Decoding Pollan

A normal individual would identify food as any substance that composes carbohydrates, fats, proteins and water, or nutrients necessary for the sustenance of a human being .It is true, we have to admit that the age of nutrition governs us as evident from our well accepted definition of what we consider to be food. However Michael Pollan begs to differ on the topic of what he considers food. Pollan’s book In Defense Of Food presents a completely unique and counterintuitive definition of what he considers to be food .Yes, that’s counterintuitive since no one would be expected to support Pollan intuitively, knowing little about Pollan or without having read the book. Michael Pollan poses a question that hasn’t been asked for centuries. Can the food we eat actually be considered ‘food’? This rhetorical question -food for thought for a number of readers is the basis upon which Michael Pollan writes his book supporting his stance by targeting the authority over the dinner menu held by scientists and food marketers alike, arriving at the conclusion that most people today don’t eat what their ancestors ate in the past .He appropriately selects the title In Defense Of Food ,clearly defining the standards that he sets for any item to be even considered ‘food’ .Pollan holds the view that food nowadays requires defending from the food industry and nutrition science. Pollan seeks to create an interesting imagery of the actual reality we are living in and is the first to question the age of nutrition which is rapidly taking over modern day. His attitude throughout the book can be seen as one of deep lack of trust in modern science, evident especially throughout the first section of the book. He seeks to elaborate on this subject in the first part of the book ‘The Age Of Nutritionism’ by clearly explaining how that silent transition towards an age of nutrition actually came into being. Pollan seeks to highlight the theme that an individual should not only resort to healthy eating but should also eat to make himself happy and content as a result of it (Pg 8). He justifies his claim that modern day is adversely affected by nutritionist movements that instigate people to psychologically adapt themselves to the conditions of the present when a wave of ‘nutritionism’ governs an individual’s dietary patterns and daily food intake. According to Pollan in Part One, Chapter 9 titled Bad Science the concept of scientific reductionism - the split up of food into constituent nutrients ,serves to mislead us since food is actually very different from the nutrients that it contains. This claim proves to be logically accurate since people purchase a food product according to the label that it possesses without actually recognizing the cumulative effect of various nutrients. This shows that Pollan strives to differ from Science, relying on logical analysis of the matter rather than on basic facts that are offered by Nutrition Science

Nutritionism, the term originally coined by the Australian sociologist Gyorgy Scrints according to Pollan is ‘the official ideology of the Western diet’ .The explanation of nutritionism and its concepts in the first part of the book holds relations with Western culture, causing a smooth transition towards Part Two of the book which deals entirely with this matter . In Part Two, Chapter One, Pollan enhances his claim by noting the improvement in health conditions of aborigines when they were asked to live in their hometown ,a life without civilization, originally living in comfortable settlements ,an experiment conducted by the nutrition researcher Kerin O’Dea. Pollan actually notes the ingenuity of the experiment due to its simplicity and lack of relations with modern nutritionism. He applies the experiment to analyze the situation of obesity that overpowers the United States. He shuns nutritionism and Western diet, referring to western diet as the elephant in the room. By Chapter three a slow transition from anti-nutritionism towards advisory guidelines is witnessed when he asks the readers to think of food more as a relationship .The elegant transitions implemented by Pollan throughout his work make his stance more convincing since the readers are capable of connecting each Part of the book together. This gives of an impression of a skillful writer.

Pollan wants to help. He does this by not merely identifying the adverse effects of nutritionism but also by highlighting what can be done to retard this transition towards this phase of nutritionism. Pollan finally defines food, the famous definition we’ve been awaiting until this point in the book. In Part three Chapter two he provides an insight of what he had said earlier in the introduction. According to Pollan your great grandmother would never recognize what a Go Gurt portable tube is, so merely don’t eat it. In other words Pollan asks us not to eat artificial products that contain chemical additives .He goes on to explain why we should eat mainly plants ,especially leaves since a plant based diet produces fewer calories and protects you against chronic diseases. I couldn’t agree with Pollan any more, a vegetarian myself. Pollan’s advice may seem unrealistic for a number of people in the US, who have a purely meat based diet but his advice presents the option needed to change that. I feel Pollan includes a number of facts to make his argument effective enough and hence his advice binding. It is clear that the primary audience towards which this book is directed, is the average American person. Hence he goes on to ask readers to eat more like French, Italian ,Japanese or Indian people. He supports his statement by saying that they eat according to the rules of a traditional food culture.I feel that Pollan should be informed of the reality that exists: Asian food is not necessarily healthy ,in fact it is sometimes more unhealthy than American food.

Overall I feel that Pollan presents a firm argument clearly advising his readers what to eat and what not to eat. Pollan’s varied tone, literary usage and extreme stances seem to add an element of interest to the book. A reader can be satisfied if he just reads the first three phrases of the book: Eat food, Not too much, Only Plants.