Adding a few healthy food films to your must-watch list is a wonderful idea, whether you’re aiming to be a more climate-conscious eater or you’ve simply always been fascinated by food (including where it comes from and how it affects your body).
While culinary documentaries may not appear to be as interesting as Ted Lasso or Euphoria, you may be amazed at how much there is to savor when you go into some of the best choices.
Seriously, if you’re interested in health and wellness trends, are considering becoming vegetarian, or simply want to understand more about the food you’re putting into your body, they may be extremely eye-opening.
Naturally, depending on whatever healthy food documentaries you choose, can be upsetting. But, as the saying goes, “disruption breeds transformation.”
(Okay, maybe that wasn’t spoken, but it’s true, right?) After all, thought-provoking movies drive home the key principle that “what you don’t change, you choose,” and what you do and don’t choose to put into your mouth may have a real, lasting influence on your body and mind, as well as the environment, in the case of food.
On that subject, we thought it might be useful to point you in the direction of some worthwhile viewing. So, without further ado, read on to learn about six of the best healthy food documentaries for everyone to enjoy.
6 must-see documentaries about healthy eating
1. Super Size Me
The United States is notorious around the world for having issues with portion distortion, as well as the shockingly high amounts of added sugar and saturated fat that the fast-food industry makes readily available to us.
Super Size Me was released in 2004 to assist bring it to the attention of the general public in the United States. What’s the premise? Morgan Spurlock, the documentary’s independent filmmaker, fasted for 30 days on McDonald’s meals.
Unsurprisingly, the experiment had a significant influence on Spurlock’s physical and mental health, highlighting the detrimental consequences of the fast-food industry in America and pointing at why the food sector in the United States causes many people’s health problems.
2. Food, Inc.
Are you interested in learning more about food and how huge corporations and the government influence access to it? Food, Inc., a 2009 documentary, takes viewers inside America’s corporate-run food business, revealing how unhealthy and ecologically unfriendly it is.
Everything from the fields to the stores and restaurants where the food is sold is tracked. The film also sheds light on the FDA’s and food safety system’s flaws. In fact, by the end of Food, Inc., you’ll probably be rethinking what’s in your refrigerator.
Food, Inc. is now available to watch online.
3. Forks Over Knives
If Food, Inc. doesn’t convince you to consider a plant-based diet (because of the gory information it discloses about factory farms), the 2011 food documentary Forks Over Knives will.
Forks Over Knives offers a compelling case for adopting a more plant-based diet and keeping an eye on processed food intake, focusing on chronic diseases that are a direct effect of eating habits.
Forks Over Knives is now available to stream.
4. Hungry for Change
According to dietitians, one of the most important things to remember when starting a healthy lifestyle is that it is a lifestyle, not a diet. This concept is what drove Hungry for Change to fame as a documentary.
Sugar intake (which is compared to a narcotic in the 2012 health food documentary), misdirected food marketing, and the hazardous diet industry as a whole are all highlighted in the film.
Hungry for Change strives to inspire and educate viewers with healthy lifestyle changes—not diets—that genuinely work by calling out the very ways that weight loss corporations keep consumers coming back for more.
Hungry for Change is now available to stream.
5. Food Matters
It’s no secret that what we feed our bodies matters, and Food Matters aims to emphasize this point. Hippocrates’ philosophy of “Let thy Culinary be thy Medicine and thy Medicine be thy Food” is explored in this 2013 food documentary.
In this way, the film illustrates how highly-processed food, which is especially prevalent in America, is harming our food chain. As a result, if you’ve been looking for reasons why a less-processed diet is linked to lifespan, you should add this document to your saved list as soon as possible.
Now playing: Food Matters
6. Fed Up
Every year, health-conscious customers (and filmmakers who identify as such) become increasingly dissatisfied with the corporate-controlled food business.
It got to the point in 2014 where Katie Couric and Oscar-winning producer Laurie David decided to take action.
As a result, they released Fed Up, a food documentary that takes aim at the corporate food industry—specifically, how huge firms inside it have power over the government, which then filters down to the nutritionally deficient food that millions of Americans consume every day. In a nutshell, the video bills itself as “the film the food business doesn’t want you to see,” which is precisely why it’s so compelling.
Now playing: Fed Up
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