SubscribeRediscover the Joy of Eating
This challenge put forth by Michael Pollan, author of The Botany of Desire and The Omnivore’s Dilemma. In a captivating excerpt from Pollan’s soon-to-be-released book “In Defence of Food: An Eater's Manifesto”, he raises these thoughts on the state of nutritional science and it’s impact on our health.
- Knowing what to eat used to be easy. The food industry and nutritionists have interfered with our diet, resulting in confusion - and an epidemic of food-related diseases.
- Eat food, not much. Mostly plants – Pollan’s simple advice when it comes to what to eat.
- For most of human history, the question of what to eat was navigated without expert advice. To guide us we had, instead, culture, which - at least when it comes to food - is really just a fancy word for your mother.
- Over the past several decades, Mom lost much of her authority over the dinner menu, ceding it to scientists and food marketers and, to a lesser extent, the government. Today in America, as in much of the western world, the culture of food is changing more than once a generation, which is historically unprecedented - and dizzying.
1. A multibillion-dollar food-marketing machine
2. The constantly shifting ground of nutrition science that, depending on your point of view, is advancing the frontiers of our knowledge about diet and health or just changing its mind a lot because it knows much less than it cares to admit.
- Sooner or later, everything solid we've been told about the links between our diet and our health seems to get blown away in the gust of the latest study.
- Humans deciding what to eat without professional guidance - something they have been doing with notable success since coming down out of the trees - is seriously unprofitable if you're a food company, a definite career loser if you're a nutritionist, and just plain boring if you're a newspaper editor or reporter.
- For the most important thing to know about the campaign to professionalize dietary advice is that it has not made us any healthier.
- Most of what we are consuming today is not food at all.
- How we are consuming food - in the car, in front of the television, and, increasingly, alone - is not really eating.
- As eaters we find ourselves increasingly in the grip of a nutritional industrial complex comprising well-meaning, if error-prone, scientists and food marketers only too eager to exploit every shift in the nutritional consensus.
3 Myths Inspired By Nutritionism:
1. What matters most is not the food but the "nutrient"
2. We need expert help in deciding what to eat (because nutrients are invisible)
3. The purpose of eating is to promote a narrow concept of physical health
A Different View of Diet
- Food is also about pleasure, about community, about family and spirituality, about our relationship to the natural world and about expressing our identity.
- That eating should be first and foremost about bodily health is a relatively new and destructive idea - destructive not just of the pleasure of eating, which would be bad enough, but paradoxically of our health as well.
- Nutritionism prefers to tinker with the western diet, adjusting the various nutrients (lowering the fat, boosting the protein) and fortifying processed foods rather than questioning their value in the first place.
- Various populations thrived on diets that were what we'd call high fat, low fat, or high carb; all meat or all plant. We are genetically well-adapted for many dietary situations – but not westernized diets.
Michael Pollan gives us hope that we can counteract the damage caused by the industrialization of our diets. Stay tuned for part II, when Pollan explains how.
This is really good. Finally someone has expressed the truth not only from scientific sources but more from a sociological and psychological perspective, can't wait to read part two and also the book.
"We are genetically well-adapted for many dietary situations – but not westernized diets." - Some of the things I see in the supermarkets these days makes you wonder the premise behind creating such products, can we even call some of these things food? I read a book a while back, 'The Metabolic Typing Diet' - William Linz Wolcott and Trish Fahey, in which pictures were shown of peoples teeth and facial bone structures and their diets. People with natural diets of locality looked very healthy and had straight teeth with well defined features. Those on a processed western diet looked somewhat different, to put mildly, and their teeth were far from perfect. I can't remember the name of the doctor who carried out these tests but he is very famous! Oh well, hope that insight was useful.
ReplyI was reading part of Pollan's book serialised in The Guardian last week, and what struck me most was his point that for centuries, the nutritional quality of food has NOT been people's central concern, his point that:
Food is "about pleasure, about community, about family and spirituality, about our relationship to the natural world and about expressing our identity."
Particularly for those of us struggling to lose weight, I think they're important words -- it's easy to become fixated on calories, grams of this and that, and end up eating a miserable meal that we consider "nutritionally sound" alone, rather than enjoying eating together with family and friends.
I know I'm guilty of this myself -- so tonight I'm going out for burger and chips at our local gastro-pub with my boyfriend, and I'm going to have a great time rather than count every last calorie! :-)
ReplyI think he has some valid points, but he is forgetting some important events. He is forgetting the agriculture boom that provided an overabundance of food in the western world.
He is forgetting the invention of the automobile, elevators, escalators, television, videogames, and many other inventions that have turned western society into a sedentary society.
He is forgetting the sleep deprivation and stress that most westerners suffer from because they are overworked and over-entertained.
This is a multifacted problem and his view is too narrow.
Replymy mom (grandmother) is 75 years old and gets tickled everytime something in the way of convenience food comes out and actually tastes like it used to when she was younger. this person is right in that food changes every generation- mom remembers having to bring an ice block up to her mother to keep for the next week to keep their food fresh. now they have freezers. she also remembers having to prepare just about everything (canned goods were around). Processed foods were just coming up, but mom says they dont make em like they used to- "we used to have to add our own salt, now they have so much i wish i could take some out"
ReplyThere's no putting the genie back in the bottle.
Man has eaten from the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil (Foods). We became cavalier, and thought we could match nature, or even best it.
And with this attitude, we were expelled from the Garden of Eating, forever. Billions of years of evolved food choice were forgotten forever.
But we still have that Tree's Knowledge. And having it, we are dependent on it. And we can use knowledge and experience to develop a new wisdom.
It's most important just to stay conscious, on our guard. And question everything (that we put in our mouths).
This isn't the Garden of Eating. We're on our own now. Just stay conscious, and we'll make it through somehow.
ReplyPollan, as usual, has some interesting points, and he got some things right.
One problem is that the whole "food-science" industry, and the manipulation and marketing of foods which have been engineered to get us to buy them already exists, and has for quite some time now, so many of the points he makes are not so simple.
One of the things I got from him a long time ago was when he said not to eat foods that your grandmother wouldn't recognize as food. For most of us, that works. Now, here, he says that it used to be that Moms made most of the food decisions and passed on the food knowledge. That would be great, except that in many cases, the moms only know the processed foods, and so that is what they would pass on.
If I listened to my own mother for food advice, and followed the examples she gave, I would be overweight and have Type II Diabetes by now. My mom is a product of the time that thought processed foods - which meant they didn't have to cook - were a gift from god, and so made up the primary part of the diet. It is a real rarity to see my mother eat something that is NOT processed, and she now prefers the taste of a store-bought, mass-produced cookie over something straight out of the oven and made with real, fresh ingredients.
So, while Pollan has some good ideas, for their practical application he is off in many ways.
And, like Dr. Kal said, he is ignoring the fact that our "culture" reflects much, much more than just our food choices, and that groups that are in fact very active can thrive and be healthy on just about any diet, provided they are getting enough of most micro- and macro-nutrients.
ReplyYeah, I do that too.
My low-carb bar food:
- unbreaded buffalo wings with the traditional tabasco/butter sauce
- celery and bleu cheese dressing on the side (depends on the bar)
- vodka on the rocks
I can get away with doing that once a week, and still lose the 1 or 2 pounds of fat.
I used to be able to do it twice a week, but I'm down to the last 10 pounds, which are proving much harder to lose.
ReplyMy mom heated up whatever came frozen in a bag or a box.
Grandma was Italian and grandpa was a diabetic. He died in his early 60's. Too many gnocchis and cannolis. His brother died young too, also of diabetes.
I'd be screwed if it wasn't for my own self-actualization, healthy doubt and heightening of consciousness.
Unfortunately, it's a crapshoot to develop those abilities. See "The Deer Hunter".
Three best friends from a small town suffer the same horrors of war. One is strengthened, one weakened and one destroyed completely.
Do all you can, to be the Robert DeNiro. May others follow that lead.
ReplyYou know, I have the same problem following my grandmother's footsteps - either of them! One was the Jello queen, and the cookie tin was NEVER empty, the other was a Crisco and Miracle Whip goddess.
Actually, I was lucky in that the pediatrician my mother took me to insisted on only farm fresh food - he kept telling her that if she fed me anything out of a box it would kill me. God bless the man! We ate fresh made food, (though we suffered the Crisco treatment even though we did have the bacon grease can!) and I didn't even get to taste a Twinkie until I was 12.
I have worked in the food industry designing labeling - and it is a truly horrifying job. You are required to make MSG look healthy and vibrant. I just couldn't live with it anymore and finally quit my job. I trust NOTHING that is manufactured. NOTHING! The horror stories I heard! But it all comes down to one thing and one thing only with the food companies - profit. They will happily put used motor oil and anti-freeze in a product if they could make it cheaper and get away with it. Why do you think there is so much MSG?! They get far more flavoring out if it per pound than plain old salt.
Please - do yourself a favor - spend the extra ten minutes a day cooking from scratch - if you have to get a food processor - you can cut a huge pile of veggies in 30 seconds with one of those! Don't use so-called convenience foods! They really don't save you all that much time and you have no idea what's in that stuff.
Veggies, clean meat, eggs, fish, good dairy, fruit, nuts, legumes and grains - herbs and simple spices - that's far more than enough. We quit buying boxed food the fresh stuff will get cheaper!!! Yay!
ReplyI used the example of the grandmother because it seemed to work better. But, truth be told, if I looked at both sides of the family, if I adopted my mom's mom's habits, I'd be in pretty bad shape too. She smoked like a fiend, always brought some sort of green jello marshmallow crap to family dinners, had diabetes and heart problems and died at age 70. Dad's mom, although being famous for her fried chicken, lived to be 81, and that side of the family has no diabetes and doesn't start developing heart problems until they're in their 60s. So I was thinking of that side of the family.
I am grateful for nutrition scientists and dietitians. Without people giving me food advice, without books to turn to, without blogs like this one, I would really be clueless, and my idea of "eating vegetables" would be nuking a bag of corn or peas and slathering it in margarine, or eating a salad of iceberg lettuce covered in ranch dressing! When I got pregnant with my first son 4+ years ago I started reading books and realized how absolutely clueless I was about what good nutrition really is. And, to be honest, I enjoy my food MUCH more now, because I know it tastes good and is doing good for my and my family's health.
ReplyKailash - I suppose you subscribe to low-carb/Atkins approach? Aren't you worried about all those saturated fats clogging up your arteries?
ReplyI have to agree with everyone else. Our food system is definitely sick, but eating in the past had its problems, too. Nutrition science was started in the first place because people were having problems with deficiencies. Now we know what causes pellagra, rickets, beriberi, and even some birth defects.
ReplyActually, I'm worried about omega-6 fat causing heart disease, which is a disease of inflammation.
I just did a pretty major study of the fat profiles on the different foods I eat, and am making some changes.
Vegetable oils:
flax oil - omega-3
coconut oil - neutral
everything else - omega-6
BTW, walnut oil is crazy omega-6. Whoever said to eat walnuts for omega-3's should be shot, because it's a 5:1 ratio. (We should be 3:2 ratio, aka 1.5:1)
Animals:
fish & mollusks - omega-3
crustaceans - neutral
grass fed ruminants - omega-6 2:1
everything else - omega-6 HELLA:1
I'm going to take the skin of chicken and seperate fat from stock before consuming. I'm going to drain all pork fat, from pork chops, and use canadian bacon instead of typical bacon with my eggs.
I'm going to eat much more fish and mussels (which are my favorite food, thank god.)
I'm going to use flax oil as a supplement (1 tbsp twice a day) and use it whenever an uncooked oil is called for (on raw or just-been-steamed vegetables). I'm going to use coconut oil for cooking, and get rid of the olive oil which is completely omega-6 in its polyunsaturated component.
I also learned that there is plenty of monounsaturated fat in terrestial animals, so no need to eat olive oil or even nuts. But I will eat nuts because I love the hell out of them and their minerals, and will consider that a part of my omega-6 intake.
I'm going to heighten my consciousness all over the board as far as "how much omega-3 have I had today (or will have later), and can I afford this much omega-6 to make a 1.5:1 ratio."
Our ancestors apparently lived by the water for a reason. It was to completely screw us over by evolving to an aquatic diet! Bastards.
My other post on this is here:
Replyhttp://www.t-nation.com/tmagnum/readTopic.do?id=1892090&pageNo=1
Many people seem to think that a diet means that you can never eat the foods that you really like. This is untrue, and it might only take a small change if your exercise routine and eating habits to see a big difference in your weight and health. It can be fun and it really can work.
ReplyThe food industry is all about money and it is these horrible companies that are slowly killing North American's. Sadly there is really no one to stop them and when teamed up with the pharmaceutical industry there is so much power to what we consume it is scary...
Replythanks
ReplyI also learned that there is plenty of monounsaturated fat in terrestial animals, so no need to eat olive oil or even nuts. But I will eat nuts because I love the hell out of them and their minerals, and will consider that a part of my omega-6 intake.
ReplyI'm going to take the skin of chicken and seperate fat from stock before consuming. I'm going to drain all pork fat, from pork chops, and use canadian bacon instead of typical bacon with my eggs.
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