Do We Eat Better?

Mary Maxfield focuses on Pollan’s comparison between how French people eat so unhealthily, famously indulging in cheese, cream, and wine yet remain on average healthier than Americans verses Americans’ notably unhealthy population preoccupied with the idea of eating healthy. The “they say” argument in this essay is why can the French get away with eating unhealthy, but Americans can not? Pollan points out that “our” definition of healthy eating is driven by a well-funded corporate machine. According to Pollan, the food industry, along with nutrition science and journalism, is capitalizing on our confusion over how to eat. Pollen wants us to focus less on what we eat and more on smaller portion sizes. For example, the fast food industry in America has contributed to American’s over eating by upsizing their products. The essay focuses on a healthy body weight and points out that Americans see fatness as unhealthy and thinness as healthy. Culturally our views of weight skew our views of what foods are right to eat. In other words Americans do not understand that what a person eats is not as important as how much they

In Michael Pollan’s essay “Escape from the Western Diet,” he informs Americans about the western diet and believes they need to escape from it. The reason Americans should escape the western diet is to avoid the harmful effects associated with it such as “western diseases” (Pollan, 434). To support his view on the issue, Pollan describes factors of the western diet that dictate what Americans believe they should eat. These factors include scientists with their theories of nutritionism, the food industry supporting the theories by making products, and the health industry making medication to support those same theories. Overall, Pollan feels that in order to escape this diet, people need to get the idea of it out of their heads. In turn he

According to Donald D. Hensrud of the Mayo Clinic on Healthy Weight, “Eating well – choosing a plant-based diet, which emphasizes vegetables, fruits and whole grains – also will reduce your risks of some of our nation’s biggest killers and related conditions. Many cancers, heart disease and high blood pressure, among other conditions, are linked to diet, most notably to diets high in fat and saturated fat. Even without weight loss, adopting a healthier eating style can be beneficial. (Hensrud 49)”

As a culture and as individuals, we no longer seem to know what we should and should not eat. When the old guides of culture and national cuisine and our mothers’ advice no longer seem to operate, the omnivore’s dilemma returns and you find yourself where we do today—utterly bewildered and conflicted about one of the most basic questions of human life: What should I eat? We’re buffeted by contradictory dietary advice: cut down on fats one decade, cut down on carbs the next. Every day’s newspaper brings news of another ideal diet, wonder-nutrient, or poison in the food chain. Hydrogenated vegetable oils go from being the modern alternatives to butter to a public health threat, just like that. Food marketers bombard us with messages that this or that food is “heart healthy” or is “part of a nutritious meal”. Without a stable culture of food to guide us, the omnivore’s dilemma has returned with a vengeance. We listen to scientists, to government guidelines, to package labels—to anything but our common sense and traditions. The most pleasurable of activities—eating—has become heavy with anxiety. The irony is, the more we worry about what we eat, the less healthy and fatter we seem to become.

Healthy, unhealthy, good food, bad food, fat, skinny, diet, weight: all these words have been used to define what society views as the key to a balanced or unbalanced life. In the essay, Food for Thought: Resisting the Moralization of Eating, Mary Maxfield takes a look into the stigma of eating habits, health, and dieting in western society. Maxfield supports her claims by analyzing and refuting Michael Pollan’s essay, Escape from the Western Diet. Although it is common knowledge that many people struggle to understand what is essentially “healthy” and “unhealthy”, there are many experts in the field of nutrition that claim to have the key to a perfect diet. Maxfield ultimately disclaims these ideas by bringing to light information that

For most Americans, the word poverty means insufficient access to to housing, clothing and nutritious food that meet their needs for a healthy life. A consequence of poverty is a low socioeconomic status that leads to being exposed to poor nutrition. Since food and dietary choices are influenced by income, poverty and nutrition go hand in hand. There are many important factors that threaten the nutritional status of poor people. The number one factor is not having enough money to buy food of good quality and quantity. Not having enough money can have a profound impact on the diets of low-income people. Limited financial resources may force low income people to make difficult decisions about what kind and how much food to buy. Limited

In Michael Pollan’s essay, “The American Paradox”, Pollan argues that American’s hold falsified ideas if one is more focused on nutrition. Americans have too much going on in their head with trying to be healthy, that they do not actually become healthy. The notion that “a notably unhealthy population preoccupied with nutrition and the idea of eating healthy” (Pollan 268) is what Pollan defines as the “American paradox”. The amount of time spent focusing on healthy eating habits decreases the joy one contains. Pollan identifies many issues that contribute to what is wrong with the way Americans think about eating today. For instance, we spend too much time and money trying to be healthy, we have strayed away from the past as new inventions occurred and last being we listen to “flawed science”. Despite the fact that many may say they see positive results from focusing on nutrition and health, Americans actually receive negative outcomes from nutrition and health.

Over the last several decades, the diet of society has been continually changing. This has resulted in different formulas for nutrition and the proper portions of foods that must be consumed. To fully understand the various arguments requires looking at numerous viewpoints. This will be accomplished by focusing on Michael Pollan's Escape from the Western Diet in contrast with Mary Maxfield's Food as thought: Resisting the Moralization of Eating. These views will highlight how diet and nutrition is based upon individual opinions. This is the focus of the thesis.

Individuals of higher income levels often have private insurance that allows them to see a physician on a regular basis. These individuals are able to prevent many diseases before they exacerbate. They often eat low fat diets or plant based diets. They are educated on their nutritional health and often make better choices when choosing the different types foods to eat. Due to their income, they can afford to eat healthy food and make healthy food choices. Even though these individuals may be predisposed to certain diseases, their diets prevent them from becoming prevalent in their lives. Due to the individual’s socioeconomic status they make enough money that they don’t stress about the necessities in life. These individuals live in areas such as Roswell, Johns Creek. Alpharetta, Buckhead, Kennesaw, and Stockbridge. Individuals of a poor economic status have limited access to healthcare. These individuals often have Medicaid, Medicare, or no health insurance at all. They often eat diets that are high in fat. Individuals of poor economic status aren’t often educated about eating healthy. They often eat unhealthy because it is too expensive to eat healthy. These individuals often receive government subsidiaries such as WIC and SNAP benefits for themselves and their children. There aren’t many healthy food stores if any at all in these neighborhoods. Stores such as Whole Foods, Sprout, and Trader Joe’s aren’t located in poverty stricken communities because the individuals can’t afford the prices. It is a disadvantage that the grocery chains in the neighborhood don’t offer the resident a healthier option. Individuals of poor economic status often fight chronic illnesses such as high blood pressure, diabetes, cardiovascular disease, and often cancer. They often live sedentary lifestyles that contribute to these diseases. They eat diets that are high in red meats one that contributes to

affects people with limited resources. Perhaps this is because, low income earners are more likely to indulge in unhealthy damaging behaviours such as eating unhealthy food and lack of physical activity (Hubley 2013). If this were the case, Molly might not able buy healthy food or accesses those activities that address her health needs such as the gym and other social networks in her community. All these factors might hinder positive health outcomes.

In relation to this, Lobstein (1995) established that deprived areas had poor diets because healthy food tended to more expensive in poorer communities than in the well-off ones (Holborn, Burrage and Langley, 2009)

Three times a day, millions of Americans peruse the varied array of food items on the dollar menu at the local fast food chain restaurant simply because it is their only affordable source of nourishment. Financial health and physical health are directly correlated in that healthy food contributes to superior physical well-being. However, this must mean that those who cannot afford a nutritious diet are those with poor physical health. The United States Census Bureau quantified nearly twenty-three percent of Houstonians living below the poverty line in 2015. In Radiolab’s “America’s Myths of Poverty,” James Baldwin observed that underprivileged families are unlikely to consume healthy meals because healthy food costs

102). One might impugn that it is not poverty but lack of education that affects the obesity epidemic. It does not require a mathematician to comprehend that choosing a two dollar case of Honey Buns as opposed to a six dollar bag of apples will equal more food in the refrigerator. Generally, processed foods are more “energy dense” than garden-fresh foods; they contain less water and fiber but more added fat and sugar, which make them both less satisfying and more calorific (Pollan, 2006). Provisions similar to fruits and vegetables contain high water content that permits individuals to feel satiated rather swiftly. Nutritious meals are more expensive, less tasty, and are more time consuming to prepare, fostering unhealthy eating patterns. On special occasions, parents will treat their children to McDonalds where everything is “super-sized”. Adults and children can acquire debauched consumption patterns because they don’t comprehend the quantity they have enthusiastically ingested. Pollan (2006) stated that “Well-designed fast food has a fragrance and flavor all its own, a fragrance and flavor only nominally connected to hamburgers or French fries or for that matter to particular food” (p. 111).

This essay will be discussing the extent to which social class and poverty affects health and illness. Firstly, what is social class? Each person’s perception of social class can be different; is social class defined by a person’s accent, the area they live in, or something as simple as their income? Project Britain describes social class as “The grouping of people by occupations and lifestyle”. (Cress, 2014). To find social class Sociologists group people according to common factors, they compare people and various criteria can be conveniently used to place people in social groups or classes. Next we ask the question what determines a person’s health, the NHS defines health as “Physical and mental, it is the absence of disease”. (NHS 2017).

For example a person living in a deprived council estate, with a very low income has been proven to be more at risk of developing health issues compared to someone from a higher social class as there is a strong correlation between poverty and ill health. This has been backed up by (WHO, 1946) that state that ‘poverty creates ill-health because it forces people to live in environments that make them sick.’