It's really interesting but it makes me not want to eat anything in a box from the store ever again. Pretty much the gist of the book is about how the Western diet is killing us. We were never meant to eat the kind of "food" that is available to us in supermarkets today. The author talks about this age of "nutritionism" where society is more focused on nutrients rather than foods as a whole. Makes sense especially when you see fortified cereals, bread and new products sporting health claims for vitamins, fiber and stuff.
Pollan also talks about how we are going through a "lipophobic" stage where fat is bad for us. We have all these low-fat foods but yet Americans are increasingly becoming more and more obese. It was funny how the invention of margarine was made to replace butter without having saturated fat. Well, what happened is they made margarine with trans fat which happens to me more unhealthy and deadly than the saturated fat it was meant to replace. Oops.
Basically what I am getting from this book is that packaged food and re-engineered "food" is NOT good to eat. The more basic, home-made from scratch you can get, the better. But we should eat all kinds of food, including fat (hooray for brownies and ice cream!), along with lots of fruit and vegetables.
I thought his mantra was funny: Eat Food. Not too much. Mostly plants.
I'm thinking that pretty much we've already had that advice for a long time now; can we say Doctorine and Covenants 89? Word of Wisdom all the way with moderation in all things. Being a public health major it's been a little frustrating with all these health claims saying you should eat this, can't eat that. But, I have come to the conclusion that ANYTHING can kill you in large amounts. So enjoy eating anything, just moderately!
3 comments:
Interesting read. Have you watched Food, Inc? I watched that the other day and it was a lot of the same ideas. And you're right! D&C 89 has it all! I get frustrated too with the "fad diets" ...honestly I don't get it.
I just might have to read that book!
Interesting. I always feel better when I am eating mostly raw fruits and veggies. It is always good to hear sound advice in line with gospel principles.
I took a food science class once for a depth credit and one of the things that stuck out to me the most was that the teacher would always say, "There's no such thing as bad foods, only bad diets." Basically like what you said...anything can be bad for you if you eat too much of it, but no one food is going to kill you if you eat it in moderation. So many people out there have all these different opinions about food and diet, but they're all so one-sided.
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