Analysis Of Michael Pollan 's Defense Of Food

In the book In Defense Of Food: An Eater's Manifesto, the first three chapters; "From Foods To Nutrients", "Nutritionism Defined" and "Nutritionism Comes To Markets" author Michael Pollan discusses how scientists views on foods have changed, the definition of Nutritionism and how Nutritionism moved to markets. In the first chapter,"From Foods To Nutrients" Pollan discusses how scientists have changed their view on whole foods over the 1980's as well as years through World War II and instead focuses more on macronutrients; protein, fat, and carbohydrates. Since vitamins helped in 1912, this contributed to the changing view about whole foods. Chapter two,"Nutritionism Defined" Pollan introduces the definition of Nutritionism as an ideology and

Pollan uses pathos to elicit emotion in the reader towards the argument to reveal more about the issue. He tells of the horrific consequences from eating the Western diet. The pathos also creates fear in the reader to hopefully convince him that he should change his diet. He uses statements such as “the American diet...has changed in ways that are making us increasingly sick and fat. Four of the top ten causes of death today are

In the introduction to “The Omnivore’s Dilemma, Our National Eating Disorder,” author Michael Pollan argues that many American’s in today’s contemporary society have lost touch with where their food comes from and which foods actually are nutritious. We have become an unaware society and allowed our daily simple routine of eating healthy meals to become a complex mess of fear for being unhealthy. I feel that Pollan is making an effective argument in stating his beliefs and factual knowledge on the confused relationship our nation has with food by using factual knowledge and evidence to persuade the audience that he is credible.

When Pollan's states to eat food as his first rule, he means exactly that, eat real food. While this statement seems so obvious that it shouldn't need to be a rule, Pollan explains how we are trapped by the Western diet and that access to real food over highly processed food products is harder then it seems. "Taking food's place on the shelves has been an unending stream of foodlike substitutes, some seventeen thousands new ones every year"(Pollan 147). For those that don't know, the Western diet is a term coined to describe our pattern of eating, which is characterized by "lots of processed foods and meat, lots of added fat and sugar, lots of everything except fruits, vegetables, and whole grains"(Pollan 89). Using deductive reasoning,

He probes them to learn the what, where, and how of dinner – knowing what is going into the body, knowing where that food came from, and knowing how that food was made. By first knowing what is being consumed, people can make better informed decisions about their purchases. Nutrition, or lack thereof, is a key component in the battle against obesity. Food giants are hoping to hide the often unnecessary filler present in their products by use of dodgy claims and socially engineered advertisements. In general, most consumers probably couldn’t say where their food came from. This usually boils down to the fact that shoppers typically don’t think about it. Breaking this reliance on mass-grown foods is the second part of Pollan’s proposition. The third and equally important element is how the food is produced. More specifically, Pollan is concerned whether or not the food has been produced in a sustainable manner. Preserving the biodiversity of food, maintaining fertile land for future generations, and ensuring consumers receive food that does not compromise health are all factors of sustainability. Without informed consumers, what, where, and how will continue to be unanswered questions. Whether it is for nutritional or ethical choices, a particular food’s history is something that needs to once again become common

Michael Pollan's In Defense of Food: An Eater's Manifesto is an eye-opening analysis of the American food industry and the fear driven relationship many of us have with food. He talks in depth about all the little scientific studies, misconceptions and confusions that have gathered over the past fifty years. In the end provide us with a piece of advice that should be obvious but somehow is not, "Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants." He follows the history of nutritionism and the industrialization of food, in hopes to answer one question….. how and when "mom" ceded control of our food choices to nutritionists, food marketers and the government.

Apart from healthcare issue, the country has adopted the fast-moving life style, which has pushed most of our citizens to succumb to obesity as a result of fast foods. In fact, a recent report by the UN has ranked the United States as the most obese country in the world. Parramore (2012) outlines that, “Obesity is currently being considered as a national crisis in the United States and that it contributes 100,000 to 400,000 deaths per year. Statistics at the CDC and Prevention in 2010 indicate that 35.7% of the American adult is obese.” Many input trends exist in the American society, “First and foremost, people are highly used to fried foods, sugary drinks, and processed meats among others. There is also the sedentary lifestyle that has been adopted by many,” (Huffington Post, 2013). In fact, most of us love relaxing without exercise and too much television watching. These are some of the factors that contribute to obesity. The result is health complications problems such as diabetes, stroke, and heart disease just to mention but a few. These affect the longevity of life.

The essay “Eat Food: Food Defined,” from Michael Pollan’s 2008 book In Defense of Food was written to address the American general public about the food industry. Pollan focuses on relatable topics as examples, such as family, common food items, and common belief that everyone wants to be healthy. The essay brings across Pollan’s point by establishing his credibility, explaining why this is important to us, and telling us how to react to the given facts. Pollan makes the readers inquire how we define food by drawing our attention to the importance of examining our food before eating it.

When it comes to food in today's day and age it correlates with being convenient, fast, and budgeting because people are usually on the go. Generally, people are used to a grab and go routine between work, school, and a family life. Government regulations such as the FDA and other laws given to factories and supermarkets are being trusted to keep the population safe from any food dangerous; therefore, people don’t do their own research on the foods they’re serving. Authors Pollan and Schlosser in Food Matters, allows individuals to analyze and think about the intake of foods used in their daily life. Pollan shares some rules to be considered when shopping for foods in the supermarket. If people read in detail the theories and information given

Over the last several decades, the diet of society has been continually changing. This has resulted in different formulas for nutrition and the proper portions of foods that must be consumed. To fully understand the various arguments requires looking at numerous viewpoints. This will be accomplished by focusing on Michael Pollan's Escape from the Western Diet in contrast with Mary Maxfield's Food as thought: Resisting the Moralization of Eating. These views will highlight how diet and nutrition is based upon individual opinions. This is the focus of the thesis.

Pollan goes on to suggest that there are many different approaches to the food movement, and although the movement seems splintered and “sometimes the various factions […] work at cross purposes,” the author uses some highly credible sources to show that despite its many offshoots, a cohesion of the masses has taken root in the food movement (par.11). The author uses big names like Troy Duster, who is a renowned research sociologist from Northwestern University, to help clarify his point. Troy duster states that “viewed from a middle distance, then, the food movement coalesces around the recognition that todays food and farming economy is unsustainable, […] that it can’t go on in its current form much longer without courting a breakdown of some kind.” (Par. 13). The author then clarifies his point but stating that “the food system consumes more fossil fuel energy than we can count on in the future […] and emits more greenhouse gases than we can afford to emit.” (Par. 14). Pollan uses his sources as an ethical appeal to the readers, which effectively connects the reader to the article and its

What Pollan studies, interestingly, is something that escapes most of us. The author goes above and beyond previous endeavors to find out where the food we see in supermarkets is truly born. What he finds may be shocking to most, and Pollan states, without a doubt, that everything boils down to corn. The meat we see is corn, for instance, because

In the book, The Omnivore’s Dilemma, by Michael Pollan, Pollan introduces some very interesting ideas and positions relating to the how and what we eat. Pollan poses the questions: Is America eating the right kind of food? Is what we are eating healthy? And, where is our food coming from, how is it treated, and what is in the food we eat? Throughout the book Pollan places his own argument alongside the answers to these questions. He moves the reader to reflect on the evidence presented about eating organic foods rather than processed foods. Pollan also puts forth a compelling, and strong argument that contains ideas, like food is of higher quality and has better taste when it is not

Food, has a specific meaning to all of us; for some it is a form of nourishment, for others it is a cultural act,

Eating vegetables and drinking milk three times a day is not a common practice in the United States. In fact, pizza for breakfast has taken a liking more so than an old diet such as this one. Imagine a world in which all that is eaten is what books and magazines say are “good for us”. Are we really that far off? Through various media ranging from religious text to the modern magazine and television representation, America’s dietary revolution has been on a rollercoaster of change for centuries – a rollercoaster that has a destination nowhere to be seen.