In Defense of Food: An Eater’s Manifesto Book Critique Essay

McDonalds, wetback Bell, Chipotle, Sub elan, Jimmy Johns, Burger King, Chick-fil-A, Popeyes and countless(prenominal) other(a) provender places argon visited by thousands of Americans severally day. Sadly, because of the convenience and price I am peerless of these spate who give in to the endless fast feed options we pick erupt in America today. Grocery shop for closely Americans is buying nutrition that is the outflank bargain, or something you can wel fall your m wizardys worthy for. Quantity over calibre is the outlook that a lot of people require in todays baseball club and how can you blame them? With rising cost in every aspect of living, a lot of people can non afford to bribe organic, wear out gauge diet. Reading Michael Pollans loudness In Defense of feed An Eaters Manifesto has surprisingly helped me in be approach a come apart consumer and to make wellnessier choices in what I extinguish on a stiff basis. As the title suggests, throughout the withstand the author tries to get the reader to carry away park sense approaches in improve the way they eat. The main assertion he points out is that having science incorpo sum upd into the way we eat (especially the additives and chemicals put into foods) has vastly rock-bottom the whole step of our food and increased diseases and health complications in America.The Western provendering compargond to other regions of the universe of discourse is obviously not the scoop out sustenanceing and it would be in the beat out interest of everyone to go back to a more than(prenominal) tralatitious viands. Pollan also wants us to remember to Eat food, not in like manner much. Mostly plants. Interestingly enough duration I was writing this paper I was drink ining Mango Passion crop Juice from Welchs and I popular opinion I would read the ingredients because in that location is a section in Pollans sustain that says to not eat or drink things with ingredients you d on not know or cannot even pronounce. My juice contained high laevulose corn syrup, filtered water, apple juice concentrate, mango tree puree concentrate, citric acid, inborn and stylised flavors, sodium citrate, ascorbic acid, gum acacia, beta provitamin A (color), and ester gum. Most of the ingredients listed sound like they atomic number 18 from a science laboratory audition and not the ingredients needed to make simple fruit juice. Pollan discusses umpteen methods and guidelines of how to eat fit and what foods to avoid and to eat more of. end-to-end the book the main arguments that I view were the most important and that I keep with was that having science dictate what we deem is well or nutritious in our diet should be changed and prolong us goback to traditional diets, that foods argon essentially the sum of their nutrient parts, nutritionaryism (the history of the separate nutrients in our diet) is not a correct approach to ingest and the food manufacturing perseverance does not help the consumers health because all they really c ar close is marketing their products and increasing yields, and that our mindset when feeding and purchasing food should be quality over quantity. The first main argument from In Defense of Food is the one that says having science dictate what we deem is hale or nutritious in our diet should be changed and we should go back to traditional diets (versus a Western diet). An article by Livestrong.com compares a proper(postnominal) Asian diet versus a western one.The traditional Nipponese diet includes fresh fish, rice, soy, veget adequates, fruits, and green tea, date the Western diet relies heavily on red meat, poultry, fried foods, and processed foods that are high in salt or added sugar (Campbell). Looking at the two diets from a broad perspective and not from a narrow scientific view, it seems that the Japanese diet seems much more solely to the consumer. Another few guidelines he lays out is that people should eat undivided foods, bribe surrender function meats, buy from amusement park and local farmers markets or even right off from the farmer, savor your meals at the table with friends or family, avoid foods your great grandmother would not accredit, and to grow a garden to get the most fresh, ripe evolve. I whole-heartedly jeer on all of these points. It seems that the most natural and close you can get your food from the original source itself, the better quality it will be. thither are many health admits and benefits about eating unconfined meats, which include less cruelty inflicted on the animals, being able to obtain better nutrients from the meat itself, and to help local farmers.Compared to free range meats, conventional meats are release a specific grain diet that increases rapid weight gain (Walls-Thumma). There actually is a difference in the meat that comes from rapid weight gained animals from the deadening free-range animals. S let loose growing animals produce meat with lower lipid pith and higher proportions of polyun virtuous fatty acids, do this type of animal attractive from a nutritional point of view (Bianchi et al. 318). In todays world, science and technology are a part of our casual lives and has improved our quality of life tremendously. With much(prenominal) improvements in our well being out-of-pocket to science, it seems silly that there would be a drawback to having too much science in ones life. However,with the increase in health conscious consumers, most food products that are currently sold bind added ingredients in them to make them more nutritious. Jennifer L. Pomeranz writes that health and nutrition necessitates acquire been shown to increase consumers percept of healthfulness and willingness to purchase the products.However, studies indicate that these claims are delusory and confusing, detract from the use of the Nutrition Facts Panel, draw inaccurate references and often convey healthin ess for products that do not meet accusive nutrition standards (2). Minute Maids Cranberry Apple Cocktail advertises that it is all natural entirely in actuality contains citric acid, era doubting Thomas Hearty Grain English Muffins claim the muffins are made with the costlyness of whole grain merely is mostly uncoloured enriched wheat flour (white flour) (Center for Science in the Public Interest). This goes along with not eating anything your great grandmother would not recognize as food. Too many people are informed on diet by untrustworthy marketing with puny knowledge of real science, and even scientists cannot insure with each other. One report would claim that saturated fats are bad while another claims they are healthy (Parker-Pope).Pollan writes that in response to the 1977 and 1982 dietary guidelines, animal scientists genetically bred for leaner pigs and beef. A pork cleaver could now compete with chicken and be advertised as having reduced saturated fat intake. Genetically limited foods have been ever increasing in our supermarkets and food market stores because they can be produced in greater quantities and at lower costs. Alcaraz, Bellows, and Hallman reports that by 2004 the U.S. accounted for 59% of the total area cropped with genetically modied varieties worldwide. This proportion could grow in the coming years due to the increasing rate of adoption of genetically circumscribed crops by U.S. farmers (541). Several health concerns have been brocaded by researchers on genetically modified foods including not having enough research through with(p) on the long and short-term effectuate on our bodies, how the changes whitethorn mutate deep down our bodies, and the loss of natural seeds (taken from native just about the bend plants) from being replaced by genetically modified seeds (Domingo 722).The ideology of nutritionalism ( disjointed nutrients in our diet) is not in any means a good approach to eating. Throughout the book there are several examples of how overall a particular diet is great for a group of people, but when the nutrients are isolated and added to otherfoods, the achieved health effects are not the same. Nonessential and essential nutrients cannot be considered to operate in isolation rather, they realize in a dynamic, constantly ever-changing milieu. Greater attention to all components of the diet and elaboration of their interactions should make possible specific and appropriate recommendations for the general population and set aside for recommendations tailored to specific subgroups or individuals (Milner 1658).Also, the food manufacturing industry promotes false health advert in order to market their products and increase yield. They have helped to justify foods such as vitamin enriched Diet Coke and bread with omega-3 fatty acid fatty acids (Pollan 53, 80). Similar to nutritionalism, reductionism also takes interlinking things and reduces them to simpler constituents. Reductionism a s a way of understanding how certain foods or drugs work may be harmless and quite beneficial, but when it comes to actually practicing it by applying to the way we eat (reducing foods and plants to their most salient compounds), can pass by to problems. Nutrition scientists especially those involved with impartation health messages should adopt as their primitive public health perspective one which recognizes that the influence of diet on health and diseases likely results not only from the astute effects of a vast throng of individual food components but from whole foods and the interactions that occur among their constituents (Appel et al. 1417). By isolating nutritional elements from the whole foods package in which they originate, food manufacturers can convince us that their highly-processed and nutrient-poor products are heart healthy, rich in omega-3s, contain zero trans fat, provide effortless fiber requirements, or contain no cholesterol.Lastly, I belief that one o f the more important arguments Pollan talked about in the book was how we should consume and purchase food that chooses the apprise of that product over the amount of what we are purchasing. However, in todays world where our food system is organized around quantity rather than quality, the more low quality food one eats, it seems that the more one wants to eat in a unsuccessful but highly lucrative quest for the absent nutrient (Pollan 124). Farmers have doubled or tripled the yield of most major grains, fruits and vegetables over the live on half-century. American agricultures single-minded centralise on increasing yields over the last half-century created a blind spot where additive erosion in the nutritional quality of our food has occurred. The concentration of a rangeof essential nutrients in the food supply has declined in the last few decades, with double-digit role declines of iron, zinc, calcium, selenium and other essential nutrients across a wide range of common f oods. As a consequence, the same-size serving of pleasing corn or potatoes, or a slice of whole wheat bread, delivers less iron, zinc and calcium (Halweil 5).Understanding not just what to eat to obtain our nutrients in the best way possible, but in how to eat will help to improve peoples lives that are on the Western diet. Many health problems, avertable deaths, and other negative factors that have come from the way they eat will be eliminated if we take into consideration the many reasoned points that Michael Pollan lists in his book. The few arguments Pollan listed that I was able to validate from other sources were the ones that I thought were the most important but by no means were they the only ones.