Psychic Lunch: InGREEDients the Movie: Another for your Watch List

David Burton, a registered nurse, discovered that he was feeding himself - and his family - with foods that were slowly killing them. Being a nurse, his job is essentially, supposedly, focused on being healthy and maintaining that good health. Yet as we can all see, even doctors and nurses can be as unknowing as the rest of us. David's experience with hydrogenated oils starts out in a typical fashion. He had heard these oils were bad for your body, but didn't really know why they were bad or how much damage they really did.

This film is the result of finding that information out.

To begin with what I feel is the only real, but understandable, criticism, I would say that as you watch the movie, just be prepared for some rather cheesy computer graphics. It's understandable because not every movie - especially documentaries - can have Hollywood-sized budgets, and CGI is time-consuming and expensive. So just bear this in mind and pay attention to the important message that comes with it.

Wilhelm Normann patented the hydrogenation of fats

What I like about Ingreedients is that it's created from the viewpoint of the typical viewer, and it has many clear, easily-understood interviews with industry experts. The visual explanation of how trans fats are created has stuck with me for several days now, and I think I'm not likely to forget it. Hydrogenated oils are created by mingling unhealthy fats with various toxic metals such as aluminum under intense (400 degree) heat and then pressure-spraying hydrogen gas into the mix. This is, without a doubt, crazy to consider as a food source. And yet, as Ingreedients shows, it's pretty much the first thing that Proctor and Gamble did when their company was created in the early 1900's. Really makes you warm right up to the whole corporate food industry, doesn't it? While the most obvious implementations of this newly-patented technology appear in Crisco and margarine, what Ingreedients wants us to really understand is that it's also in pretty much everything processed. Not only do manufacturers usually outright lie when creating packaging that declares "0 grams Trans Fats" but they hide it insidiously by adding such things as mono- and di-glycerides, which themselves contain trans fats.

It just doesn't end, does it?!

The ultimate message of the movie is that you're responsible for what you put in your body, and that it is imperative for you to stop putting hydrogenated oil in it. Ingreedients downright scares you with the truth, and you should listen. It may not be as polished a presentation such as presented by Food, Inc., but the value of how easily you can absorb and retain the information from the way they present it is immeasurable.

This post is part of Real Food Wednesday hosted this week by Cheeseslave.