In the book In Defense of Food, author Michael Pollan arouses his audience’s awareness in the foods it consumes. Pollan presents his audience with various facts concerning the types of foods being consumed in the West today, as well as how these foods are being consumed. He asserts that food is no longer food at all, but rather scientifically enriched “food products” created in order to provide what scientists consider the bare necessities for an efficient diet (Pollan 150). However, Pollan questions the efficiency of these foods when the people consuming this diet are among the unhealthiest in the world. Among his most compelling arguments lies the transition from plants to seeds in today’s diets. Pollan encourages his audience to reap the benefits of a more plant rich diet through definitions, examples of causes and effects, and various other rhetorical strategies. Pollan touches on this particular argument throughout the book, reinforcing his assertion within each section of the novel.
Pollan draws the reader’s attention to the drastic transition from leaf-based foods to seed-based foods at the beginning of section two upon recounting the study done with Aborigines from Derby, Western Australia in which the group returned to their native lands to live as they had before adopting the Western lifestyle. Pollan recounts this event in order to provide effective evidence, assuring his readers that the group’s shift to the Western lifestyle was responsible for their drastic decline in health. As they returned to their original lifestyle, the Aborigines reversed the causes of the Western diet and eliminated the diseases many Westerners are suffering from today. By providing this evidence, Pollan gives his readers the chance to consider that he or she could also benefit from reverting to a more natural method of obtaining and preparing food.
Pollan defines his audience by utilizing the strategy of definition where he presents a simple concept and elaborates within a parenthetical phrase to further explain the science behind the concept. By using this method, Pollan is able to address an audience comprised of persons less educated on the material which he is presenting. Pollan is able to prevent over complicating concepts and further deterring his audience from the desire to understand and incorporate these concepts in daily living. This method also enhances Pollan’s accountability as he is providing his readers with quantitative and factual concepts rather than simple statements which could lead the reader to become apprehensive and question the author’s statements. The reader also sees this strategy used later in Section II, chapter four of the novel in which Pollan describes the role of essential fatty acids, including what classifies a fatty acid as essential.
In part III of the novel, Pollan proposes a lifestyle that makes use of the knowledge presented in previous sections. Pollan encourages a plant-based diet comprised mainly of foods from soil unaffected by modern pesticides. In this section, Pollan utilizes exemplification by providing facts in order to further support his lifestyle proposal. In addition, Pollan makes comparisons and contrasts between the average Western diet in modern society as compared to the diet of both our ancestors and persons of other cultures. Pollan asserts that the average American bases his or her diet on meat which provides essential amino acids to the body; however, a majority of today’s meat sources originate from highly processed animal farms. Red meat, which is the most popularly used meat in American’s diets, can lead to heart disease and cancer. By providing these small pieces of evidence, Pollan is able to better support his argument and give the reader qualitative reasoning to reconsider his or her current eating style; readers might even begin questioning the source of their foods and the methods by which the ingredients are raised.
Pollan repeatedly discusses the health of Westerners and the correlation with a seed versus plant based diet. By doing this, Pollan’s readers begin to realize the importance of this concept as this becomes a major change in diet that Pollan later suggests. Pollan provides significant amount of data to support his claims of a better lifestyle fueled by plant-based foods. In addition, Pollan’s readers are introduced to the Aborigines of West Australia, providing his audience with a chapter-long narrative with the hopes of raising awareness of the negative effects of the Western diet. By becoming a witness to the effects of reverting to a pre-Western diet, Pollan hopes to encourage his readers to also consider reverting to the ways of their ancestors and to begin seeking food not raised with mass production and mass profit in mind. As Pollan very simply states, “Eat food. Not too much. Mostly Plants.”
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