Mary Maxfield Food For Thought Analysis

Eating the pizza instead of the salad seemed like a good idea at the time, but now you’re stuck in this sloth like state hours later. It seems letting cravings control what and how to eat isn’t the best strategy to healthy living. Mary Maxfield, in her article “Food For Thought: Resisting the Moralization of Food” discusses her views on how people should eat. She believes we crave what our bodies need, therefore, we should eat what we crave. Maxfield claims that diet, health and weight are not correlated with each other, and because of this people view obesity as unhealthy, thus, forcing them to distinguish “right, healthy” foods from the “wrong, unhealthy” choices. As a result, she concludes that science has nothing to do with our ability

Americans, along with Pollan, have concluded that diet, health, and weight are linked together. Maxfield doesn’t think so and tries to defend her argument by quoting law professor and journalist Paul Campos’s claims, “’lies about fat, fitness, and health…not coincidentally serve the interest of America’s $50-billion-per-year diet industry (Maxfield, 444)’” as well as activist Kate Harding who observed that “’if you scratch an article on the obesity crisis, you will almost always find a press release from a company that’s developing a weight loss drug…(Maxfield 444)’” She further defends herself, again by going by what Campos and Harding claim, when she dumps the concept of using the body mass index (BMI) tool, which is widely used by medical professionals to determine a person’s health risks based on his or her body fat

Perhaps an individual eats a fast food burger due to cravings. The body wants a burger, so the individual fulfills that wish. The body does not need that burger because of its nutritional value; it contains extra calories, fats, artificial ingredients, and more. As a result, the craving which the individual fulfilled will have other effects as a result. What we eat affects the way we feel. Something as heavy as a burger will cause the individual to feel bloated or sluggish, but something like a salad will allow him to feel energized, alert, and active. At one point, I had that feeling. After several months of giving up French fries, I decided to order some from a fast-food franchise. Though it fulfilled my hunger and cravings, I felt sick because my body was not used to it anymore. However, when I eat a salad, my stomach feels “light” but still full. Though I consume fewer calories by eating salad than by eating fries or even ice cream, I feel full enough to not crave more food, unlike the effects of junk