Preparing a Meal

When I was home recently I prepared a meal for my family. First I had to plan what I wanted to make. I decided to do something fun and make homemade pizzas, raspberry jell-o salad, and brownies for desert (not very healthy, but fun). I had to go to the store to find all of the ingredients I needed for my meal. Making the meal itself was fun but also a lot of work. It ended up being delicious and I felt proud that I made a meal everyone enjoyed that night. I think each step was important to my feeling accomplished because everything had to be thought out in advance.

After reading the section of In Defense of Food by Michael Pollan I do agree with what he is saying. It seems that America has turned food into something that needs to be processed and changed in order for us to get what we want out of it, even though this is obviously not true because we can get all the nutrients we need out of natural foods. According to Pollan eating and preparing food has become a matter of “sound nutrition and good sanitation”. I also agree when Pollan says that Americans have always had a problem with taking pleasure in eating and the article I found defends this point by saying that French women have less weight problems because, to quote the article, "French women take pleasure in eating well, while American women see it as a conflict and obsess over it."

I don’t think that the meal I created affects my opinion when it comes to this topic as a whole, but looking back on it I did find myself trying to make my food look neat and sanitary, reflecting the matter of good sanitation that Pollen mentions in his book.

* Photo taken from www.apartmenttherapy.com

Response to "In Defense of Food" by Michael Pollan

Michael Pollen makes a few arguments in the first forty pages of the book. He points out that people in America are no longer eating “whole foods” but rather foods modified to provide us with the basic nutrients we need. He argues that even though Americans are more focused on eating “right”, it is not showing improvements on their health, but actually making people unhealthy.

One point that Pollen makes that I agree with is that manufacturers of the processed foods we consume are benefiting tremendously from the “nutritionism” state of mind, the focus on nutrients not whole foods. Processed foods are molded and created to supply us with the nutrients that we are being told every day that we need in order to be healthy. The article “Processed foods trade benefits U.S. agriculture and consumers” shows us how huge the food processing industry is. American companies alone provide about $119.2 billion of processed foods to countries all over the world. This industry also reflects the point that people don’t often grow their own food anymore and rely on these industries to provide them with food.

Another point I will defend is that information about food and its affects on health is changing all the time, making it hard for us as consumers to know what to believe and whose advice we should act upon. The article “Should you trust health advice from the web?” reflects this question of what advice we should trust. The article explains that many people turn to the internet for health advice, but the truth is that much of the advice found online is unreliable, making this growing trend worrisome.

The beginning of the book was very interesting and Pollen suggested some intriguing lines of thought about food and the way it is consumed today.

*Photo taken from www.betterschoolfood.org