Escape from the Western Diet Essay
In Michael Pollan’s essay “Escape from the European Diet, ” he informs Americans regarding the european diet and believes they need to escape coming from it. The main reason Americans should escape the western diet is to avoid the harmful effects associated with that such as “western diseases” (Pollan, 434). To compliment his take on the issue, Pollan describes factors of the european diet that dictate what Americans imagine they should take in. These factors include researchers with their theories of nutritionism, the food industry supporting the theories by causing products, plus the health market making medicine to support those self same theories. Total, Pollan feels that in order to escape this diet, people need to have the idea of it out of their heads.
In turn he provides his own guidelines for avoiding the european diet in addition to the idea of nutritionism set forth by scientists. Pollan explains that scientific ideas of nutritionism focus on individual nutrients rather than foods as a whole (Pollan, 434). He even more goes on to refute this assert mentioning the particular scientific hypotheses contradict with one another.
Pollan points out “the experts who pin the consequence on our health challenges on deficiencies of [micronutrients] are not the same scientists who visit a sugar soaked diet leading to metabolic syndrome and after that to diabetes, heart disease…”(Pollan, 435). On one hand there are scientists who pin the consequence on health problems on the lack of nutrients, and on the other hand you will discover scientists who have blame these health problems on the sugar drenched diet. By simply stating these theories, Pollan tries to obtain his point across that they almost all have the same part of common; these kinds of theories are mere answers to traditional western diseases.
In Pollan’s look at, “scientists can easily argue all they want regarding the systems behind this phenomenon, although whichever it is, the solution would appear to remain very similar: Stop eating a Western diet” (Pollan, 435). In other words, no matter what reason researchers have pertaining to the causes of european diseases, the regular factor most notable is the european diet, which should be the basis for remedy. In addition to bringing to light these contradicting clinical theories, Pollan goes even more to include how these ideas benefit the food industry plus the health market.
Pollan observes “for the medical community too technological theories about diet nurture business… new theories beget new drugs… and new diet plans organized about each new theory’s level of one class of nutritional and demotion of another” (Pollan, 436). Basically, Pollan is informing that the overall health industry desires to profit from the theories reported by making medications in regards to the nutrition cut down on. In the same way, Pollan paperwork the food sector comes out with a new business line to match with the new ideas made for the western diet.
He will remind the reader to flee the western diet though it will be hard because these industries only seek to profit rather than replace the way persons eat for the best (Pollan, 436). To address what distinguishes the foodstuff of a western diet, Pollan compares entire foods and processed foods. This individual quotes Gyorgy Scrinis and concludes to himself “instead of considering nutrients, we need to simply steer clear of any foodstuff that has been refined to this kind of extent it is more the product of sector than character (Pollan, 438).
Pollan will abide by Scrinis intended for avoiding fully processed foods, but this individual complicates it by bringing up that all complete foods are taken over by industrial processes. Once again Pollan will remind the reader that escaping the western diet will not be simple, yet he convinced it will be easy and he offers his developed solutions for it (Pollan, 438). Pollan encourages Us citizens “eat meals. Not an excessive amount of.
Mostly plants” (Pollan, 440). His three rules highlight eating food that may be in fact actual food, eating in a manner that presents a positive tradition, and eating plants which will Pollan views the best types of food a person can take in. As Pollan argues resistant to the scientific hypotheses of nutritionism, he reveals what he considers all their contradictions as well as the cycle of recent theories creating new products creating new medication. He informs the reader why these theories are present for these firms to make a earnings rather than change the way people eat for the better (Pollan, 436).
So once again, Pollan reminds the reader to flee the western diet because it is the cause of western diseases. He offers his solutions approach eat a better, more traditional diet.
