What Is The Chapter Summaries In Defense Of Food Pollan

In chapter one (Escape from the Western Diet) of Michael Pollans book In Defense of Food, Pollan informs people about what he believes needs to happen in order to change the health issues that many people in American are facing today. Pollan begins the chapter by discussing the many different scientific theories that have been presented in response to the western diet and the western diseases that follow. He informs the readers that many of the theories conflict with one another and that even scientist gravitate towards simple one part solutions that many time fail to see the bigger picture of the problem. At this point in his book Pollan (2008) states one of his many thesis’s that, “People eating the Western diet are prone to complex of chronic

He goes on to insist that the medical community just like the food industry also make money off of theories. New theories mean new drugs, treatments, procedures, and let’s be real here the medical industry does not make money off of healthy people it makes money off of sick people. When using this argument Pollan (2008) refers to Walter Willett who said, “You would not expect such a medical community to be sensitive to the cultural or ecological dimensions of the food problem-and it isn’t. We’ll know this has changed when doctors kick the fast-food franchises out of the hospitals.” (pg. 142) Denis Burkitt presents and answer to the question of what to do to stop the western diet. He says that the human race should go back to the diets and lifestyles of our ancestors or in other words go back to the bush. Pollan however disagrees with Burkitts drastic solution and instead agrees with Gyorgy Scrinis’s (2008) solution to the problem, “the most important fact about any food is not its nutrient content but its degree of processing.”

To refresh In Michael Pollan’s (2008) book, In Defense of Food, Pollan maintains that, “…instead of worrying about nutrients, we should simply avoid any food that has been processed to such an extent that it is more product of industry than of nature.” (pg. 143) Basically Pollan is warning people that they need to eat whole foods no matter what, because processed foods no matter their nutrient content are bad for you. I agree with Pollan when he says that we need to not eat processed foods that are more industry then nature, but I still do not agree that have whole foods is more important than the nutrient content of the food. Think about it this way almost anything sold in the supermarket these days is considered processed for example even flour is processed. Flour is processed because flour is made of wheat and other grains but in order to make “flour” those grains need to be ground thus processed. On the other side of the issue Pollan is talking about things like cheese in a can that is not even cheese. These are over processed foods that are more man made then naturally existing. So yes I do agree that we should not eat things that are overly processed because we were never made to eat them. But I must again state that I do not agree that have whole foods is more important than