For decades, Americans have been taught to save the planet by making changes to their own lifestyles – use LED light bulbs! buy reusable grocery bags! eat organic food! We are told that buying (and consuming) green is what “good people” do, that an individual’s consumption can change the world. While this is a productive cultural framework for companies selling… 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 »
During one of the first quiz sections we discussed the question, how has nutritionism impacted the way you eat? To put it shortly, it hasn’t had any real effect on the way I eat. My parents emigrated to the U.S. from South Korea before I was born, thus, I grew up eating traditional Korean meals. Luckily, there was a large… Read more »
If you ask people about their opinion on a type of food, ask them whether they think the food is “good” or “bad”, you would probably get a dozen different answers. Everyone wants to eat healthy, but everyone lives in a different way and have diverse understanding on a “healthy diet”, which lead them to make different food choices! So,… 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 »
Industrialized Food and the Problem of Supermarkets While farmer’s markets and community gardens may be on the rise in U.S. cities, the vast majority of U.S. households still buy their food from chain supermarkets and supercenters, regardless of income level. Supermarkets provide a fast and accessible way to satisfy your hunger – one twenty minute trip can provide everything from… Read more »
(Michael Pollan in Defense of Food) Michael Pollan creates a vibrant critique of the world food system that spans criticisms of inequity in valuation of trading good by countries of the Global North compared to that of the Global south, to analysis of Nutritionism and the intricate and interlocking ways that companies profit off of science, journalism, and the food… 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 »
When scientists tried boldly to maximize the product and nutrient efficiency of our food over a hundred years ago, we succeeded, but along came the consumption of chemicals through pesticides, highly processed foods, and relative biological uniformity in our diet. These characteristics of our diet have in turn given us everything we need to be biologically healthy, except ironically, the… Read more »
All I could say when I finished reading Michael Pollan’s In Defense of Food was: Okay, not intentionally racist, but racist in impact. As I put pen-to-paper finger-to-keyboard and write this out, I fully understand that my statement probably will have many supporters of nutritionism up in arms about its validity. Though, I do not intend to throw the baby out with… Read more »