Author of the essay “Eat Food: Food Defined” Michael Pollan, states that everything that pretends to be a food really isn’t a food. Michael persuaded me into agreeing with his argument by talking about how people shouldn’t eat anything their great grandmother wouldn’t recognize as food and avoid food products containing ingredients that are unpronounceable, lists more than five, and contains high fructose corn syrup. He opened my eyes to information I wouldn’t have thought about or researched myself. He got into depth about a type of Sara Lee bread that contains way more ingredients than needed to make the bread, including high fructose corn syrup that isn’t good for you. Marketers are doing this to sell more of their product by making it taste
In Michael Pollan’s essay “Escape from the Western Diet,” he directly to Americans about the western diet and why he believes they need to escape from it. The reason Americans should escape the western diet is to avoid the harmful effects associated with it such as “western diseases” (Pollan, 420). To support his view on the issue, Pollan describes factors of the western diet that dictate what Americans believe they should eat. These factors include scientists with their theories of nutritionist, the food industry supporting the theories by making products, and the health industry making medication to support those same theories. Overall, Pollan feels that in order to escape this diet, people need to get the idea of it out of their heads.
]The first rule I chose in Michael Pollan’s “Food Rules” was rule eight, which was to avoid food products with the word “lite” or the terms “low fat” or “nonfat” in their names. I chose this rule because when eating these foods you’re not getting the vitamins, nutrients, and many other things that strengthen your body. I also chose this rule because, some odd chemicals would be added to incorporated the fat or macromolecule taken away. I can incorporated this rule into my regular diet by having the “whole” version of the product instead of “low fat” or “nonfat”.
“Thou shouldst eat to live; not live to eat”, is a famous quote by the well known philosopher Socrates, who believed this is the perspective we should take when we are eating food. Unfortunately, the times have changed and so has the way we eat. We no longer have to go hunting for our food, or grow crops to receive all of our fruits and vegetables. Because we have become a society that has grown into the new world of technology, there would be no need to rely on ourselves for what we need-- we can simply gather our resources from other people. In the book, “The Omnivore’s Dilemma”, written by Michael Pollan, takes us on a journey full of concerns of the “Food Industrial Complex”.
Michael Pollan in The Omnivore’s Dilemma demonstrates ethos states, “I finally had to conclude that Rosie the organic free-range chicken doesn’t really grok the whole free-range conceit” (172). Here, Michael Pollan uses a passive method to convey his ideas to the audience and allow them to think about and form their own opinions on his given ideas. He incorporates his own thoughts that he feels that the chickens cannot completely seem to grasp their environment and just live as they are told and raised to do. His personal experience of taking care of Rosie leaves him to realize that many corporations and companies only care for the rewards they receive for their work.
The book, The Omnivore’s Dilemma, was written by Michael Pollan and describes a man’s interest in discovering where certain foods truly come from and explain why the humans of today struggle to find something to eat compared to the humans of the past. Pollan embarks on four separate quests having each serve a purpose to give him insight on America’s dynamic and complexed reception of food. In his first quest, Pollan watches a cow and sees its development up until it gets slaughtered. This experience reflects on commercial farming and tries to show animal development in relation to their feed.
I believe that Micheal Pollan has described the bad habbits that the typical Americans do in majority of the time by mistaking fast foods with the whole healthy foods because lack of time or lifestyle. In the Michael Pollans argument about the "Western Diet" he informs that the majority of the American population about the western diet and believes that they need to get away from it, but it's for their own better health that many of us sometimes forget or don't even pay attention to it. There's many factors that the reasons Americans should get away from it is only to avoid the harmful chemicals we eat from a plain cheeseburger or fries and that effects our metabolism to get worse associated with it as the "western diseases" (page 433) Micheal Pollan has said.
In David Freedman’s essay How Junk food Can End Obesity, Freedman makes the claim to policy arguing that instead of demonizing processed foods, Americans should instead support the idea and production of healthier processed and junk foods. He calls on the public to recognize that while many products on the market these days are labeled as “wholesome” and “healthy”, consumers should learn to become aware of the fat and calorie content in these products because many times they have the same- if not more- fat and calorie contents as that of a typical Big Mac or Whopper. In his essay, Freedman primarily places blame on the media and the wholesome food movement for the condemnation of the fast and processed food industries saying, “An enormous amount of media space has been dedicated to promoting the notion that all processed food, and only processed food, us making us sickly and overweight” (Freedman), he further expresses that this portrayal of the
In recent decade, the United States has seen supermarkets continuously get filled with packages labeled with things like “Low sodium” or “No Trans Fats.” Companies stick these labels on their food to match the current fads of what is good for you and what is not. In his essay Unhappy Meals, Michael Pollan advocates a return to natural and basic foods, and deplores nutritionism. Pollan argues that nutritionism does not actually tell people what is healthy or not, and that the only way to be sure you are eating healthy is to eat natural, fresh food.
With that being said, most restaurants and grocery stores are declining industrialized foods, giving the name, “food-like substances.” Freedman feels that it is not a realistic way to stop this obesity epidemic by trying to persuade people into completely changing their habits of eating. Instead, Freedman believes that incorporating better ingredients in processed foods will
In the book, The Omnivore's Dilemma by Michael Pollan, Pollan claims we should be more knowledgeable about what we consume as omnivores. As omnivores we have a variety of food, we can choose from, however, we don’t regularly make the best decisions for ourselves. Pollan argues this by showing us where our food really comes from and how we can find many unwanted extras. Pollan shows us that we’ve evolved as humans from how we used to eat to how we eat now. Pollan argues this by introducing us to all the food chains we value today, some much more than others.
Eating Healthy Michael Pollan, a health food spokesperson, made some interesting critiques on how he believes that there is an American paradox such as, “a notably unhealthy population preoccupied with… the idea of eating healthy” (Maxfield, 442). The idea taken from Michael Pollan’s quote is that he believes the definition of healthy eating has more to do with how it is “driven by a well-funded corporate machine” (Maxfield, 442). He is also claiming that the food industry is benefiting on our lack of knowledge on how to eat properly when it comes to being healthy. In her article Food as Thought: Resisting the Moralization of Eating, Mary Maxfield directly attacked Pollan’s claims, pointing out the hypocrisy in his words because he is sharing
In “What You Eat Is Your Business,” Radley Balko tackles the issue of who is responsible for fighting obesity. Balko argues that the controversy of obesity should make the individual consumers culpable for their own health and not the government (467). As health insurers refrain from increasing premiums for obese and overweight patients, there is a decrease in motivation to keep a healthy lifestyle (Balko 467). As a result, Balko claims these manipulations make the public accountable for everyone else 's health rather than their own (467). Balko continues to discuss the ways to fix the issue such as insurance companies penalizing consumers who make unhealthy food choices and rewarding good ones (468).
In “What’s Eating America,” Micheal Pollan criticizes America’s dependence on fossil fuel and fixed nitrogen instead of organic farming. In 1947, a munition plant used explosives to make chemical fertilizers. After WWII, the surplus of ammonium nitrate are converted into agricultural purposes. Although the earth’s atmosphere consists of 80% nitrogen, almost all the atoms are useless. In 1909, Fritz Haber discovered a way to fix nitrogen molecules by using electrical lightning.
This source has helped my research a lot because the survey they put on this source states how many people want to live a healthier lifestyle but cannot because they have trouble understanding what foods are healthy and what aren 't because they don 't understand what is being said on the nutrition labels. This source also states that these confusing nutrition labels don 't just make it hard for people who are dieting but it also hard for people who have allergies or sensitivity to some types of foods. The nutrition labels don 't state clear enough of what is actually being processed into the food. I also chose this source because it says that ingredients are a major part in how consumers pick their foods. On most food labels the ingredients are so small that most people cannot see what it says.
In “The Consumer: A Republic of Fat,” the author, Michael Pollan argues that a huge industrial corn production in America has led to the increase of public health crisis such as obesity and diabetes. Pollan states this problem is similar to when corn whisky drove people to be alcoholic about one hundred years ago. When American farmers started producing excessive corn in the early nineteenth century, people became alcoholic and suffered from alcohol-related diseases by corn whiskey since it was much easier to transport than fresh corn. However, because of the technology improvement and lifestyle changes around the 1980s, the corn has been mostly turned into HFCS (high-fructose corn syrup), which is contained in almost all processed foods that