Fruits and vegetables arranged in word ‘food’
This week’s lesson has been incredibly insightful regarding nutrition and the food industry. What really stands out for me is that as consumers, we are led by the food industry to believe that foods of convenience and longevity are also nutritious, as Michael Pollan describes it, food is being replaced by nutrition “…a great many of the traditional supermarket foods were steadily being replaced by “nutrients,” which are not the same thing.” (Pollan, pg19). How is it possible that in our modern day, we are so easily guided to believe that “manmade nutrients” are to replace nature’s vitamins in our whole foods?
The food that lies within the middle isles of the grocery store are the foods that we see in advertisements, they are marketed as fast, easy to prepare and delicious. I understand that many of these processed foods are cheaper, convenient and probably an easier profit for the stores to obtain. However, if our health is being compromised from these processed foods, we should be looking at the larger picture of why nutritional benefits can be marketed in such a way that prompt us to buy these products. If functioning as a healthy society is more cost effective to our healthcare system as well as our individual wellbeing, than it would be wise for the food industry to market fresh foods the same way they do processed foods. There seems to be a disconnect in the system as a whole and how each portion of society can benefit one another.
One thing that really bothers me, and that I hope to learn more about in the upcoming weeks, are the politics involved with minorities and low-income areas only having access to cheap, processed, and unhealthy foods. Fruits, vegetables and proteins should not be a luxury, these are a human right, and as I see it detrimental to a long life.
You have mentioned some very valid points in your article. I especially liked what you said about our health care system benefiting financially from healthier citizens. Overall, a society would benefit from healthier citizens, yet we are immersed daily in the gimmicks of nutrient dense, man-made foods that are touted as healthy, when in reality they are simply frauds attempting to be the real thing. There is a serious disconnect here.