Chow Down

In my endless pursuit of knowledge, I went to the local library to try and find some interesting books about the vegan lifestyle or on nutrition in general. While searching the catalogue of the library, I discovered that the most popular books about nutrition and veganism were mostly checked out. This took me by surprise, but I've come to conclude that this must be a good thing as it shows that people are interested in this subject and therefore their health. I was able to find one book that was available titled, “Vegan Freak: Being Vegan in a Non-Vegan World.” A few chapters into this book, I have not found it as interesting as “Skinny Bitch” was, but I think I will continue to read it.

After looking through the books at the library, I went to the movie section. I was hoping to find any kind of movie that I hadn't seen yet, but I happened across a documentary called “Chow Down.” I just finished this movie, literally minutes ago, and I felt compelled to write about it. Besides the typical health film stuff about the government and statistics, what made this movie especially interesting to me was how it went inside the lives of people who were dealing with chronic diseases. These people were going to attempt to reverse the effects of their illnesses by changing their nutritional habits. The movie has many interviews with doctors from around the country who all mainly agree that: “The majority of common chronic killing diseases are food-borne illnesses which need never occur.” (-Caldwell B. Esselstyn, Jr. M.D.). The concept of food and poor nutrition being the source of so many deaths in this country to me was amazing. The likelihood of heart disease, the number one killer, and cancer, the number two killer of people in America, can be drastically reduced by proper nutrition.

Anyone who is not fully convinced of the importance of nutrition or anyone who needs motivation to start eating properly should, without a doubt, watch this documentary.

Eat like your life depends on it,

Andrew Jessup