The idea of eating healthy is not really about the latest fads, but it is about the foods that we choose to eat. In Week One looked at the past up to the present at different diets and how our health has changed over the years. In Michael Pollan’s book In Defense of Food, one of his arguments is that as diets have changed, our health has declined. This is because of the increase in processed and modified foods.
I worked at a Whole Foods for a while and while I was there, I gained the perspective that seems similar to what Pollan argues, which leads me to believe that much of modern thinking is, in part, based off his ideas. Pollan argues that food cannot be shaped to get whatever nutrients we desire without losing something that is needed. I understand this as eating less processed and enriched foods because we are not getting what we need with those foods. I have learned that it is not a matter of nutrients like carbs and protein as much as it is about the process of where the food comes from; whether or not the food is processed or genetically modified.
It has been fun reading this book because it has given me insight into the world of nutrition and food. It has helped to reinforce the idea that just because a food says it’s healthy, does not mean that it is. The book has reminded me to look past the wrapping and understand where the food came from and what some of the implications are. I have lost sight of this idea since I left Whole Foods because I am no longer immersed in the culture.