Summary Of Escape From The Western Diet

Do-able Ideal
Americans are spending more and more money on exercising and eating right in an effort to lose weight and get healthy, unfortunately, in reality, we are getting fatter and fatter every year. In his article “Escape from the Western Diet”, Michael Pollan argues that we need to stop eating the western diet to improve our overall health and leave the industrial food system. He introduces his idea with a three part rule “Eat food. Not Too Much. Mostly Plants.”(424) Throughout his essay he goes in-depth on each part explaining what he means and how to implement it in our daily lives. While most Americans try to eat healthy food choices, we need to take more extreme measures than we are currently attempting. Pollan’s motto of “Eat food.

Shoppers might object, claiming they do not have the means to pay for organic, ecological or culturally available food. They might point out some organic food is more expensive like milk, a staple to our diet. If a shopper bought one gallon of organic milk for $5.99 at Trader Joe’s, a popular Whole Foods chain store, each week for a year instead of a gallon of regular milk for $1.98 at Kwik Trip, a local gas station, they would be spending $208.52 more a year on milk alone. Although I understand that it can be a little more expensive, I still maintain that there are ways to make shopping in a more healthy way, cheaper. To starting with, we could purchase in-season produce because out-of-season is more expensive, due to shipping and storage costs. Next, we could look for coupons for the organic food that is being purchased. Taking about five minutes on the internet, I found a list of coupons for organic foods; such as $1.25 off of organic valley cheese, $1 off organic valley half and half, $0.75 off organic valley eggs and $1.25 off when you buy two gallons of organic valley

Unfortunately, for most people this trust has been broken and without a major industrial overhaul, we cannot make the choices we so desperately need. Pollan agrees when he writes, “This sounds like a sensible rule of thumb until you realize that industrial processes have by now invaded many whole foods too”(424). The essence of his argument is that even if food label says the food within is healthy, it is not always true. The food was probably industrially processed, making it a less whole food than we think. Basic things like apples are processed and we, as consumers, do not always know it. If Pollan is right about whole food being processed as I think he is, then we need to reassess the popular assumption that whole food is really healthy. When in the grocery store, we are not thinking about what food has genetically modified organisms instead we are looking for food that will feed our family and what we can reasonably afford to purchase. It is time to start thinking about the GMO’s that are hidden in all our food from apples to lip stick, they are everywhere. Let’s look at the process of an apple: it starts with a genetically modified seed that then grows to be a tree where pesticides are spread on and around it to keep the weeds and bugs away. Once the apples are larger enough to be