In Defense of Food: An Eater’s Manifesto Book Critique Essay

McDonalds, Taco Bell, Chipotle, Sub modality, Jimmy Johns, Burger King, Chick-fil-A, Popeyes and countless(prenominal) other fast places atomic number 18 visited by thousands of Americans each day. Sadly, because of the convenience and price I am virtuoso of these tidy sum who give in to the endless fast nourishing options we cr polish offe in America today. Grocery shopping for about Americans is buying food that is the best bar aspect, or something you can get your moneys worth for. Quantity everyplace property is the mindset that a lot of people nurture in todays society and how can you blame them? With rising be in every aspect of living, a lot of people can non return to purchase organic, better quality food. Reading Michael Pollans concur In defence force of Food An Eaters Manifesto has surprisingly helped me in becoming a better consumer and to make healthier choices in what I release on a regular basis. As the title suggests, through fall out the book the au thor tries to get the reader to take common nose out glide slopees in improving the way they eliminate. The primary(prenominal) argument he points out is that having experience incorporated into the way we eat (especially the additives and chemicals put into foods) has vastly decreased the quality of our food and maturationd diseases and health complications in America.The Western pabulum comp a loss to other regions of the world is obviously non the best provender and it would be in the best interest of everyone to go back to a much handed-down food. Pollan also wants us to remember to Eat food, not in any case much. nearlyly plants. Interestingly enough while I was writing this publisher I was insobrietying Mango Passion Fruit Juice from Welchs and I thought I would read the ingredients because there is a element in Pollans book that says to not eat or drink things with ingredients you don not know or cannot compensate pronounce. My juice contained amply fruct ose corn syrup, filtered water, apple juice concentrate, mango puree concentrate, citric acid, natural and artificial flavors, sodium citrate, ascorbic acid, gum acacia, beta carotene (color), and ester gum. Most of the ingredients listed sound like they be from a science laboratory prove and not the ingredients needed to make simple fruit juice. Pollan discusses many methods and guidelines of how to eat healthy and what foods to avoid and to eat more of.Throughout the book the main arguments that I thought were the most important and that I agree with was that having science dictate what we deem is healthy or nutritious in our diet should be changed and ingest us goback to traditional diets, that foods argon essentially the sum of their nutrient parts, sustenancealism (the history of the isolated nutrients in our diet) is not a good approach to eating and the food manufacturing industry does not help the consumers health because all they really care almost is marketing their products and change magnitude yields, and that our mindset when eating and purchasing food should be quality all over quantity. The first main argument from In Defense of Food is the one that says having science dictate what we deem is healthy or nutritious in our diet should be changed and we should go back to traditional diets (versus a Western diet). An article by Livestrong.com compares a specific Asiatic diet versus a western one.The traditional Japanese diet includes mellisonant fish, rice, soy, vege skirts, fruits, and green tea, while the Western diet relies heavily on red warmheartedness, poultry, fried foods, and processed foods that are high in salt or added sugar (Campbell). Looking at the two diets from a broad situation and not from a narrow scientific view, it seems that the Japanese diet seems much more healthy to the consumer. Another few guidelines he lays out is that people should eat whole foods, purchase free range messages, buy from plum and local farme rs markets or even directly from the farmer, savor your meals at the table with friends or family, avoid foods your great grandmother would not recognize, and to grow a garden to get the most fresh, ripe produce. I whole-heartedly agree on all of these points. It seems that the most natural and close you can get your food from the original source itself, the better quality it will be. There are many health assumes and benefits about eating free-range meats, which include less cruelty inflicted on the animals, being able to obtain better nutrients from the meat itself, and to help local farmers.Compared to free range meats, conventional meats are supply a specific grain diet that increases quick weight gain (Walls-Thumma). There actually is a difference in the meat that comes from rapid weight gained animals from the slow free-range animals. Slow growing animals produce meat with lower lipid content and higher proportions of polyunsaturated fatty acids, make this type of animal a ttractive from a nutritionary point of view (Bianchi et al. 318). In todays world, science and technology are a part of our everyday lives and has improved our quality of life tremendously. With such improvements in our well being due to science, it seems silly that there would be a drawback to having too much science in ones life. However,with the increase in health conscious consumers, most food products that are currently sold have added ingredients in them to make them more nutritious. Jennifer L. Pomeranz writes that health and nutrition claims have been shown to increase consumers perception of healthfulness and willingness to purchase the products.However, studies indicate that these claims are direct and confusing, detract from the use of the Nutrition Facts Panel, generate inaccurate references and often set about healthiness for products that do not meet objective nutrition standards (2). secondment Maids Cranberry Apple Cocktail advertises that it is all natural but in actuality contains citric acid, while Thomas Hearty Grain English Muffins claim the muffins are made with the goodness of whole grain but is for the most part unbleached enriched wheat flour (white flour) (Center for Science in the Public Interest). This goes on with not eating anything your great grandmother would not recognize as food. Too many people are informed on diet by untrustworthy marketing with little knowledge of real science, and even scientists cannot agree with each other. One report would claim that saturated fats are bad while another claims they are healthy (Parker-Pope).Pollan writes that in result to the 1977 and 1982 dietary guidelines, animal scientists genetically bred for leaner pigs and beef. A pork cleaver could now compete with chicken and be advertised as having rock-bottom saturated fat intake. Genetically modified foods have been ever change magnitude in our supermarkets and grocery stores because they can be produced in greater quantities and at lower costs. Alcaraz, Bellows, and Hallman reports that by 2004 the U.S. accounted for 59% of the total area cropped with genetically modied varieties worldwide. This proportion could grow in the coming years due to the increasing rate of adoption of genetically modified crops by U.S. farmers (541). Several health concerns have been raised by researchers on genetically modified foods including not having enough research done on the long and short-term cause on our bodies, how the changes may mutate within our bodies, and the loss of natural seeds (taken from inbred wild plants) from being replaced by genetically modified seeds (Domingo 722).The ideology of nutritionalism (isolated nutrients in our diet) is not in any means a good approach to eating. Throughout the book there are several examples of how overall a particular diet is great for a group of people, but when the nutrients are isolated and added to otherfoods, the achieved health effects are not the same. sequent and essential nutrients cannot be considered to operate in isolation rather, they work in a dynamic, constantly changing milieu. Greater attention to all components of the diet and elaboration of their interactions should make possible specific and appropriate recommendations for the general cosmos and allow for recommendations tailored to specific subgroups or one-on-ones (Milner 1658).Also, the food manufacturing industry promotes assumed health advertising in order to market their products and increase yield. They have helped to justify foods such as vitamin enriched Diet Coke and bread with omega-3 fatty acid fatty acids (Pollan 53, 80). Similar to nutritionalism, reductionism also takes complex things and reduces them to simpler constituents. Reductionism as a way of understanding how certain foods or drugs work may be blameless and quite beneficial, but when it comes to actually practicing it by applying to the way we eat (reducing foods and plants to their most salient compo unds), can lead to problems. Nutrition scientists especially those involved with imparting health messages should adopt as their primary public health posture one which recognizes that the influence of diet on health and diseases likely results not only from the subtle effects of a vast multitude of individual food components but from whole foods and the interactions that occur among their constituents (Appel et al. 1417). By isolating nutritional elements from the whole foods package in which they originate, food manufacturers can convince us that their highly-processed and nutrient-poor products are heart healthy, rich in omega-3s, contain set trans fat, provide daily fiber requirements, or contain no cholesterol.Lastly, I thought that one of the more important arguments Pollan talked about in the book was how we should consume and purchase food that chooses the value of that product over the measuring rod of what we are purchasing. However, in todays world where our food str ategy is organized around quantity rather than quality, the more low quality food one eats, it seems that the more one wants to eat in a unsuccessful but highly profitable quest for the absent nutrient (Pollan 124). Farmers have doubled or tripled the yield of most major grains, fruits and vegetables over the finish half-century. American agricultures single-minded focus on increasing yields over the last half-century created a blind spot where additive erosion in the nutritional quality of our food has occurred. The concentration of a rangeof essential nutrients in the food supply has declined in the last few decades, with double-digit percentage declines of iron, zinc, calcium, selenium and other essential nutrients across a wide range of common foods. As a consequence, the same-size serving of reinvigorated corn or potatoes, or a slice of whole wheat bread, delivers less iron, zinc and calcium (Halweil 5).Understanding not just what to eat to obtain our nutrients in the best w ay possible, but in how to eat will help to improve peoples lives that are on the Western diet. Many health problems, avoidable deaths, and other negative factors that have come from the way they eat will be eliminated if we take into retainer the many valid points that Michael Pollan lists in his book. The few arguments Pollan listed that I was able to confirm from other sources were the ones that I thought were the most important but by no means were they the only ones.