During this year, I am going to dedicate Wednesdays to talking about a portion of the book I pick out for each month. Today, I want to review and discuss a portion of Michael Pollan's book, "In Defense of Food". (The introduction and first five chapters of part one: "The Age of Nutritionism".
Pollan immediately starts off his book with a simple rule that everyone should follow: "Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants." While this rule gives off the impression of being incredibly simple, it is in fact more difficult to understand and follow than you may think. Pollan urges us to rethink our meals and our concepts of food. One important rule he stresses is to avoid foods with health claims. This indicates that it is an edible food-like substance, a product of the industrialization of food, but not really food.
The culture of food is constantly changing throughout our lifetimes, often fueled the food industry and nutrition scientists and usually with no benefit to the consumer. Pollan believes that due to the food industry and nutrition science, we are made to believe that the individual nutrients that make up foods are more important than the foods themselves, that we need expert help deciding what to eat because scientist are the only ones who understand the nutrients, and that the purpose of eating is for physical health alone. The cultural traditions of food being about pleasure, community, family, spirituality, our relationship to the work, and an expression of our identity is fading away with these health claims and "scientific discoveries" taking the stage. Instead of eating real foods, we are consuming foods that are made to look and taste real, but that are actually made with a scientific formula to be "better" for us. But where have these better foods left us? Interestingly enough, Pollan tells us that the "chronic diseases that now kill most of us; coronary heart disease, diabetes, stroke, and cancer, can be traced directly to the industrialization of our food: the rise of highly processed foods and refined grains; the use of chemicals to raise plants and animals in huge monocultures; the superabundance of cheap calories of sugar and fat produced by modern agriculture; and the narrowing of the biological diversity of the human diet to a tiny handful of staple crops, notably wheat, corn, and soy." (Pollan, 10) It is incredibly important, therefore, for us to escape this Western Diet/way of thinking and to return back to our old ways of eating and thinking about food.
However, in order to escape Nutritionism, it is important for us to understand what it is and where it came from. During the period of the industrialization of food, nutrients pushed food aside in the beliefs and cultural meaning of eating. This was further advanced when organizations and governmental offices began to embrace hypotheses dealing with specific nutrients and their effects. Nutritionism was then born from these ideologies and came to fruition in the late 1900s. Pollan explains that Nutritionism assumes that foods are essentially the sum of their nutrient parts and that the whole point of eating is to maintain and promote bodily health. Thus, nutrients are divided into separate groups: the good ones and the bad ones. Nutritionism desperately needs to have the existence of an evil nutrient in order to have something to "save" us from. According to Pollan, Nutritionism justifies processed foods by implying that using food science, we can create foods than are more healthy than the real thing. One example of this way of thinking gone wrong is the butter to margarine. By taking the "bad" nutrients out of butter and then blasting it with hydrogen, scientists actually created trans fats, fats more dangerous than the original evil nutrient saturated fats. Finally, Pollan reveals to his readers that scientists were able to create processed foods so similar to the real thing that the government allowed them to sell the products without having to claim that is an imitation product. This creates another problem for us, the consumers, however, in that we have a much more difficult time being able to tell the real products from the imitation.
In the first few chapters of his book, "In Defense of Food", Pollan reveals many scary truths to us about what we are eating today. So far, I am really enjoying his book. I found his writing style to be easy to follow and right to the point. I don't know about you, but I'm very intrigued to see what other information Pollan will tell us and what recommendations he has for following his simple rules.
If there is one thing to take away from this first discussion of his book, it is his rule: "Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants."
For those of you who have not gotten/read this book. I highly suggest it. Pollan will help open your eyes to the scary truths about the food industry and marketing, and will help you to make more informed decisions about what foods you eat!
Today's Workout: Water Aerobics Class
Today I participated in a water aerobics class. If you belong to a gym, check the schedule to find out when they hold their water aerobics class. Otherwise, find yourself two foam dumbbells and do some free-weight motions; like butterfly arms, punches, and moving your arms back and forth in front of you. The purpose of these tools is to create water resistance! The deeper you put them in the water, the more resistance you will have. For a leg workout, do some ice climbers, high knees, butt kicks, and suicides (running back and forth varied distances in the pool). Don't forget to stretch when you are finished. This workout should last about 30 to 45 minutes.
Today's Food Tip: In order to help myself with portion control, whenever I buy or make a new snack (crackers, bars, fruits, etc) I will look at the serving size and divide out the entire product/package into those specific portion sizes. Then put them into separate baggies and whenever you are going somewhere and need to bring a snack with you (such as to work), you can just grab a baggie of one or two snacks and be set for the day. You will know that you are eating healthy and keeping from gorging on snacks all day.
Today's Relaxation Activity: With the start of so many new shows, today's activity is to pick an hour long TV show to sit down and watch with your family. Do not be tempted to get up and do housework. Make sure to just relax and watch the show and talk with your family during the commercials :)
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