Movie Review: Vegucated

Watch Vegucated, a documentary about trying to convert three traditional eaters (read: carnivores) into vegan in the space of six weeks.  I was sparked to watch this film by a tweet I received a few days ago.  Being a reformed vegan of over 12 years, I decided that I wanted to watch this one and see how it was presented.  After my own self-education back in the day (Diet for a Small Planet, Diet for a New America, etc.), I wanted to know if people were still being converted (coerced) into a new way of thinking and eating through fear.

Vegucated is pretty good in that the goal of this film is positive motivation.  They use your future better health as inspiration for going vegan.  They do show and tell about the facts of traditional American meat and poultry production however the message is coming to you from three people in conversion.  These three people were hardcore meat-eaters and their refrigerators at the beginning PROVE this! LOL.  One of the three guinea pig meat-eater converts didn't even cook for herself -- her Peruvian Dad did all of the cooking for her.  This made eating meat not even a question for her -- until Marisa Wolfson asked her to try going vegan for six weeks.

This film does not go into heavy visual detail about the practices used in commercial meat production but it does show some very graphic and disturbing scenes of animals going through various steps of the process (a pig being lowered into a vat of boiling water and the carcass being de-haired by a machine.  It looks very painful...).  So, viewers you will not be spared some of the realities of how your meat and poultry get to your dinner table.  However, it is not slammed in your face; it comes towards the end of the film.

The entire beginning is about the health benefits of becoming a vegan.  How you can lose weight almost effortlessly, how your body's vital signs improve in a short time (blood pressure, cholesterol levels...) and how much better and healthier you will feel.

Vegucated is focused primarily on accentuating the positives of being a healthy eater that consumes fruit, vegetables, grains and legumes.  The normal American eats only 9% of these things which is extremely unbalanced.

While I am no longer a vegan I still consume A LOT of veggies, grains, salads, and fruit.  I drink plenty of water and make sure to eat fish and poultry as my main sources of proteins along with root vegetables and ground foods (for complex carbs that take longer to burn than rice or grains).

Being a vegan made me a much more conscious eater.  I understand the purpose of food and try to balance out my carbs and proteins.  I also know that I have to watch the idiot foods.  For me, idiot foods are the sugar-filled stuff that makes me smile.  But, it's bad for our bodies over the long haul.

I think everyone should watch Vegucated so they will not be in the dark about how their food is being handled.  However, what you do with that information is your own personal choice -- however educate yourself so no one can surprise you, terrorize you, or preach at you.  Be an informed consumer about the most important thing in your life -- what you put in your body.

4 Blogairy Notebooks