In the new documentary film "inGREEDients," registered nurse and filmmaker David Burton discovers an alarming connection between diet and illness while investigating trans fats and hydrogenated oils in America’s food supply.
The first-time filmmaker spent two and a half years traveling the country to interview leading experts, including doctors, scientists, researchers, politicians, and lawyers. The result is a scary look into how Big Food, lobbyists, and even the government conspire to provide food that’s profitable but harmful—all at the expense of consumers.
The movie, financed with credit cards as Burton continued to work full-time at a Tampa area hospital, is every bit as compelling as Morgan Spurlock’s “SuperSize Me,” Michael Moore’s “Sicko,” or the recent “Food, Inc.”
Burton, whose movie has been honored at several film festivals and can be found at inGREEDientsMovie.com, recently shared his experiences with the film with CorePerformance.com.
Core Performance
What was the inspiration for this movie?
David Burton
The real inspiration was feeding our daughter and researching how that should be done and the realization that most of the information that we’ve been told about nutrition is wrong. Good nutrition starts with good information and we found the need to set the record straight. People need to know about the chemicals in their food.
DB: They’re running the show. Their corporation dollars outweigh anyone else’s voice that can be heard in Washington. The laws are not written to protect the consumer but the corporation. Regulations are written by the USDA, which was designed to sell agriculture, not to tell us how to eat. The whole system is wrong and that’s where these documentaries come into play. SuperSize Me changed our thinking and Food, Inc. was really revolutionary. We’re picking up where they left off, getting information straight to the people unfiltered by sponsorship and corporate dollars.
DB: You start by looking for partially hydrogenated oil. Most people don’t read the labels and the ones that do read the fat and calorie content or maybe the carbohydrate content. That’s nowhere near as important as the ingredients and what’s in the food. Be less concerned about carb and fat content and more concerned about food content.
DB: Absolutely. I believe there’s a huge connection with ADHD and a lot of these new-age neurological disorders and what we’re putting into our bodies. You look at fats. The only reason hydrogenated oils are used is because butter can’t sit on the shelf for months at a time. That’s what all of these chemicals are replacing: butter, milk, cream, and eggs. If we got back to eating things with natural ingredients I know these diseases would go down.
DB: We eat a lot of things but we stay away from processed sugar and try to eat whole natural ingredients: whole fruits, free-range eggs. They’re a little more expensive but in the long run it’s cheaper. If you buy a higher quality food product, you realize that you’re not buying as many aspirin and icepacks. It’s not that we don’t get the sniffles, but we’re not getting sick and not needing to purchase all of these other things.