Having previously learned anatomy and physiology while studying nursing, this crash course in systems theory reminded me of the complicated interconnections of the inner workings of the human body. When Western medicine attempts to use drugs as proxies to replace, enhance, or repress failing systems without looking holistically at the patient, while the patient may get some relief, the… Read more »
In Michael Pollan’s book, In Defense of Food, he makes a case for why we should get back to eating like our great-great grandparents. The trendiness that has overcome the food industry has made us eat food that isn’t actually good for us just convenient for the food marketers and the journalists to promote. One of the fads that he… Read more »
This week’s explanation of our country’s Farm Bill touches on how our diet, welfare programs, and transportation are all directly effected by government administration. At first glance, one may notice that these characteristics make up a majority of this nation’s interests. Food for example, is more than just a life necessity, it’s also a social lubricant, thriving business, and leverage… Read more »
My primary takeaway from the course material this week was a greater understanding of the special interests and their interrelationships which have profoundly affected the American diet. The term “revolving door” comes to mind, interestingly so, as this term generally evokes images of the way industries such as finance and energy profoundly influence policymaking. In this case, however, the part… Read more »
This week’s lesson got our feet wet thinking about how food is produced, and naturally I wondered about the food I bought and ate. One food that especially stood out to me was rice, a staple of my diet since I was a child. I thought about where the rice I eat was coming from and how it got to… Read more »
Michael Pollan suggests in his book In Defense of Food that our reliance on processed foods and obsession with fad diets is a kind of disordered eating – that we have become so far removed from the natural processes of creating food that we have lost touch with the need to consume whole, unaltered foods. His discussion of nutritionism posits… Read more »
Despite receiving some criticism on his book “In Defense of Food: An Eater’s Manifesto”, Michael Pollan is quite passionate about the stance he has taken about food, nutrition, and the Western diet. Pollan points directly to unhealthy behaviors that many of us, to include myself, are guilty of, yet provides a straightforward solution. He says to, “Eat food. Not too… Read more »
Almost everyone who has ever been a child in an industrialized nation can tell you that the above is not a question. It is the demand or encouragement, depending on your mother or maternal figure, issued to the dismay of all Cheetos deprived children at one point or another. But what is real food? Michael Pollan gives his answer in… Read more »
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… Read more »
The assignment of moral consumerism onto the individual citizen, labeled “the individualization of responsibility” by Maniates (p.33) is the popular idea that consumers can buy their way out of ecological problems through informed purchases, and shifts blame away from the product manufacturers. Maniates goes on to discredit the idea of “consumption-as-social-action” and reveals that during the 1980’s in the United… Read more »