Michael Pollan’s most recent book, titled In Defense of Food: An Eater’s Manifesto, attempts to investigate the correlation between the metabolic syndrome, the American diet, and the rise of nutritionism in America. Pollan defines nutritionism as the public’s concentration on the individual nutrients and components of a specific food rather than the whole food itself. The main thesis of In Defense of Food features the simple instructions to: “Eat Food. Not too much. Mostly plants.” Michael Pollan’s evidence for his thesis includes giving off negative impressions of food science and food processing. The book sheds light on some of the drawbacks of food processing, such as the loss of vitamins during cooking. Pollan mentions that processed foods aren’t true foods and should be limited in consumption. He also advises that one should only eat foods that his grandmother’s generation would recognize. Lastly, In Defense of Food features an extensive argument about the implication of consuming too many omega-6 fatty acids and consuming too few omega-3 fatty acids. Pollan contends that the large gap between the number of omega-6 fatty acids and omega-3 fatty acids in the American diet is one of the main contributors of the increased prevalence of diabetes and cardiovascular disease over the past forty years.
Michael Pollan’s main arguments within In Defense of Food are not complete enough to withstand careful scrutiny. Firstly, Pollan neglects to reveal the benefits of processed foods. Food science serves several important functions within modern society. Over the past one hundred to two hundred years, there has been a large population shift from rural to urban areas. Processed foods have provided people in urban areas with something to eat when they can’t grow their own crops nor raise their own animals. The processes that foods go through and the additives that are mixed in help give the foods longer shelf life. This is needed because sometimes foods have to travel long distances from the farm in the rural areas to the consumer in the city. While processed foods might be lacking in some vitamins, they give people the freedom to live in areas away from farms and the freedom to enjoy foods all year around, not just the prime growing seasons. Naturally, most foods do not need to have a long shelf-life as many foods were intended to be eaten right away. As humans migrated into regions that had harsh seasons and climates, they learned how to preserve foods available in summer for the winter time; they preserved meats by salting or smoking, and milk by fermenting into cheese. This was the beginning of the first processed foods. Additives in certain foods are also used to protect the food from bacteria growth. For example, the pasteurization of milk could be considered a type of food processing, yet it extremely beneficial to one’s health. Food processing can also provide fortification of important components within a certain food, like the addition of vitamin D within milk or the enrichment of folic acid in bread.
Pollan asserts that the main reason for the rise of unhealthiness in Americans is solely the fault of the diet. In order to prove his point, Pollan cites a study where Aborigines that had adapted the Western lifestyle were somehow cured of “western diseases” when they readopted their own lifestyle in the Australian wilderness. Pollan concludes that the reversion to a diet based on traditional foods cured the participants of all ailments. Pollan completely forgets one important aspect of the whole the study however. The Aborigines had readopted the hunter-gatherer lifestyle, not diet. Part of the cured ailments certainly had to do with the fact that the Aborigines were now working exhaustively for their food. Pollan never introduces the complete American lifestyle into his discussion of the Western diet. He doesn’t mention that reports indicate that as many as 50 million Americans are now living sedentary lives. He doesn’t mention that it is now common knowledge that if you consume more calories than you exert, you will eventually gain weight. While one’s diet is part of the problem, switching from processed foods to traditional foods will not help if one does not exercise accordingly. It is acknowledged within In Defense of Food that there are many different cultures within many different diets. Pollan contends that these diets are healthier because they feature traditional foods. However, couldn’t the people that eat these diets be healthier because they live different lifestyles? Maybe these different cultures aren’t as inactive as Americans. The focus cannot be on just the foods that these cultures consume but the complete lifestyles that these cultures live.
Michael Pollan is a big advocate of limiting omega-6 intake and a big supporter in the consumption of omega-3 fatty acids. Pollan uses the same scientific “nutritionism” approach that he states has been harmful to the American population with these two types of fatty acids. He does somewhat begrudgingly mention that fact within the book. However, the omega-3 fatty acids he clamors about for the middle part of the book may in fact be more harmful than he admits. The American Heart Association has recently refuted the claim that replacing the intake of omega-6s with omega-3s would lower risk of heart disease. The AHA went so far as to claim that “[reducing] omega-6 PUFA intakes from their current levels would be more likely to increase than to decrease risk for CHD (coronary heart disease).”
The intent of Michael Pollan’s manifesto is to encourage the reader to be more mindful of what he/she is eating. However, Pollan sets out to establish his goal by shining a bad light upon food science and the scientific process. Pollan is right about the unhealthiness of the American people but he is not completely right about the reasons behind the unhealthiness. Instead of bashing science, Pollan should have focused on improvements Americans can make in their lifestyle, not just their diet. One cannot just look at the ingredients of a lifestyle but instead look at the entire picture.
Works Cited:
American Psychological Association. "Sedentary Lives Can Be Deadly: Physical Inactivity Poses Greatest Health Risk To Americans, Expert Says." ScienceDaily 10 August 2009. 25 November 2009
Harris WS, Mozaffarian D, Rimm E, et al. "Omega-6 fatty acids and risk for cardiovascular disease: a science advisory from the American Heart Association Nutrition Subcommittee of the Council on Nutrition, Physical Activity, and Metabolism; Council on Cardiovascular Nursing; and Council on Epidemiology and Prevention." Circulation 119 (2009): 1-7. Web. 25 Nov 2009.
Pollan, Michael. In Defense of Food: An Eater's Manifesto. New York, NY: Penguin Books, 2009. Print.
No comments:
Post a Comment