You Are What You Eat-- Blog Post 4

There is a popular saying “you are what you eat” and in today’s day and age such a saying has never been more relevant. People have never though as much as they do now on what they eat and with the ever-increasing number of problems associated with a poor diet, people are worried as to how they can avoid them and increase their lifespan. Michael Pollan in his latest book,’ In Defense of Food; An Eater’s Manifesto’ is stressing the unhealthiness of the western diet and how most eaters are victims of the highly modified foods created by technology and mass marketing. His claim is that people need to change their diets and leave all processed foods out of your diet. Micheal Pollan uses scientific information to make a weak argument regarding the current western diet. It serves merely as a statement of the current situation upon no real action can be taken.

Pollan puts the blame on nutritionism for most of the western world’s shortcomings when it comes to their diet. According to Pollan, most westerners focus on the nutrients as opposed to whole foods. One might rationalize that most people today don’t have enough time to prepare their own meals hence most of them try to focus on the essentials in order to stay healthy. Vitamins cater to a large market of people who are unable to get enough of a certain nutrient required for good health in their diet. This is a much better method as opposed to eating whole foods in order to meet that quota of nutrients since the calorie count would be much higher from eating whole foods just to meet that quota. Pollan’s advice is not comprehensive and should not be taken without a pinch of salt.

Pollan is also known as an advocate for the slow food movement. The slow food movement is the antithesis of the fast food movement, which is notorious across the world, and the epidemic of obesity, which it brings along. The slow movement proposes eating organically and local grown produce for healthier diets.
According to Pollan, when a consumer purchases a certain product he is vouching for it, implying that he wants more of that product to be produced and that he enjoys it. He is saying that those with the purchasing power can choose the products that supermarkets and stores have on their shelves but the majority of people do not have the economic means to purchase healthy organic food, which is significantly more expensive than the chemically processed food, which sells for much cheaper hence more people end up buying it. Using Pollan’s argument, there is no way to get more healthy food on the shelves unless the prices of these healthy foods become more affordable for the general public. Until that time, the ‘mass marketers and scientists’ will not stop engineering food for the mass market making food more accessible to people without a regard of the well-being of the consumers.

Overall, Micheal Pollan’s book serves as a good work of non-fiction describing the current state of the Western diet and it’s shortcomings. He does not offer any real plan of action. Pollan fails to provide a substantial solution to the problems faced by people regarding nutrition and his advice is commonplace hence the book should not be taken seriously in matters of nutrition or diet.