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....-Michael Pollan
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● The Omnivore’s Dilemma. Author Michael Pollan advises, “Don’t Buy Any Food You’ve Ever Seen Advertised.”
Michael Pollan, one of the nation’s leading thinkers and writers on food. The author of several books about food, including The Botany of Desire, The Omnivore’s Dilemma, and In Defense of Food: An Eater’s Manifesto, warns of the processed food industry’s co-option of “sustainability” and its vast spending on marketing, Pollan advises to be wary of any food that’s advertised.
"The CDC, Centers for Disease Control, estimates that of the $2 trillion we’re spending on healthcare in this country, $1.5 trillion is for the treatment of preventable chronic disease. Now, that’s not all food, because you have smoking in there, too, and alcoholism. But the bulk of it is food." -Michael Pollan
"The most salient point is simply, [we] are not going to be able to tackle either the healthcare crisis or climate change unless [we] look at our food system. In the case of climate change, food is responsible for about a third of greenhouse gases, the way we’re growing food, the way we’re processing it and the way we’re eating. And the healthcare crisis... ...we are not going to be able to reform healthcare, which depends on getting the cost of healthcare down, without addressing... ...the catastrophe of the American diet. So we need to address it. It’s really the shadow issue over these other two issues." -Michael Pollan
omni·vore |ˈämnəˌvôr|
noun
an animal or person that eats food (or foodstuff)
of both plant and animal origin.
ORIGIN late 19th cent.: from French, from Latin omnivorus ‘omnivorous.’
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food·stuff |foōd·stəf|
noun
A substance with some foodlike qualities that can be used or prepared for use as food, but generally lacks the health benefits of real food.
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On Democracy Now February 13, 2008 consuming today is not food but “edible food-like substances.” His previous book, The Omnivore’s Dilemma: A Natural History of Four Meals, was named one of the ten best books of 2006 by the New York Times and the Washington Post. His latest book, just published, is called In Defense of Food: An Eater’s Manifesto.
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You say potātō,
I say genetically modified foodstuff.
I agree with Michael Pollan, in that what most Americans are consuming today is not food but “edible food-like substances.” I've often said that we shouldn't even have to have the term "health food", since food by definition should already be healthy. Unfortunately, the categorizes have been reversed, where pancakes, potatochips, and cheeseburgers are considered to be real food, while carrots and celery are considered to be rabbit food, hence not real food.
I also agree that thinking about food in terms of Nutrition defined by "the experts" can be misleading. Although, I think if we redefine nutrition to mean whole organic foods (usually plants) then it does serve a purpose. Most people that I've talked to don't really care that much about nutrition, maybe for the reasons discussed by Michael Pollan. Maybe people intuitively know there's a problem with nutritional science, so they ignore the whole idea of whether or not, what they're consuming is "good or bad" for them. Or, they just don't care because culture and tradition trump nutrition almost every time. Every time, that is, until they merge, which they increasingly are. But right now "nutrition" is the dysfunctional way, in which we make these health decisions about our eating habits, if we make these decisions at all.
My opinion varies from Michael Pollan a little on a small point, where he claims that people are eating or shopping in an effort to advance their health. This is true to a degree, but from my experience, people still eat according to how and where they were raised. It's just that, culture has been taken over by capital. It is the influence of big business on culture and nutritional science that is the problem. Michael Pollan recognizes this point. The difference in my opinion from his is simply that he sees this as a turning away from culture and pleasure, where I see it as a cultural shift, and manufactured wants replacing genuine pleasure.
Most people still do eat according to their culture, but the dominant cultures in the U.S. are increasingly influenced and determined by unregulated market forces. Yet, another example of what deregulated markets should not determine. Maybe the health of our bodies is in direct proportion to the health of our economic system. With regulations that only protect capital and not consumers, seeds that don't reproduce, and genetic modification, now not even our fruits and vegetables are safe. Fortunately, there's a growing resistance to this trend and the only question is whether or not we will be informed and act in time.
Also see:
● Campaign against Genetically Modified Organisms
● Monsanto: Planting Local Seeds, Sprouting Global Effects
 | ✿ > ☠ foodstuff ... YOU SAY TOMĀTŌ, I SAY RĒSIST ! ...or genetically modified edible food-like substance. |
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