In the first forty pages of Michael Pollan’s In Defense of Food shows his strong views about food processing. Through his various tones of sarcasm and plethora of facts, Pollan brings the embarrassing truth to our attention: the food “we’re consuming today is no longer the product of nature but of food science.” He goes through the various stages such as in the 1980s when shelves in food markets were being occupied by nutrients more than traditional foods. Next Pollan dives into what nutritionism is; essentially it says that all foods are the sum of their nutrients. He talks about how in terms of nutrition, eventually processed foods may be considered “healthier” than natural foods. Pollan goes on to say that when facts on nutrition are updated more frequently and old facts become obsolete, processed foods can be endlessly altered to overcome the most recent nutritional myths.
I think it is somewhat stupid how much effort and time goes into the processed food business. The world of nutrition is constantly changing and the processed foods have to keep up with these changes to stay in business. With the world changing so frequently, it is only a matter of months until this week’s hot sale in isle two is outdated and unhealthy.
The one point that stuck out to me the most though was in the beginning of the introduction on page three: “most of us no longer eat what our mothers ate as children, or for that matter, what our mothers fed us as children.” The reality of that statement is a very scary one. Tradition meals from back in the 1950’s has evolved into microwavable TV dinners. People today are eating less healthy foods that are more “nutrients” than actual foods. Another big contributor to the change in our diets is the improvement in the canned food industry, as shown in the attached article. Back when our mothers were children, the food packing and preservation was far less advanced as it is today. Before, food had to be prepared by natural ingredients for the best meal. Today though, traditional dinners are not together as a family or are made with “nutrients” instead of natural foods. It is very scary and sad to imagine that our technology is so advanced that we are losing traditional meals and now eating less healthy foods because of it.
