July, 2009

First of all a big thank you to everyone that came along last Friday to watch the movie and enjoy some appetizers from Help Yourself. If you haven’t seen it yet, is still on at the Tropic for a few more days and you should definitely check it out.

The movie shows in pretty rigorous detail what has happened to our food over the last 6 years. I knew all this anyway as the issues discussed in the movie are the same ones that led me to open Help Yourself but that doesn’t make it any less shocking to watch. I think I cried most of the way through. First through seeing what happened to the animals, then through anger at how controlled our food has become and then through passion because the message at the end is the message of Help Yourself and what I believe so passionately about; just eat real food – food as it should be.

In Food, Inc. you see how the animals are no longer really animals but merely a production line. You see how they live, how they are treated and how they die. You see the workers in the processing plants and how they are treated no better than the animals. You learn how the food chain is controlled by just a few large corporations and how most food is no longer food, but food like substances full of chemicals and genetically modified ingredients. Half way through it makes you feel angry and it makes you feel hopeless, like there is nothing we can do to compete with these corporations.

Then it turns to the positive, you meet some of the real farmers who still adopt the traditional methods, and it shows that sales in organic produce are growing rapidly. You see Walmart introducing an organic line due to consumer demand and we are reminded that we can make a difference, in fact every time we eat we can make a difference; the choice of what goes into our mouths is ours. Micheal Pollan says in his book “In Defense of Food’ the silent foods are the best foods. And the silent foods are the fruits and vegetables with no packaging and no health claims, those just sitting quietly on the shelf waiting to be eaten. You are voting with your fork.

It doesn’t mean that you have to change overnight, it doesn’t mean you have to be perfect everyday, and you certainly shouldn’t be hard on yourself, all you need to do is start being aware of what you are eating. Look at the packages and the ingredients, think about where the food has come from and how it was made and make your choice. Being aware is the first step, everything else will follow. And that is our mission with Help Yourself to make ‘real food’ available, to help others be able to make the choice they want and re-inspire the passion for eating food as it should be: delicious, nutritious and natural.

The Movie of the Moment!

FOOD, INC.

Join us for the launch of Food, Inc. at the Tropic Cinema on Friday 24th
 
At 8:00 PM, the Tropic Cinema and Help Yourself invite the 6:30 and 8:30 “Food, Inc.” audiences to join in a discussion and sample some of Help Yourself’s delicious food.

In Food, Inc., filmmaker Robert Kenner lifts the veil on our nation’s food industry, exposing the highly mechanized underbelly that has been hidden from the American consumer. Food, Inc. reveals surprising—and often shocking truths—about what we eat, how it’s produced, who we have become as a nation and where we are going from here. A must see if you care about the future of your food!

The issues raised in this movie are the very same that caused us to open the first Help Yourself. Our mission is to provide food as it should be; delicious, nutritious, natural and organic.

Like the movie, we care where our food comes from, how it was sourced and how it was produced. Our food choices matter, not only for our own health but for the health of the planet. At Help Yourself we demand organic, wholesome, natural ingredients from our suppliers, and we prepare them for you in a way that doesn’t compromise on taste, health or ethics. Our goal is to make it easy to eat right and feel great.