Preview

Food Rules by Michael Pollan

Good Essays
Open Document
Open Document
868 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
Food Rules by Michael Pollan
Food Rules by Michael Pollan Michael Pollan informs us that the Western diet of highly processed foods, fast foods, loads of added fat, sugar, salt, and tons of refined grains is not good for our bodies and detrimental to our overall health and well being. Our bodies need many more fruits, vegetables, and whole grains than most people are eating. The overall message of this book is that anyone can nourish their bodies and become healthy if they stay away from the Western diet. Obesity, Type 2 diabetes, heart disease, and cancer are linked to this exact diet. In this eater’s manual, Pollan strives to aid Americans in the simplest way possible. He creates a manual that instructs people how to make small changes in their everyday life and eat a more traditional diet. Those who abandon Western-eating habits often experience significant improvements in their overall health.

In this book, Pollan provides practical steps a person wants to to eat right should take. Pollan has one main point in this manual that is restated in countless different ways. His main argument is that processed foods are destructive to ones health. One rule that he explained was “Don’t eat anything your great grandmother wouldn’t recognize as food.” There are many new complicated food products that are available in our grocery stores. There are many reasons to avoid eating such foods, including the fact that they have various chemical additives and corn and soy derivatives. Many of the foodish products in our supermarkets are typically packaged in plastics, some of which are probably toxic. Another rule was “Avoid food products containing ingredients that a third grader cannot pronounce.” The food scientists’ chemicals are designed to extend shelf life, make old food look fresher and more appetizing than it really is, and to get you to eat more. These additives are best to be avoided. Lastly “If it came from a plant, eat it; if it was made in a plant, don’t.” The more ingredients in packaged

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Better Essays

    “A number seven, no pickles, with a large sprite please. Oh, can we have some extra ketchup with that as well?” This answer may resemble something near how most people would respond to Pollans question, “What should we have for dinner?” posed at the beginning of his book, The Omnivores Dilemma. Pollan breaks his book down into three major components, the preface, the process, and the person. By clearly identifying what he is examining, and through firsthand experience, Pollan was able to discuss American diet, and all that goes along with it.…

    • 1624 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    Michael Pollan, the author of “Escape from the Western Diet” has a very strong believes about…

    • 894 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Eng 121 Week 1 Essay

    • 598 Words
    • 3 Pages

    Many people consume a majority of processed foods throughout the day or week due to their lifestyle; consuming these products in large quantity is an unhealthy habit. These foods are loaded with artificial ingredients such as monosodium glutamate (MSG), flavors, preservatives, hydrogenated oil, fillers, and artificial sweeteners which have been proven in studies to be harmful to the body. Perhaps they do not have time to sit down, the area lacks diners or they do not enjoy eating leftover meals. The products will lead to weight gain, unhealthy joints, muscles, bones, brain and be more prone to illness. Many think that you can exercise and still eat whatever they want. This is untrue as your body needs four essential basic nutrients; water, carbohydrates, fat, and protein. These four are the foundation of a healthy diet. Like the saying “You are what you eat”, a reasonable person must assume that eating an unbalanced diet full of processed foods is not a wise choice in leading a long and…

    • 598 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    The author of this essay proved many useful points in regards to the Western Diet. In order for people to change their nutrition many things have to change as well, but is it too late? Almost every food we buy and put in our mouths is full extra additives and hormones. How whole is our food really? Comparing Americans diet to other countries proves that a healthy lifestyle with better nutrition is possible. Are the people that benefit from the consequences like doctors who treat patients with heart disease, high blood pressure or diabetes or pharmaceutical companies willing to give up everything that bring in revenue? I think we know what the…

    • 287 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    The book I chose to read for my summer homework was In Defense of Food by Michael Pollan. Pollan has written many books regarding what to eat and how the foods we consume affect us. In this book, he opens with simple advice, “Eat food. Not too much. Mostly Plants” (Pollan 1). As straightforward as it sounds, Pollan quickly demonstrates how complicated this can be. Food is all around us. However, there are whole foods, stuff you’d find at a farmer’s market, and then there are the foods that line up the walls of our supermarkets, highly processed snacks and “foods” that contain a mirade of unpronounceable ingredients. Many of these foods processed foods, especially those that make health claims such as “low-fat”, “lowers…

    • 731 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    How might we plot our escape from the nutritionist and, in turn, from the most harmful effects of the Western diet? To Denis Burkitt, the English doctor stationed in Africa during World War II who gave the Western diseases their name, the answer seemed straightforward, if daunting. “The only way we’re going to reduce disease,” he said, “is to go backwards on diet and lifestyle of our ancestors.”” (423) Which sums up fairly well that this point is that the problem is more about our current social structure when it comes to food. “For most people for most of history, gathering and preparing food has been an occupation at the very heart of daily life.”…

    • 413 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Pollan states that the western diet is the root cause of health problems in countries that subscribe to it. He examines these countries, and the health consequences that they suffer due to their diet. He also provides examples of the alternative countries which focus on the traditional and cultural diet instead, resulting in comparatively better health. Pollan argues that the western civilization’s transition from whole foods to refined foods, from quality foods to quantity foods, from complex foods to simple foods and from culture food to science food is the main reason for the health problems that we have today.…

    • 702 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Have you ever wondered where your food comes from? The Omnivore’s Dilemma, written by Michael Pollan, digs deeper into this question. He explains the different food chains and argues that some are more wholesome and healthy than others. In this way, he solves “the omnivore’s dilemma”; when people can eat everything, what should they eat? Pollan proves that guidance is necessary in order to improve people’s eating habits by writing about healthful food choices from the past, how our senses are fooling us to make the wrong food choices, and how culture impacts the food on everyone’s plates.…

    • 547 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    To the average consumer, eating has now developed into well beyond an agricultural act, declares Wendell Berry. Apparent in the audience of his lectures on the decline of farming, American citizens are unable to recognize the existence of food beyond the food industry—the world of fake, processed food. Ask any individual from where their food comes and they will answer, “the grocery store.” Stirring Berry to anger, he exclaims that food begins with life, plant and animal; if food begins in the laboratory, the results more accurately categorize as experiments rather than food. Michael Pollan strongly supports this claim by stating, “what reductive science can manage to perceive well enough to isolate and study is subject to change, and that we have a tendency to assume that what we can see is all there is to see” (p. 11). What this means is that food plastered with health claims can only assure the consumer their soon-to-be purchase has been on…

    • 534 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    In the essay, Escape from the Western Diet, author Michael Pollan addresses the repulsiveness and utterly unhealthy aspects of the eating habits Americans exhibit. Pollan discusses a variety of issues related to the American food culture, including how the food industry and medical community contribute to these problems. In addition, Pollan presents his personal opinions and solutions for solving the problem while encouraging healthier eating. Incorporated within Pollan’s claims throughout his essay are specific quotations and analysis from various experts regarding the Western diet. Pollan’s assertions regarding the Western diet are absolutely…

    • 935 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Michael Pollan’s, The Omnivore’s Dilemma crosses paths with, “Fast Food Nation: The True Cost of America’s Diet.” Both works share similar ideas, themes, and lessons. “Fast Food Nation: The True Cost of America’s Diet” focuses on the average American diet, containing processed foods, fast foods, and more unhealthy products. Pollan, rather, wants to show the cycle from the farm to the food on the table.…

    • 614 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    Michael pollen is a food nutritionist with the slogan “eat food, not too much and mostly plants”. In his article “Escape from the Western Diet” he discusses the problems surrounding the different type of processed food and ways to tackle it. Pollen uses nutrition to investigate how people surrender themselves to the Western Diet by either staying on processed food, junk food and fast food to nourish themselves rather than eat healthy. He strongly believes that processed foods are not sustainable because they are expensive on a daily basis to live on. Pollen furthermore explained that eating healthy and more of pants are more practical, more economical and more sustainable by simply changing the way people choose to eat. In other to live healthily,…

    • 1994 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    In Michael Pollan’s essay “Escape from the Western Diet,” he informs Americans about the western diet and believes they need to escape from it. The reason Americans should escape the western diet is to avoid the harmful effects associated with it such as “western diseases” (Pollan, 434). To support his view on the issue, Pollan describes factors of the western diet that dictate what Americans believe they should eat. These factors include scientists with their theories of nutritionism, the food industry supporting the theories by making products, and the health industry making medication to support those same theories. Overall, Pollan feels that in order to escape this diet, people need to get the idea of it out of their heads. In turn he provides his own rules for escaping the western diet as well as the idea of nutritionism set forth by scientists.…

    • 743 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    "The Cooking Animal"

    • 275 Words
    • 2 Pages

    In “The Coking Animal”, the author, Michael Pollan, gives his opinion and observations on the American food system. Pollan links the facts that since we look for the most convenient and least time-consuming way to get food, we often intake more calories, sugar, fat, and salts, which are substances our bodies are automatically bound to like. After examining my own eating habits, I realized that these conclusions made by the author are merely accurate. When I am crunched for time, what do I usually decide to eat? The answer is simple: something fast, cheap, and appetizing. If you think about it, what is fast, cheap, and appetizing is normally not healthy, but on the contrary, food that is time-consuming to make, more expensive than fast food, and only sometimes enticing, is the type of nutrition that we, as humans need. Another point that is closely related with the food we eat is the people we eat it with. Looking at myself, I normally have meals with people. I think it is fun to go out and have lunch or dinner with friends. Usually, if I am going to spend the night with a friend, we meet up at a restaurant for dinner and then go to one or the other’s house. I personally believe that eating alone and not socializing causes one to eat more than what he or she would usually eat while spending time and socializing with another person. In conclusion, the mindset and desire of the people of America is going to have to change for the better if we want our nation as a whole to become a healthier one.…

    • 275 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    The Fast Food and Obesity

    • 1080 Words
    • 5 Pages

    More people in the USA are involved in discussion and even doing many researches about the food and the food products. There are lots of discussion how the food industry influences to our health and generally our everyday life. Many people blame the government, some others are talking that the main role comes from food industry, while some people still think that every individual is responsible for their own menu as well as their health. It is really not important who says what; the issue itself is one of the main problems in the USA and indeed some of the food products could seriously influence human health. Among many writers David Zinczenko has his own idea how to avoid unhealthy food and how to solve these common problems. Even though Zinczenko assume that food companies should have more responsibility in making healthier food options, he also provides a convincing argument due to his use of personal experience and his well-researched examples of the problem that food can bring in today’s society. He talks about his childhood and the weight problem he had because of the fast food when he was 15 years old. He also talks about the Type 2 diabetes in children that obesity is blamed for. There are many different views how to avoid unhealthy food and prevent many diseases such as obesity, diabetes and heart disease that fast food industry brought along the way and became the nation’s general health problem.…

    • 1080 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays

Related Topics