Health & Fitness
Park Slope Food Coop's Plow to Plate Movie Series Ushers in the New Year with "Chow Down"
CHOW DOWN is the moving story of the success you can achieve when you rewrite the recipe for a healthy life.
In "Supersize Me," Morgan Spurlock’s attempt to live on nothing but McDonald’s fast-food for a month nearly killed him. In "Chow Down" we see how our Fast Food Nation diet is killing most of us.
Americans are sick. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), over 130 million people have some chronic disease linked to diet–coronary heart disease, obesity, diabetes, high cholesterol or cancer.
Children, teenagers and young adults are developing diabetes and heart disease at unprecedented rates. Life expectancy in the United States is down after decades of increase. Genes certainly play a role, but "Chow Down" makes a strong case that the environment is equally, if not more responsible for these trends. A better diet could bring us back from the brink, but it’s a hard sell with industry, government and the medical system structured to support the status quo.
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"Chow Down" follows three sick patients who forsake conventional surgery (Band-Aids that do not address the underlying causes of disease) to follow Dr. Esselstyn’s strict low-fat diet comprised mostly of fruits, grains and vegetables.
Esselstyn, who is a researcher and practitioner at the Cleveland Clinic, is a pioneer of treating heart disease through diet, but his work met with skepticism in the medical community despite his proven results.
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Many of his peers believe it’s simply too difficult for most people to stick to a diet of mostly plants, although many senior staff and trustees have sought his treatment for themselves. "Chow Down" shows just how hard it can be.
Charles Venezia is a big man, the son and grandson of butchers, who grew up eating only the best cuts of meat. Before he falls ill at 42, he loves to eat, drive fast cars and embraces life with gusto. He ruefully accepts his new diet which provides him with fewer pleasures but is dedicated to it, buying an RV so he can bring his own food on vacation with him.
Through sticking to it, he lowers his cholesterol from the high 200s to 124, slims down considerably, and looks great. He credits his wife who labors for hours over meticulously prepared meals. Her planning and organization have made her a much better cook. Charles concedes that if not for his wife he could not succeed and would never cook for himself. Without her, he would have to hire a cook.
John Oehrle, 58, had major blockages in most of his arteries but feared the scalpel. He too embraced this strict diet and admits to really missing Kentucky Fried Chicken. However, he cannot understand his brother who eats fatty breakfasts every morning. He too gets his cholesterol down from astronomic levels to the mid 100s and looks fine. He has not become a health fanatic. He’s not fond of long walks but is happy that he can do them without getting winded.
Garnet Hall, 45 and diabetic, struggles the most with adapting to her new lifestyle. When her doctor tells her that she needs to get down to the weight she was when she was a young woman, around 130 pounds, she says, “Do you think I can do it? I’m going to need help.” And, unfortunately, unlike Charles and John, her family does not provide it.
At first she is doing all the right things and sticking to the program, cooking healthy, bringing salads to work and family barbecues, and she loses twenty pounds. Her body adapts. After tasting a hot dog at one family gathering she did not feel well. But Garnet is the family care-giver, and in the long-run, without the moral and physical support of her husband and son, she eventually falls off the wagon.
"Chow Down" is a strong indictment of an American diet that is bad for us. It also inspires us to eat better to improve our health. While Garnet’s and our own struggles with weight control, as well as popular television shows such as The Biggest Loser, show that it is not easy, Charles’s and John’s remarkable dedication and achievements, give us hope.
"Chow Down" makes a convincing case that better public health outcomes will require not only a lot of personal and familial commitment, but larger public policy changes as well. Unfortunately, for many people, it might take getting sick to come to the realization that it’s time to stop chowing down.
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Tuesday, January 10, 2012
Park Slope Food Coop
Park Slope Food Coop– 2nd Floor
782 Union Street
(between 6th and 7th Aves in Park Slope)
Brooklyn, New York 11215
7:00 p.m. Refreshments will be served.