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In Defense Of Food Essay

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In his book "In Defense of Food", Michael Pollan talks about how the invention of diets, and the rage of establishing nutritional parameters supported by scientific data; has caused our health to be affected, and created an uncontrolled need for healthy eating. For Pollan, the nutritional value that a food may have is much more than the sum of the individual nutrients it may have. I love food and I love to eat, but I never thought about importance of food, and how people see it. For me, the truth is that they did not matter; but now that I think about it, seeing it and analyzing it the way Pollan describes it, he is right. An obsession has been created around food and how it helps us to see ourselves and feel healthy, but the truth is that in most occasions what we believe is wrong. Nutritionism has changed the way we look at food, and it has influenced the agency that controls food, FDA, in its favor. They see food like the sum of the nutrients, and these nutrients can be counted. The reality is that throughout history we have been greatly confused, as Pollen mentions in his book, “This brings us to one of the most troubling features of nutritionism, though it is a feature certainly not troubling to all. When the emphasis is on quantifying the nutrients contained in foods (or to be precise, the recognized nutrients in food), …show more content…

The scientist Justus von Liebig, based on the theory that the main constituents of food, were protein, fat and carbohydrates; decided to create the first formula for babies, the formula contained cow's milk, wheat flour, malted flour and potassium bicarbonate. The doctors began to notice that the babies who consumed the milk created by Liebig, became ill, since they had not added vitamins, essential fats and amino acids. As Pollan says, “The entire history of baby formula has been the history of one overlooked nutrient after

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And they also knew how much to eat of a specific type of food. But now, standing “in our giant supermarkets, we feel more lost than someone standing in a forest ten thousand years ago” (Pollan 87). Right now, we’re not sure of which food is good to eat and which is not. Back then, simple rules helped maintain a level of understanding of what we were really eating. But thanks “to the food industry, we don’t even know what it is we’re eating” (Pollan 87).

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557 Words | 3 Pages

He provides tips on how to shop for and prepare healthy foods, and he encourages readers to start cooking from scratch using whole, natural ingredients. Despite the strengths of Pollan's argument, there are some limitations to his approach. For one, he tends to oversimplify the causes of the Western diet and the reasons why people continue to rely on processed foods. He also does not take into account the social and economic factors that make it difficult for many individuals and communities to access healthy foods.

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622 Words | 3 Pages

In the book The Omnivores Dilemma, by Michael Pollan he brings us on his journey with him through analyzing the model of “four meals” and how our thinking habits have changed the way we choose to eat and go about eating throughout the years and the role our society and the different expectations put on individuals has effected their thoughts and relationship to food. Each section and chapter of the book is broken up into different fads, opinions and findings that Pollan has found along his journey. Throughout the book his pre determined notions and thoughts around our society with food is challenged but also is backed up by different healthful and food activists like himself and how like minded people can differer in opinions and thoughts on how our society has changed involving

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In recent decade, the United States has seen supermarkets continuously get filled with packages labeled with things like “Low sodium” or “No Trans Fats.” Companies stick these labels on their food to match the current fads of what is good for you and what is not. In his essay Unhappy Meals, Michael Pollan advocates a return to natural and basic foods, and deplores nutritionism. Pollan argues that nutritionism does not actually tell people what is healthy or not, and that the only way to be sure you are eating healthy is to eat natural, fresh food.

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Relevance between Food and Humans with Rhetorical Analysis In the modern industrial society, being aware of what the food we eat come from is an essential step of preventing the “national eating disorder”. In Michael Pollan’s Omnivore’s Dilemma, he identifies the humans as omnivores who eat almost everything, which has been developed into a dominant part of mainstream unhealthiness, gradually causing the severe eating disorder consequences among people. Pollan offers his opinion that throughout the process of the natural history of foods, deciding “what should we have for dinner” can stir the anxiety for people based on considering foods’ quality, taste, price, nutrition, and so on.

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In turn, he provides his own rules for escaping the western diet as well as the idea of nutritionist set forth by scientists.   Then Pollan explains that scientific theories of nutritionist focus on individual nutrients rather than foods as a whole. He further goes on to refute this claim mentioning that these scientific theories contradict with one another. Pollan explains “the scientists who blame our health problems on deficiencies of [micronutrients] are not the same scientists who see a sugar soaked diet leading to metabolic syndrome and from there to diabetes, heart disease…” (Pollan, 421).

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However, this is not his only purpose in writing this essay. Additionally, Michael Pollan seeks to reassure the reader that this change will eventually occur and how it will happen. He argues that the food movement of our generation has been successful in changing popular consciousness. However, it has been struggling with shifting, in any impactful way, the “standard American diet,” which he purports has only gotten worse since the 1970s (Envision in Depth p.g

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Eating Healthy Michael Pollan, a health food spokesperson, made some interesting critiques on how he believes that there is an American paradox such as, “a notably unhealthy population preoccupied with… the idea of eating healthy” (Maxfield, 442). The idea taken from Michael Pollan’s quote is that he believes the definition of healthy eating has more to do with how it is “driven by a well-funded corporate machine” (Maxfield, 442). He is also claiming that the food industry is benefiting on our lack of knowledge on how to eat properly when it comes to being healthy. In her article Food as Thought: Resisting the Moralization of Eating, Mary Maxfield directly attacked Pollan’s claims, pointing out the hypocrisy in his words because he is sharing

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As Pollan explains, nutrients are not a new concept. In the early 1800’s William Prout discovered three nutrients essential to the human diet. Expanding on Prout’s research in 1842, Justus Von Leibig believed he had created a formula to replace food which—when tested on infants—failed. Later in 1912, Casimir Funk identified a set of micronutrients—called “vitamins”—believed to promote health.

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By comparing what is, to what could be possible if a food policy were to be established. In doing so, he is using a scare tactic for readers to visualize the reality that is impacting Americans today. Pollan emphasizes the need to prevent deaths caused by unhealthy eating as a priority. Pollan's goal is aimed at "a food system in which healthful choices are accessible to all and in which it becomes possible to nourish ourselves without exploiting other people or nature. " Pollan has earned respect by readers due to his concern for the greater good of Americans.

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Health and diet is an arising issue in America due to many factors and I believe each can be related to one another. In the book In Defense of Food it talked about how the average American had an average weight gain of twelve pounds since the 1960’s changing the majority spending from food to healthcare, which was ultimately caused by the industrialization of food products. Therefore, I would like to argue that health and diet have not been the issues most directly affected by the political shift of the post-1960’s period. Issues like war, riots, liberations, social issues, inequality, rights, counterculture, movements, environment the government, and the economy all intertwined to create a larger concern to this political shift. I believe

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1260 Words | 6 Pages

The Food Industry The food industry is the worldwide diversified industry which has to do with anything relevant with food from food education to marketing but principally the industry produces and or provides food to essentially all people on the planet. The only people who are excluded from the food industry are self-sustaining farmers and hunter-gatherers. It is one of the largest industries in the world and continues to grow because people need food and the population is increasing every day. In America, the food industry possesses such an important role, yet there are so many problems within the industry which is ruining the society as we know it.

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What is Processed Food? The term ‘processed food’ applies to any food that has been changed from its natural state in some way, either for safety reasons or convenience. Some foods need processing to make them safe, such as milk, which needs to be pasteurized to remove harmful bacteria. Other foods need processing to make them suitable for use, such as pressing seeds to make oil.

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Food is the heart of every culture. You can learn so much about a place simply by eating their food. You will see from the variety of spices used that Malaysia is a bit of a melting pot of cultures (SBS, 2008). Because of this, you will find robust Indian and Chinese influences in their cooking (Sim, 2017). Many of their dishes are also halal due to a large Muslim population (Raji, 2017).

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Food security is one of the greatest problems faced the world. There is fact said that food is enough for everyone in the world but because of the great changes which happened rapidly in the world the rate of food become less than before and it is difficult to secure it. Food security is very important to ensure that everyone has enough to eat and families can build their communities without worrying about securing their live. To meet global needs, food production must be doubled in the next years in order to solve many issues such as: starvation, malnutrition and associated health. According to The World Food Summit of 1996 defined food security as existing “when all people at all times have access to sufficient, safe, nutritious food to maintain

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