In Defense of Food

Michael Pollan writes about many problems that society has with food in his book, In Defense of Food. He tells us to "Eat food." He means that too much of the "food" today is not actually food. It is actually processed things that just have the nutrients that we want or need inside of them. He blames a lot of it on the global food market. In his mind, over the years the food market has changed greatly. Long ago people would eat the same thing that their parents and grandparents and great-grandparents would. Now however, the food that we ate as kids was much different than the food that our parents ate as kids. He recommends that we go back to eating the way people used to, eating only real foods. Eat things like fruits and vegetables from the ground, not changed by the food industry. By doing this we would help our own healths as well as the health of our food market. He also talks about the fact that eating is a social thing and it brings people together.

I don’t agree with the fact that our diets now are horrible. I believe that much of the food we eat now is good for us and helps the world as a whole. But I do agree with him on the point that eating is something we do socially. Ever since we started eating humans have eaten together, and it has brought us closer.

Daniel Engber, a writer for Slate, wrote an article, “Survival of the Yummiest” about whether or not we should believe Pollan. He also disagrees that we need to go back to thinking the “great-great-grandma-knew-best” idea about eating. Unlike Pollan, he thinks that in the end, science will figure it out and does what is best for us as people.

*Picture courtesy of http://www.michaelpollan.com/indefense.php