In his mission to clarify the ideology of nutritionism, Michael Pollan asserts that food is simply not just the sum of its parts, a point that is critical to gaining understanding of the effects of food on human life. “[nutritionist ideology] has trouble discerning qualitative distinctions among foods” (Pollan 31). Because so much of our food comes from living plants… Read more »
Lauren Klotz Pol S 385 Although Michael Pollan and Michael Maniates point out many problems with civilizations’ approaches to environmentalism, the authors do not pose viable solutions for individuals to follow. Michael Pollan presents various solutions that involve resources such as time and money that the average citizen does not have and Maniates does not provide many solutions besides the… Read more »
The view on food has changed drastically through out the past 10-20 years and one of the main things it has picked up is the idea of nutritionism. With the western diet causing so many issues to the health of thousands in the US, nutritionism has impacted society in a positive but also negative way. Nutritionism has been portrayed by… Read more »
In the second and third part of Micheal Pollen’s book In Defence of Food, he prescribes his audience to eat pre-industrially; to forage, hunt and cook meals ourselves so that we are in full conscious of what we are eating. However, this prescription merely reinforces the ‘individualisation of responsibility’ and exacerbates the ecological problems which manifest from it. Individualisation refers… Read more »
Society has conditioned into us a stereotype that people who are not eating healthy are just lazy. That people who are not eating greens and vegetables for every meal are the problem, that it is their own fault. Michael Pollan is no different, and throughout his book he supports the idea that people simply need to eat better; people should… Read more »
The biggest thing that sticks with this whole thing is what our definition of “healthy” is, as it has changed with more science on the nutrition is being released. And I can understand where the author is coming from with the decrease in actual food with the processed replacements, as rather getting the proper “nutrients” instead of the proper food…. Read more »
In the Defense of Food, Michael Pollan mentions a study about a group of Aborigines in 1982 that spent seven weeks eating like hunter-gatherers. Before the study, they had been eating western food for years and had contracted type two diabetes. During the seven weeks, they ate food such as birds, plants, shellfish, yams, turtles, seafood, and figs. After the… Read more »
Although I have been aware of the intersectionality of American politics and the national food system for quite some time, I am overwhelmingly taken aback by the discovery of nutritionism’s influence within such a unique relationship. Before diving into Michael Pollan’s In Defense of Food, I perceived the bond between food and politics to be linked to grassroots movements towards… Read more »
One of the most serious ecological crises the planet today is our species near total depletion of natural aquifers and arable land. Mass agricultural operations owned by the few large agribusiness companies that now dominate the industry have become major producers of the staple crops that represent the majority of calories consumed worldwide, and though large-scale production of these crops… Read more »
As obesity has become a bigger and bigger issue in the United States, nutritionism has become an essential part of our food culture and diet. Nutritionism, while it provides us knowledge of the foods we are putting into our bodies, it can restrict the types of food we eat and thus take away the idea of food culture. Instead of… Read more »