While Michael Pollan makes a lot of recommendations about what to eat to have a balanced diet in their own life, there are a lot of practicality issues that I can observe in real life that can not be applied from the readings. Pollan has made a lot of simple recommendations that can be done such has diversifying the types of food being eaten and such, but there are problems in the United States in terms of food availability. There are a lot of areas in the United States where people must travel a long distance to get to their local supermarket, which makes them must go grocery shopping less often. Supermarkets are markets that sell all types of grocery products and household products which let consumers get all the goods they want in one stop. Consumers from areas that are not densely populated generally do not have many supermarkets and have less stable food supply for several reasons. First, the shelf life of fresh food is usually short only lasting several days, which creates the need for a consistent restock of inventory for certain foods with a short shelf life (fruits, vegetables, meats, etc.). Next, due to the cost of transporting food goods to remote areas where supermarkets area long drive, which lowers the frequency for consumers to head out to restock their food inventories. Another reason that Pollan book is impractical is due to the diversity of the population in America, many people have many different preferences in types of food and do not have the self-control in order to have a strict well-balanced diet. Finally, having a diversity of a lot of foods in stock at home all of the time is usually really costly due to high probability of wasting food/money.
I agree with your thought process, Randy, on the practicality issues that come with eating a ‘balanced’ diet. However, while you raised some good points about the shelf life of fresh food being substantially lower than their processed food counterparts, I think that this is a problem that can be solved with proper education on blanching, freezing, and even canning techniques. While these are techniques that often are labeled as grandma-esque, they are valuable to know for those who choose to live away from food centers. I do agree that having a diverse array of food available to eat can become incredibly costly, but maybe to achieve a more diverse food pallet we should incorporate one new thing into our diet every now and then. That way we aren’t emptying our pockets, but still striving for a ‘healthier and balanced diet’,
The mention of the vast array of people and cultures that reside in the United States was a very interesting point, and I think that that itself could make a very interesting blog post. How do we encourage everyone to eat a ‘balanced’ diet when balance can be defined differently by different population groups (because of culture, ancestry, etc.)?
Although I agree with your idea that Michael Pollan’s recommendations on eating food are not necessarily practical for every individual, I do still think that they are important recommendations to take into consideration. I also feel as though individuals who have the opportunity to eat a diet that Pollan recommends should follow it. If the individuals who easily have access to more fresh foods and food that is more sustainable are not taking advantage of that opportunity, no changes towards more sustainable, healthy food will be made. I believe that if individuals who have the capability to eat more fresh and whole foods utilize that opportunity, the food industry in the United States might begin to make a turn towards eating healthier for everyone, and there will be more incentive to make those types of foods available to individuals who are facing socio-economic disparities.
Response 1:
I definitely agree that the ‘rules’ of the diet he lays out are impractical; at least for me, there’s no way that I’d have it in me to follow any for more than a few days before getting bored of it. You covered why it wasn’t really feasible to expect that people can follow the diet, when food’s shelf life, transportation, and costs associated with keeping a diverse stock of food at home.
Following his description of where (and how) to shop in the supermarket, Pollan does make one more suggestion before moving on to ‘what to eat’: not going to supermarkets in the first place. He suggests farmers markets and community-supported agriculture (CSA) boxes as a better alternative. This seems similarly flawed to me; farmers markets tend to end up being much more expensive than supermarkets, which means it won’t be viable for a good portion of Americans as you described. Additionally, some of the ‘positives’ he lists for this approach seem a bit arbitrary; his note on diversity seems reasonable at first, but then he goes on to mention how you’ll be working through your cookbooks to find a way to deal with the food that the CSA allots to you — which seems like a bit too much work when you’ve had a long day at work and just want some food.