Photo by Scott Cunningham
Confusion. We feel it in the supermarket. We feel it when we’re analyzing nutrition labels for sugars, fats and nutrients.
Related: Food journalist gives his thoughts on modern culinary issues
The pitfalls of the Western diet, along with guidelines for healthful eating, were some of the subjects best-selling author and journalist Michael Pollan discussed during his presentation Jan. 29 at the Jeanne B. McCoy Community Center for the Arts.
Pollan began the program by unpacking two grocery bags full of over-processed supermarket snacks. The sole nutritious items? A handful of strawberries.
“You can really go wrong (at the supermarket),” Pollan says.
The food industry, Pollan says, sells its products based on convenience, novelty and health claims. Often, the “loudest” foods in the grocery aisles are the least healthful. And while recently, Americans have become obsessed with the nutrients foods contain, four of the top 10 killers are chronic diseases brought about by diet, Pollan says.
Related: Good fat, bad fat
Why the paradox? Some of it may have to do with the murky messages delivered by the food industry and the U.S. government, Pollan says.
Pollan has a name for the obsession some people have over individual foods’ particular nutrients: nutritionism. And since nutrients can’t be easily seen, the public becomes dependent upon the food industry to learn which foods are best to eat.
The “good” and “bad” nutrients are always changing, Pollan says. At one time, fats were bad. However, Omega-3 fatty acids are now seen as healthful. Carbohydrates used to be good, and now they’re unpopular. And sometimes foods can be deceptively billed as healthful. Some yogurt, for example, has the sugar content of a bottle of soda. And low-fat milk may have considerable sugar.
The key could be abandoning the Western diet, along with embracing exercise. In this way, Pollan says, the effects of this diet can be reversed.
“Our bodies are very resilient,” he says.
While traditional diets across the world include a variety of foods, they tend to avoid processed foods.
Related: No Preservations?
“The wisdom of these traditional diets is worth paying attention to,” Pollan says.
While food science is ever-evolving, humans have always turned to cultural norms to determine what to eat, Pollan says. This method can still be used today. Traditional bits of advice, such as eating a colorful variety of vegetables, are rooted in healthful living.
The bottom line could be deceivingly simple.
“Eat food, not too much, mostly plants,” Pollan says – his guiding philosophy.
Cooking is key, he says, to taking back control of one’s diet. In this way, it becomes easier to avoid the over-processed foods with a large quantity of ingredients.
Sarah Sole is an assistant editor. Feedback welcome at ssole@cityscenemediagroup.com.
