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Maxfield Eating Healthy

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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 …show more content…

She believes that it is better to trust the body and listen to what the mind is saying in terms of what is needed. She believes that there is too much moralization going on towards food, which is why people mostly think too much food is bad and prefer lesser amounts in terms of health. She states that HAES (Health at Every Size) nutritionists, specifically naming Michelle Allison “suggest that adult humans will eat in a way that is good for them, given the opportunity”. People will mainly eat what they believe will benefit them in terms of health. In conclusion, Mary Maxfield’s major point in her essay, Food as Thought: Resisting the Moralization of Eating, is that instead of limiting what is eaten, the focus should be on meeting the needs of the body. Moralization of food is only going to be detrimental because in a way, it makes something so simple, such as eating, more complicated than it should be. Health and weight are not correlated, although many believe it is. As Maxfield stated at the end of her essay, “Trust yourself. Trust your body. Meet your

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Michael Pollan’s Escape from the Western Diet connects well with what Mary Maxfield says in her article. Both Pollan and Maxfield talk about the ways that dieting is taking over American people’s healths and causing them to become even unhealthier. In Mary Maxfield’s argument she talks about how people believe everything that diet industries say, even though they know that the information they give you is false. This connects really well with what Michael Pollan talks about in his article, which is that people know that these theories that are used for the Western diet are not accurate, but yet they still decide to use the Western diet to help them become healthier.

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In Michael Pollan’s essay “Escape from the Western Diet,” he directly to Americans about the western diet and why he believes they need to escape from it. The reason Americans should escape the western diet is to avoid the harmful effects associated with it such as “western diseases” (Pollan, 420). To support his view on the issue, Pollan describes factors of the western diet that dictate what Americans believe they should eat. These factors include scientists with their theories of nutritionist, the food industry supporting the theories by making products, and the health industry making medication to support those same theories. Overall, Pollan feels that in order to escape this diet, people need to get the idea of it out of their heads.

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Junk food is responsible for the growing rate of obesity. This is outlined by David freedman in his article of “How junk food can end obesity.” David Freedman has credited the “health-food” motion, and followers of it along with Michel Pollan. Freedman claims that if the America desires to stop the obesity epidemic, or at least reduce its effects, they must shift to the fast meals and processed meals enterprise for assist, now not the “health-food” movement.

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“Don’t Blame the Eater” by David Zinczenko is an article that argues that the fast-food industry is at fault for the rising rates of obesity and health care, not the consumers because they advertise and market cheap meals without mentioning the negative nutrition information. It is in some ways no different than the tobacco industry, in which they sell cheap and unhealthy food without offering information that is easy to read and comprehend. Zinczenko claims that “Fast-food companies are marketing to children a product with proven health hazards and no warning labels” (464). The author insists that the fast-food industry is primarily at fault for the health problems related to obesity in the United States. This assertion seems legitimate and

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In “What You Eat Is Your Business,” Radley Balko tackles the issue of who is responsible for fighting obesity. Balko argues that the controversy of obesity should make the individual consumers culpable for their own health and not the government (467). As health insurers refrain from increasing premiums for obese and overweight patients, there is a decrease in motivation to keep a healthy lifestyle (Balko 467). As a result, Balko claims these manipulations make the public accountable for everyone else 's health rather than their own (467). Balko continues to discuss the ways to fix the issue such as insurance companies penalizing consumers who make unhealthy food choices and rewarding good ones (468).

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In the article “Food as Thought: Resisting the Moralization of Eating” by Mary Maxfield published in 2012 states that people’s knowledge about health, is more so based on culture or origin. Rather than what is actually healthy. She also claims that as a culture “we no longer discuss healthy eating without also discussing healthy weights. Due to Maxfield’s claim that as a culture, we do not make conscious dieting decisions about healthy foods and normal weight, I disagree with that for a few reasons. There are many people in America that are health conscious, and some people truly have their own knowledge about what is healthy weight and a healthy diet.

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Americans, along with Pollan, have concluded that diet, health, and weight are linked together. Maxfield doesn’t think so and tries to defend her argument by quoting law professor and journalist Paul Campos’s claims, “’lies about fat, fitness, and health…not coincidentally serve the interest of America’s $50-billion-per-year diet industry (Maxfield, 444)’” as well as activist Kate Harding who observed that “’if you scratch an article on the obesity crisis, you will almost always find a press release from a company that’s developing a weight loss drug…(Maxfield 444)’” She further defends herself, again by going by what Campos and Harding claim, when she dumps the concept of using the body mass index (BMI) tool, which is widely used by medical professionals to determine a person’s health risks based on his or her body fat

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What does it take for people to notice the poison they are being fed? Is it the alarming death toll of obese people, or the deaths of people who suffer major health issues from consuming from these corrupted processed food companies? America has a problem, people always find a way to make products bigger and inexpensive to consumers. The producers try to make it affordable to the everyday person so they will consume the product, and since its hyper palatable they’ll come back for more frequently. Income has played an astonishing role in people’s health and diet.

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In “How Junk Food Can End Obesity,” by David H. Freedman, he claims that processed foods can help fix the obesity crisis in a more realistic manner, rather than whole-some foods. The popular opinion emphasizes whole-some foods because they aren’t informed about the similitude between processed and unprocessed foods. The essence of the essay is that people believe processed foods are bad and unhealthy for us, therefore whole-some foods are highly recommended for the health of an individual. Freedman mentions many prominent authors who wrote books on food processing, but the most influential voice in the food culture Freedman makes a point of is, American journalist, Michael Pollan. The media and Michael Pollan indicate that everything should be replaced with real, fresh, and unprocessed foods, instead of engineering in as much sugar, salt, and fat as possible into industrialized foods.

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According to a study conducted by the CDC, that Americans are getting fatter and fatter every year. That more than one third (36.5%) of U.S. adults is obese. In contrast to what the medical community says, fast-food giants’ fights back by hurling propagandas of their own “There 's nobody at McDonald’s shoving fries in your mouth.” This was noted by McDonald’s own Chief Nutritionist Bonnie Modungo. Although they do have a point that they do not force the consumer to patronize their products, Fast-food restaurant still have the moral obligation to provide enough information to the public about the contents of the food they market.

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