Ever since I cut the cord on cable TV about a year ago, I’ve been enjoying Hulu, Netflix, and Amazon Instant Watch for their wide selection of movies, TV shows, and more recently, their wealth of documentaries about food and the food industry.

As foodies, we tend to have a niche within the food world that we are drawn towards. Some foodies love pigging out on BBQ, some enjoy the finer foods in life, some are all about eating local, while other foodies are about vegetarian or gluten free living.

While we might know a lot about our particular area, I find it fascinating to learn about other foodies’ interests and deepen my knowledge on a particular food subject.

So here we go, 3 documentaries that I’ve watched recently worth sharing:

How Beer Saved the World

A light-hearted, yet very serious documentary about the history of beer and how humankind’s love of beer helped produce some of man’s greatest inventions such as writing, math, the wheel, modern medicine, and industrial factory production.

As fantastic as the claims are in the documentary, they are backed up by evidence from serious historians and scientists who have traced human history and the development of technology as they relate to the love of beer.

Available on DVD – Netflix – Vimeo

Dive! Living off America’s Waste

Have you ever eaten food out of a dumpster? This movie is about food waste in America through the personal experiences of one dumpster diver who lives off discarded food from high end grocery stores.

The documentary explores the dumpster diving culture, examines our food waste by the numbers, goes behind the scenes at American food banks and soup kitchens, and touches on the world hunger, food shortages, and the amount of foodstuff that goes into producing our American meat based diets.

Available on DVD – Netflix

Forks Over Knives

This documentary examines world health as related to the food we consume with a focus on cancer. This film presents a wealth of scientific evidence supporting plant based diets for health.

The documentary that highlights the work of and relationships between scientists from all over the world from the USA, China, India, the Philippines, and Hawaii who all came to the same conclusion. Also, “Forks over Knives” shares personal stories of the practitioners of healthy diets, one of whom is a firefighter in Austin, Texas who’s station is right down the street from my old condo!

Available on DVD – Hulu – Netflix

If you are looking to go vegetarian or vegan, then this documentary is for you. Even if you love meat, this one provides good motivation to eat healthier and reduce your animal protein intake.

This film’s website has links to recipes and blogs, including the Austin-based “Engine 2 Diet” blog.
Engine 2 Diet Blog Recipes
Forks Over Knives Links and Blogs

I hope you enjoy these movies as much as I did – you are certain to learn something by watching them and discover more about food around the world.

Please let us know what you think about the movies in the comments!

Happy Tasting,
Peter