I saw this movie a few months back and recently referred a friend who is struggling with health and weight issues. I feel this movie is an excellent primer for those who either have little concept of what comprises nutrition, or for those who need a reminder. I agree with some of the reviewers that there is an over- emphasis on juicing, but I don't feel that this is the real focus of the movie, rather, to shift your food intake from processed foods to foods that you prepare at home, processed or not. Really, if you look at popular food movements over the past several years, Paleo, 21 day fix etc, they focus on lean meats, healthy fruits and veggies, good fats. Perhaps they go about it differently, but the message is largely the same, which it should be. Long term health comes to 1% of us by luck, and 99% of us by working at it through mechanisms that have been evolutionary programmed. Eat right and exercise. Period. Are the 'experts' interviewed Nobel-prize winning researchers in the field of physiology and nutrition? No. However, they have devoted considerable time and effort, if not their career and personal well being into familiarizing themselves with the topic. I have a Doctorate in Medicine and don't discount any information given to me based solely on the lack of degree credentials following a name. Regarding the food industry's 'plot' to make us fat..no real smoking gun there. I understand this part of the plot as a cautionary tale about profit margins, bringing back returning customers (food addicts) and bottom lines, not about a larger collusion amongst Kraft, General Mills etc to make America fat. My father is a retired food scientist for a major American food company. A food scientist's job is to engineer the product to make it taste better, give it better 'mouth feel', last longer on the shelves, all the while fulfilling the whim of the market. What that has translated to over the past few decades changes...remember Crisco and Margarine being touted as the healthy answer to butter? Ha. We are programmed by design to gravitate towards foods which are high in sugar, fat, and to some degree salt. The fat free craze of the 80's and 90's gave us a whole host of processed food items which did nothing in the long run for our health and left us wishing for more. I was able to experience this first hand at home, 'behind the curtain' seeing the scientific aspect of food manipulation. I think the movie does a great job of initiating a dialogue and exploring the complex venn diagram intersection of anthropology, economics, and physiology. In a sense, profits from the food industry paid for my parent's salary, which helped pay for my college, and opened a door to me for medical school (which I paid for myself). Now I tell people to avoid eating the very foods which made my education possible. If you're looking to this light documentary movie for a new magic bullet for weight loss, you've come to the wrong place. There is no magic bullet (not even juicing, ha). But, understanding the roots of your eating behavior will help you disengage from 1) a blame game and 2) may help you format a path for change.

I guess I'm a little late for viewing this documentary. I just the other night found this little gem on Netflix. I gotta say, there were a couple times I was brought to tears. Not because it was sad, or that I'm a wimp but because some of the things said at that moment affected how I was feeling and it hit home. I have always been a tiny, well balanced frame of a person, right up until the day I quit smoking. I gained about 35 lbs in a very short space of time but that was OK because I expected some weight gain. I had successful surgery to reverse a tubal, got pregnant at 38 and from that moment on my life has been to say the least different. Some of the choices I've made haven't been so beneficial. I went from being 115 lbs on the day I quit smoking on January 14th, 2003 to 185 lbs to this date, October 18th, 2013. My daughter is now almost 9 years old and I literally have no excuses except I thought after having her, history would repeat itself and the pounds would drop off like they did when I had my sons while in my early 20's. I was terribly wrong. Then I thought, because my daughter walked at 9 1/2 months, chasing her active little mind and body around would help. Again, I was wrong. So now, at 47 yrs. old, approximately(to be healthy) 60 lbs overweight, I am at a loss for words on what to do about it. I'm embarrassed, scared, disgusted, out of control and unsure where the next step to help me is at. Until now. I found this movie to be so enlightening and hopefully life changing, I'm just sorry others haven't seen what I did. I don't think the point of the movie is about being a glorified infomercial, or a bunch of individuals telling their story and not being truthful, I think the movie is about people, like me, who struggled to find their way as well, discovered a better, healthier way to see the end of a long, hard road and they are passing on their knowledge and success in hopes of, again, people like me who will benefit from their knowledge. That's it. I walked away from this movie with a goal, and I can't wait to get started.

I very much wish that more people would eat healthier. The problems I have with this movie pertain to the biased nature of the movie. The people have an agenda just as their opposition has an agenda.I hoped this movie would be a refreshing movie to review the good and bad of current food, and what people can do to take steps to correcting it. Instead it's a movie to allow those with biased attitudes to give half truths and peddle their books.They don't make entirely true statements in the same way the Food Conglomerates make half true statements the other biased direction.They already had me doubting their truthfulness when they started, and later continued, to reference High Fructose Corn Syrup to be a direct correlation to Cocaine. While I agree that people should not be ingesting as much HFCS as they are, and I agree it's not good for you. There was no need to lie and state HFCS is as bad as cocaine or even in any correlation.HFCS is indeed a reduction of corn to a small concentrate. Cocaine is not just a reduction of a cocoa leaf in the same way as they state. Cocaine is also made by adding diesel fuel, and battery acid. The ways cocaine is horrible are NOT similar to the ways HFCS are.They then go into the second half of the movie discussing how you should really juice all of your stuff. This is a load of crap. The only reason they gave for juicing over just plain eating all of the veggies (which is better for you as it contains needed fiber) is because apparently we've ruined our digestive system so we have to juice everything.This movie is so completely biased in the opposite direction that it can't be taken to full truth value. It dashed my hopes and I can't recommend it to anyone.There are mixed in many sound reasonable truths. However when it's peppered with falsity and half truths it loses credibility. Most unfortunate, wish I hadn't wasted my time.

Wow, it's crazy how there are 4 reviews that slam the movie, yet it's overall rating is still high.Maybe it's because you have people like melinda2001 who thinks "Glutamate" is the "G" in ATGC. Try guanine, not glutamate.While I believe any movie is open to criticism, even these "Food Matters" films, I think this production has been one of the most sane ones. Why?Unlike the juicing, vegan, raw food, etc movies, this one was more balanced. One contributor even said, if you can do small steps like reducing red meat intake, it will be helpful.The main message I took away was to try to shift away from the processed and more to the whole foods. What's wrong with that? Remember, IMDb has a weighted rating system to filter out new people, weak reviewers, etc. This movie is still a solid 7. I suggest you watch it for yourself before you believe the conventional wisdom posted by others like melinda2001.