Summary Of Michael Pollan's Unhappy Meals

Can you recall the last time you ate real foods? In the modern society, foods are being overly complicated; processed foods are taking over the market. Is this surprising? In fact, human beings can adjust themselves to the changing environment quickly; they can adopt new changes without self-awareness. For example, smart phones are out for less than ten years, but almost everyone has it now in such a short time span. Thus, it is not a surprise when it comes to the situation that real foods are fading away on the dinner tables. In response to this situation, Michael Pollan writes an essay titled “Unhappy Meals” to advise his readers to “Eat [real] food. Not too much. Mostly plants” (Pollan 1). This claim holds effectively in Pollan’s essay because

To begin with, Pollan believes that people should consume food instead of nutrients because nutrients are being overvalued in the current society. However, many people want to maintain health through their diets. As Hippocrates’s famous injunction states, “Let food be thy medicine” (Pollan 3). Since 1980, many experts are recommending to replace the idea of foods with nutrients (3). Consequently, more people want to obtain the essential nutrients from their daily meals. The rise of nutritionism is because replacing foods with nutrients makes consumers’ life easier when they no longer need to take vitamin pills. For example, in an essay “The Seeds of Gold” the author Peter Pringle introduces a GMO, the golden rice, that is invented from the modification of regular rice’s gene so it can contain more Vitamin A (Pringle 19). Consuming the nutrients from the golden rice can effectively help with Vitamin A deficiency. Critics argue that Pollan’s argument is flawed for this reason, but they fail to envision the negative effects of the overly emphasizing nutrients in a diet. As this trend continues, “the typical real food has more

Consuming nutrients instead of foods is a new trend. Since it might not necessarily benefit your health, do not follow this trend blindly. Eat real foods so you do not need to worry about any negative long term effects. Lastly, have a garden if possible because it is advantages to your health in the long run. The current society is fast-paced, especially in the world’s major cities such as New York City. New products come out all the time. Although advertisings make them look very attractive, do not go crazy over them. Remember to take some time go back to simplicity to think about your heading direction so you will not get lost with the luxury around you. In order to make your life more meaningful, you spend time on your real interests rather than just following the