Food Essay

When it comes to the topic of nutrition, most us will readily agree that in order to live a long and healthy life one must eat right and choose nutritious alternatives to preserved and fast food products. Where this agreement usually ends, however, is on the question of how this can “healthy lifestyle” can be obtained. Whereas some are convinced that trusting yourself and your body will lead to better choices, others maintain that eating food in moderation and more fruits and vegetables is the best path to choose. “Today, more than 95% of all chronic disease is caused by food choice, toxic food ingredients, nutritional deficiencies and lack of physical exercise.” In other words, there needs to be change in how we go about our daily diet. In this day and age, there are many different debates on what one can do to eat healthier and make better decisions in regard to diet. Many people have proposed their own theories and advice on beginning a healthier life style, including Mary Maxfield and Michael Pollan. In the essay “Escape from the Western Diet,” Pollan introduces his response to a new way of eating healthier known as nutritionalism; a way of life in which people choose real, well grown, and unprocessed food over fast food or processed food with certain preservatives. Mary Maxfield believes in the moralization of food and that if you are thin you will live longer while on the other had if you are overweight you will not live a long and fit life. My view on the benefits of healthy eating is that you can eat what you want to, but in moderation. I also believe that exercising, growing your own food, and consistently choosing the right kinds of foods will help create a happier and healthier society. At the same time that I believe fast food is more cost efficient and less time consuming, I also believe, like Maxfield and Pollan, that in order to decrease obesity rates and build a healthier environment, society needs to make better food choices and increase the amount