Our cultural obsession with carbs is killing us. I have spent a lot of time talking with experts about the project…and they agree with that premise. I will need to talk with many more like minded individuals before I’m through. That being said this film isn’t for them. The health-minded people we all know will likely be interested in the film, but they are the proverbial choir to which I preach. I need to figure out how to talk to everyone else.
So how do we get those that are under the spell of the “Food Pyramid” to give Carb-Loaded the time of day? I feel like Odysseus on the mythological island of the Lotus-Eaters. As the myth goes he anchored his ships off of an island near Peloponnesus, and sent some men onto the island for provisions. When they did not return he discovered they were eating the Lotus along with the islanders. The result was a mind emptying apathy…and the men just wanted to lay around eating the fruit of the Lotus. Odysseus forced them back onto the ships and sailed as fast as he could away from the island.
I’m pretty sure that approach won’t work with the lotus eaters of the standard american diet today. Those under that spell need to be shown how dangerous it is, scientifically. The film needs to entertain AND educate. It needs to be persuasive. I need to talk to them in an honest and open manner. If I become shrill and dogmatic they will take me for a fanatic and rightly so.
To clarify…I don’t think of the “Lotus-Eaters” as less intelligent. I think of them as unwilling participants in a grand marketing scheme much larger then any of us. I partook of the sweet fruit of the Lotus for over 30 years…and then I got diabetes. Had I not been diagnosed two years ago, I would likely still be eating that way. All the while wondering why I felt terrible. Deep down I knew my diet wasn’t “that great” but I didn’t really know what I could do about it.
Eating healthy and feeling better starts between our ears. That’s the hardest part to grasp.
So, it is easier to preach to the choir, but more beneficial to reason with the Lotus-Eaters.
Do you have any ideas about how to reach out to them?
What do you think would work to get the points across?
What is a modern day Odysseus to do?
Lathe Poland is one of the creators of Carb-Loaded a documentary film that examines the causes of the diabetes epidemic.
