In Defense of Food Essay

In the maintain, In Defense of nutriment An occupyers Manifesto, author Michael Pollan commences his tale with a few straightforward words Eat nourishment. Not too much. Mostly plants. In his introduction, An Eaters Manifesto, Pollan discusses how the viandsetic wisdom that was passed down from older generations has been heavily tainted by nutritionary science and pabulum industry marketing (Pollan, 2008).The first volume of the book entitled, The Age of Nutritionism, delves into this subscriber line and helps uncover the cause of todays nutritionary confusion and anxiety (Pollan, 2008). Nowadays, it is not uncommon to ingest edible victualslike substances displayed in every aisle of the grocery store with all products promoting some affable of nutritional benefit from their consumption. These dietary facts be often modified to example dietary benefits that are barely hand in the food product, if present at all.With such prevalent misinformation, todays society has run so overly concerned with nutrient enriched food that stack contribute either forgotten or are unaware of the brilliance of the fundamentals. Pollan however explains that humanity has become a nation of orthorexics meaning that people have developed an unhealthy obsession with healthy eating centred on the hypothesis of nutritionism (Pollan, 2008).Chronic diseases that have the highest death rate such as obesity, coronary heart disease, diabetes, stroke, and cancer, can be attributed to the western sandwich diet which consists of highly relate foods and refined grains the use of chemicals to raise plants and animals in huge monocultures the superabundance of brassy 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 secure crops, notably wheat, corn, and soy (Pollan, 2008).In the second volume entitled The Western Diet and the diseases of Civilization, Pollan analyzes the shift in e ating habits of today versus those since the breakthrough of agriculture and the industrialization of food. In the third and final volume entitled, getting over Nutritionism, Pollan offers helpful recommendations to healthy eating and living.These simple, easy-to-follow tips are intended to tame society on the dangers of misleading information from food industries and medical communities and to spark advance people away from the Western Diet and back to the traditional slipway of preparing and consuming food. Pollan suggests for people to refrain from shopping at supermarkets and choose local anesthetic farmers markets instead.However, for those with no former(a) option, he recommends they only shop from the peripherals of the store. Some other advice that Pollan offers is to eat close toly plants, especially leaves, eat like an omnivore and be the mixture of person that takes supplements (Pollan, 2008). He also states that people who eat according to the rules of a traditio nal food culture are generally much better than people eating a contemporary Western diet.This compend is focused on the cultural traditions of food consumption where eating is deeply rooted in nature in human biology on one side and in the natural world on the other (Pollan, 2008). People around the world have incompatible relationships with food and eating. Pollan suggests that how different cultures eat plays a large role in what different cultures eat.He further proposes that American society, nowadays, has become a culture heavily focused on quantity and price rather than caliber. Society has become so fixated on low-fat or low-carb options that they have failed to realize the true underlying have it off of overeating.The distinction between price and quality is often the deciding mover for most American families. As a result Pollan recommends get quality foods in smaller portions thus developing the pay more, eat less(prenominal) ideology. I found that this book provi ded tremendously eye-opening content. This book offers an insightful scene surrounding the relationship between people and food proposes how society, in incident the American culture, can start choosing healthier food options that enable us to live healthy and en triumphable lives while bringing back the joy of eating and preparing food.I found his analysis of the history of nutritionism, the science backside what to eat and why, to be extremely informative. In constituenticular, when Pollan discusses how the food industry develops food products heavily focused around the latest fad diets or so-called nutritional needs of society, it was enlightening to read his perspective as I often purchase items such as low-fat margarine over stock butter.It is outrageous that the food industry fought for many years to get the untrue rule removed and when modified was allowed to state that as long as an imitation product was not nutritionally inferior to the natural food it sought to imp ersonate and had the same quantities of recognized nutrientsthe imitation could be marketed without victimization the word imitation (Pollan, 2008). By keeping consumers misinformed rough such imperative factors that impact to our daily diets has contributed to societys vast health issues.Moreover, the discussion about the differences between culture and food habits resonated with me because while I have lived in either England or Canada my entire life, my family lineage is from India. With this real-life example, I believe that Pollan is temper to assume the certain cultures that consumed traditional diets unintellectuald mostly on plants had strikingly low rates of chronic diseases (Pollan, 2008). Nowadays, a large portion of Westernized societies base their food choices on price and quantity over quality so-called nutritional content geared towards weight management than overall offbeat and convenience.According to Marion Nestle, author of Food Politics, in advertising and on supermarket shelves, there is roughshod competition in the food industry for our food dollars (Nestle, 2008). She states that the Westernized food industry is food administration in action watered-down government dietary advice, schools pushing soft drinks, diet supplements promoted as if they were First Amendment rights. When it comes to the mass production and consumption of food, strategic decisions are driven by economicsnot science, not common sense, and certainly not health (Nestle, 2008).The role of innovation in sustainable schooling should focus on more agriculture-based methods of food production that have been shown to prevent food waste, help resist climate change, and promote urban farming (Nestle, 2008). What is most important is to provide innovative products and services that are centered on humanity and that meet the needs of the consumer. Pollan does an excellent job at analyzing the problem and developing upshots based on the needs of society, particularly in America.The solution here is to revert back to the traditional way of consuming and purchasing food local food grown by local people. Pollan encourages that people become members of a Community-Supported Agriculture (CSA) program or shop for sassy produce at their local farmers markets. This local food movement enables new-made and soon to be farmers to provide environmentally sustainable agriculture while backup their local community and maturation food that directly connects them to the consumer (Collins, 2011).On the business perspective, CSAs are part of the Small Farm Movement that is growing across Europe and North America and farmers start off by selling their products at local farmers markets to test out what products the consumer is looking for, followed by building clientele and launching into a CSA (Collins, 2011). In order for CSAs to succeed as a sustainable innovation, farmers must understand the importance of truthful marketing and fostering relationships with th eir customers as the most important part of the business model.References 1) Pollan, M. (2008). In Defense of Food An Eaters Manifesto. Retrieved from http//ebookbrowse. com/michael-pollan-in-defense-of-food-an-eater-s-manifesto-pdf-d341084275 2) Nestle, M. (2008). Food Politics. Retrieved from http//www. foodpolitics. com/food-politics-how-the-food-industry-influences-nutrition-and-health/ 3) Collins, D. (2011). Community Supported Agriculture A Unique Business Model. Retrieved from http//www. omafra. gov. on. ca/english/crops/organic/news/2008-12a2. htm.