Food, a three-part documentary focusing on the relationship of food to life, family, and culture. It was really interesting to see how different societies and cultures use food not only as fuel, but as part of their traditions. One of my favorite scenes was in the first part where cookbook author and TV chef Nigella Lawson is reading aloud from M.F.K. Fisher's "The Art of Eating," a book I am currently reading. It's actually a collection of books, and in them, Fisher discusses not only the food itself, but life and love and emotion.

Overall, though, I think the most influential documentary I saw was called Fat: What No One is Telling You. Through interviews with doctors, scientists, and people going through the weight loss process, this documentary showed what I felt to be a really honest depiction of the emotions and the struggles, not only with being overweight and trying to lose, but with simply living life as an overweight or obese person. The interview subjects spoke very candidly about their history of weight gain and loss, and there was a strange comfort in knowing that someone else out there has had familiar experiences and knows what it feels like to be me.

There was a study done in the 1950s of people who entered treatment programs for weight loss. The research showed that most of the people in the program quit; most of those who stayed did not lose weight; most of those who lost weight did not maintain losses. The narrator pointed this out and cited an updated study that shows that, over fifty years later, the statistics are not all that different. She called this the "grim shadow behind weight loss efforts" - if the odds are not in your favor, why bother putting in the effort to try? During a scene with the married couple and their therapist, the latter said that, at some point, it finally hits you that "it's not about how far it is across the stream, it's about how bad you want to be on the other side."
So, in closing, I think I got a lot of great ideas from these shows, not only about food, but about all the lifestyle changes and how to transition into someone who is actively trying to do something about her weight. I'll leave you with a few great quotes from Fat: What No One is Telling You:
"Every time you put food in your mouth it's a tough part. It's different than having other addictions like drugs, because you don't need to do that to sustain life. But you need food just to live on a day-to-day basis, you have to constantly make choices on what you're eating. Every time you eat and make that choice, it's tough. Are you gonna eat McDonald's or are you going to eat a chicken breast and a salad? So you can look at it that way, or you can look at it like it's a beautiful thing that every three or four or five hours, when you're hungry, you have a whole new choice. You have a whole new lease on life. It's almost like you're given this brand new moment every time you're hungry." Mary Dimino
"It's not easy. It's a life commitment, and that's not to be taken with a grain of salt. You're going to fail, and you're going to get back on. I think that a lot of programs are like, 'Oh! Just do this and then you're good and you go back to your life.' You don't go back to your life. I mean this is your life." Carla Hurd
1 comment:
My personal food addiction has been the toughest one I have ever overcome, even tougher than stopping smoking. I'm getting there though...
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