In his novel In Defense of Food, author Michael Pollan brings his readers into the world of modern food, exploring the ins and outs the Western diet. He starts the book off with a few simple words, "Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants." This is the way that Pollen believes we need to start thinking about our diets. He first introduces this concept by bringing us back to his childhood and uses his weekly diet consisting of meals like beef Stroganoff, oven-fried chicken, and meatloaf, to begin explaining just how the Western diet has become the way that it is. After touching on the Western diet, Pollen gets into the first of three sections in the book, entitled "The Age of Nutritionism." The first few chapters of this section help clarify exactly what "nutritionism" is and how it is effecting what we eat and how we're eating it.
Nutritionism for many people, is a new word explaining the pretty basic concept of modern nutrition. Pollen states, "Nutritionism prefers to tinker with the Western diet, adjusting the various nutrients (lowering the fat, boosting the protein) and fortifying processed foods rather than questioning their value in the first place." Nutritionism is basically telling us that we are worrying more about the amount of nutrients and getting more nutrients into foods (processing) than eating foods in their natural state, taking all of the nutrients that come along with it. This concept, although simple, is very interesting. I agree completely that in modern day society we worry way too much about all of the nutrient density and getting more bang for your buck by processing "100% of your daily value of 15 essential vitamins and minerals" into one slice of bread or a bowl of cereal. Pollen points out at several points up to this point in the book that these artificially synthesized vitamins and minerals that are being added to many of the foods we are eating every day aren't necessarily good for you, and these foods may start to cause problems of overnutrition. (For further information on this view on nutritionism, visit this site)
In order to put the idea of nutritionism into the light of everyday reality, Pollen usesexamples of foods that have been changing throughout the years of development of nutritionism and the fads of each decade, particularly focusing on margarine. The margarine vs. butter war has been going on for years, and Pollen pokes fun at margarine a little bit, calling it the, "ultimate nutritionist product, able to shift it's identity depending on the prevailing winds of dietary opinion." (27). Margarine, he explains, throughout the years has changed it's composition and ingredient list to please the public eye. I personally was born and raised on butter, and have always thought that the claims to fame that margarine has made over the years are vastly overrated; and butter tastes infinitely better anyway! Why settle for overly processed, man-made food imitations when you could be eating the real deal? That's what I, and I believe Michael Pollen as well, would like to know.
