If you are what you eat, I think I might be a loser

We've all heard about how obesity is a national epidemic in America, and how rates of diet-related illnesses, such as diabetes, heart disease, and cancer, continue to rise. Many think of these conditions as self-inflicted, meaning you choose what you eat, so if your diet makes you unhealthy it's your own fault. But when we live in a country where huge corporations control every aspect of food production, from agriculture, to marketing, to the government agencies designed to regulate and protect our food supply, how much of a choice do consumers really have? This is one of the questions explored in "Food, Inc.", a thought-provoking documentary by filmmaker Robert Kenner. The film, which is up for "Best Documentary Feature" at next month's Academy Awards ceremony, includes interviews with Eric Schlosser (author of "Fast Food Nation") and Michael Pollan (author of "The Omnivore's Dilemma" and "In Defense of Food"), as well as other crusaders in the fight to change how America eats. Most people probably don't give much thought to what they are putting in their mouths every day, but our food choices are not only affecting our own physical well-being, but also the economic, social, and environmental health of our nation. I chose to stop eating meat about a year and a half ago after reading "Fast Food Nation" and some other food-related books and articles. But even after making that decision, I still sometimes feel like someone else is controlling what I eat. Living in a small rural community, I don't have easy access to a Whole Foods store or a farmer's market, and even if I did, like most people these days, my biggest limitation when I'm at the grocery store is my budget. In "Food, Inc." a low-income family of four is shown trying to find bargains in the produce section of a supermarket. What they learn is that any way you slice it, fresh vegetables and whole grains are more expensive than four sandwiches off the Dollar Menu at McDonald's. And why is that? Because McDonald's wants it that way. When you are the largest purchaser of ground beef, potatoes, etc. in the United States and you want to keep your costs down, you get to have a lot of say in which crops the government subsidizes. And that my friends, is why we have $1 burgers, but not $1 broccoli. I could go on and on about the issues discussed in "Food, Inc." -- the treatment of the animals, the amount of corn in the average American's diet, the lack of regulation by the USDA and FDA, etc. -- but that could take all day. Instead, I'll just encourage you to watch this film, watch other films about this subject, read books on the topic, and just pay attention to what you're eating in general and where it is coming from. The food industry may be able to decide what gets sold, how much it costs, and how it's made, but we at least still get to decide whether we want to buy it.