In todays globalized and diverse world, the concept of \u201cdiet\u201d and types of diets have become an obsession that we humans stress and contemplate over. As a result of the public\u2019s demand for \u201chealthier\u201d options for foods, the ideology of nutritionisism has become a tool for the food industry to make more profits and come out with new findings that alter the way in which we treat food. Michael Pollan in his book, In Defense of Food, explains how nutritionism is not an actual science, but an ideology of how to take care of your body through effective ways of eating. If nutritionism is not truly scientific, then why do we treat different findings we read about nutrition as if they are such amazing findings that we HAVE to try the brand new suggestion or else we become unhappy?
\nPollan suggests that American\u2019s attitude towards food are different from other culture\u2019s attitude in that Americans tend to consume more of the \u201chealthier\u201d option instead of truly enjoying and savoring the meal in front of them. It appears that American\u2019s view the food on their plate as a set of invisible nutrients that are either harming or improving our health. It is this particular view of food and nutrition that makes American\u2019s have higher rates of getting chronic diseases or being at the risk of obesity. I realized that the fads of different types of diets and looking at nutritional content is a way for us to feel better about our eating habits and in turn our view that we are being \u201chealthy\u201d is an unconscious fa\u00e7ade to cover guilt for eating too much of one thing. At least in my own personal experience, I realized that I tell myself I can eat an entire bag of popcorn and tell myself, \u201cit\u2019s SMART POPCORN and it\u2019s super healthy so you can keep eating it.\u201d
\nI am not indicating that being aware of nutritional factors and having diets are a negative thing, but I do believe that we get too caught up in trying to be the healthiest version of ourselves which can potentially cause more harm. Instead of counting the calories of our meal and differentiating what are \u201cgood carbs\u201d versus \u201cbad carbs,\u201d we should learn to truly enjoy our meals while cutting down on our portions.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
In todays globalized and diverse world, the concept of \u201cdiet\u201d and types of diets have become an obsession that we humans stress and contemplate over. As a result of the public\u2019s demand for \u201chealthier\u201d options for foods, the ideology of nutritionisism has become a tool for the food industry to make more profits and come out with new findings that… Read more »<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":11,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-794","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/courses.washington.edu\/ps385s18\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/794","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/courses.washington.edu\/ps385s18\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/courses.washington.edu\/ps385s18\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/courses.washington.edu\/ps385s18\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/11"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/courses.washington.edu\/ps385s18\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=794"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/courses.washington.edu\/ps385s18\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/794\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":799,"href":"https:\/\/courses.washington.edu\/ps385s18\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/794\/revisions\/799"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/courses.washington.edu\/ps385s18\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=794"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/courses.washington.edu\/ps385s18\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=794"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/courses.washington.edu\/ps385s18\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=794"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}