Blog Post 9

Pollan’s writing always seems to amaze me as he weaves together anecdotes and hardline journalism. He uncovers nuances and patterns in the American diet that have led to a national obesity epidemic. Dupuis discussed food commentary from a historical perspective beginning with religious food advice, discussing food science and nutritionis and ending with modern writers such as Pollan. He traces how differing advice throughout America’s history has led to demographic health effects.

An aspect of food cultures that both authors touched on is the common perception of food as a sum of its ingredients, instead of a whole. This breakdown including carbs, fats, vitamins, omega-3s and other nutrients has shifted our view of food to focus on ingredients that often have contradictory health effects. This perception also allows marketers to highlight one ingredient and slap a “healthy” label on products that have no health benefits

Both essays ended on the same note, posing and answering the question. What should we eat? The consensus between Pollan and Dupuis was that, regardless of the type of food we prefer, Americans should eat less. One of the major reasons for obesity is the simple fact that as a country we eat too much. Other suggestions were to eat more fruits and vegetables along with minimizing processed food intake.  

 There is no doubt that our food production system is broken when almost a third of Americans are overweight. Today the system is rigged to sell as much food as possible to increase the profit margin for the 4 corporations that make up the majority of the processed food industry. Lobbyists for these interests ensured that the government does not recommend cutting back on food intake(as Pollan discussed), even though this is exactly what is needed. Instead these companies receive subsidies and can sell processed food at very low prices to Americans who will not slow the relentless pace of consumption.