Editor’s note: This is an updated version of Michele’s column that originally appeared on Jan. 12, 2011. The shows at the State Theatre today are at 4 p.m. and 7 p.m. Tickets are $8, and $6 for seniors and students. The State is accepting donations to the local food bank and a wellness expert will conduct a Q&A after the show.
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I don’t run marathons, take vitamins, or get eight hours of sleep.
I eat kale.
My love for this under-appreciated, aesthetically challenged vegetable started when I moved to State College and started visiting Tait Farm. Every other Friday I drive out there and pick up the vegetables allotted to me as a member of the Community Supported Agriculture program.
Around the same time I moved here, I began feeling like someone was constantly stuffing cotton up my nose. You couldn’t go five feet in my house without running into a box of tissues or five minutes without hearing me blow my nose. I canceled plans constantly and spent enough money on antibiotics to pay for a sweet vacation. But the drugs didn’t help.
Relief came from an acupuncturist. Instead of needles, he cured me with an e-mail. Cut out gluten, he wrote. Desperate, I eliminated bread, pizza, sandwiches, and pasta from my diet. When I got hungry, I ate more vegetables. Chili—sweet potato with kale is a favorite—became a go-to dish. I made kale chips. Within two weeks I felt better than I had in two months.
I’ve added bread and pasta back into my diet, but instead of staples, I regard them as treats.
Since tweaking my diet I constantly hear similar success stories. Best-selling cookbook author Mark Bittman lowered his cholesterol and blood sugar by eliminating meat before 6 p.m. My co-worker’s doctor turned him into a vegan. My sister-in-law cured her stomach problems by cutting out gluten. These diets vary by the food that’s eliminated, but they’re unified by the stuff that remains: vegetables.
Eat mostly plants, says food writer and activist Michael Pollan. It’s simple advice, yet our society seems to function as though it’s surrounded entirely by concrete. Let’s face it; it’s a lot easier to go through the drive-thru than it is to drive to a farm and turn your bounty into dinner.
But the nationally syndicated movie showing at the State Theatre today at 4 p.m. and 7 p.m. shows us why the shortcut to eating may also be a shortcut to dying.
The first line from the trailer of ‘Forks Over Knives’ should be enough to keep us in our seats: “This could be the first generation of children in the United States that lives less than its parents.”
That’s the bad news (and the unsettling images of overweight people getting insulin shots to control diabetes). The good news is that we can improve our lives—and lower our health care costs, for that matter—by eating more plant-based foods. I don’t know about you, but I’ll take a kitchen counter lined with vegetables over one lined with prescription pills any day.
There are several compelling reasons to attend today’s screening, the most important being your health.
The film was first shown in Happy Valley in January, thanks to a local health and wellness advocate. A few years ago Kathy Pollard started The Wellness Forum, which helps people take control of their lives through their diet. She encourages people to eat whole grains, add veggies to their pasta, and ditch white rice for brown. “It’s not about deprivation,” she promises, and I’d have to agree.
(For inspiration on what to cook, go to Cuizoo.com, where you’ll find a trove of recipes created by a State College-area mom whose essays on how and what we eat will sustain your mind and your appetite.)
‘Forks Over Knives’ will scare you, but you’ll leave with new-found faith in the kind of medicine that doesn’t come in a bottle. So check it out, and pass the kale chips.
