`` Escape From The Western Diet ' By Michael Pollan Essay

In the article “Escape from the Western Diet”, Michael Pollan suggest to the people that they should stop eating a western diet because western diet is also responsible for western diseases such as diabetes, high blood pressure and many more. In his article he said that “People eating a Western diet are prone to a complex chronic diseases that seldom strike people eating more traditional diets.” He also gave the solution of this problem by telling people to stop eating a western diet. New theories made new treatments to treat different diseases. In his point of view, if people want to escape from western diet they need to stop eating western food daily. He thinks that if people want to stay healthy they should eat food, not too much,

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

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.

The overconsumption of inappropriate foods containing trans-fats and large serving portions has caused many to become obese hence developing heart disease, and diabetes among other preventable disease. Currently over 500 million of the world population is obese and one and half billion people in the world are overweigh”. Every year about 2.5 million deaths are related to obesity (WHO) and children seem to be the most affected. Furthermore, obesity has continued to increase and currently there are more obese people in the world than underweight. Amazingly, the United States a country with ample resources has the higher rate of obese

When it comes to food in today's day and age it correlates with being convenient, fast, and budgeting because people are usually on the go. Generally, people are used to a grab and go routine between work, school, and a family life. Government regulations such as the FDA and other laws given to factories and supermarkets are being trusted to keep the population safe from any food dangerous; therefore, people don’t do their own research on the foods they’re serving. Authors Pollan and Schlosser in Food Matters, allows individuals to analyze and think about the intake of foods used in their daily life. Pollan shares some rules to be considered when shopping for foods in the supermarket. If people read in detail the theories and information given

In his book " In Defense of Food " author Michael Pollan takes an interesting and thought

Take a gander around your local mega-mart today, and what do you see? An epidemic of food like substances taking over the supermarket shelves; an epidemic that has substituted real food for fake, shown links to obesity, and has altered our eating habits. There is, however, a solution that allows you to stick to the healthy foods you want to eat and avoid the foods you don’t.

Journalist and novelist Michael Pollan writes about the trials and tribulations surrounding food in North America and raises questions regarding Western diet, which is mostly comprised of refined sugar and high fructose corn syrup and corn in general. He reiterates that chemically generated food is creating disease in North Americans; If we eliminate these factors and adopt the eating habits of less industrialized places in the world will we in our lifetime see rates of heart disease, type two diabetes and obesity decline dramatically? The western diet has evolved drastically in the last sixty years, so much so that people have become codependent on the government, dietitians and food agencies regarding their health and what to consume. The land is suffering from pesticides and singular plant farming, the alternative to this is to buy organic but at a higher price. Media has influenced the consumer to read the label and accept and trust the daily vitamin percentages on the box, as this is what is best for them. Money is the key factor in all of this and the government, scientific research and media know that, therefor the public is in for a shock when they realize that the very labels that are supposed to save them have fooled them.

However, Michael Pollan, in his article “Escape from the Western Diet” states that both the food and health industries are partially to blame. He talks about how he wants Americans to leave behind the western diet. Pollan claims the fast food business is to be faulted in light of the fact that they utilize these distinctive wholesome hypotheses to discharge new items, and that the wellbeing business is to be faulted on the grounds that they utilize these speculations to grow new solutions and strategies. He’s not just opening up about the unfortunate western eating habits, but additionally how the health care buildings are charging at this issue, however they are profiting from the results. He wants Americans to avoid this diet because of the harmful effects it could bring, such as “western diseases”(Pollan 423). Pollan claims that utilizing reductionist science, which concentrates on individual gatherings as opposed to entire nourishments, is unavoidable to attempt to make sense of what isn 't right with the Western eating routine. Pollan believes that it is because of the huge amounts of salt and sugar, put into foods that cause obesity. In that statement I agree with him because I personally don’t use a large amount of salt in my food, but I see peers just pour so much salt and sugar in their meals like it’s nothing and then complaining about how they 're getting fat. He additionally clarifies that these restaurants and markets

Pollan believes that Western diet is the primary cause of many of the different ailments that are impacting contemporary society. A few of the most notable include: heart disease, high blood pressure and diabetes. This is because there is no vested interest in supporting primary care and preventive medicine. As the health care industry wants to create drugs that can treat these conditions. Yet, they do not deal with the root causes of the problem. Instead, they allow the individual to engage in a pattern of destructive lifestyle choices. This increases the profit margins for everyone inside the health care industry by taking this approach. (Pollan)

To start off, Maxfield writes an article in response to Michael Pollan's "Escape from the Western Diet." In this piece, Maxfield points out several disagreements she was with Pollan. For instance, Maxfield is able to show how Pollan could be viewed as a hypocrite by pointing out that he came up with his own eating formula, which he originally disagreed with. The author also seems to criticize Pollan's philosophy of "Eat food, not too much, mostly plants," which she believes is a dreadful idea for any person to follow and ultimately becomes a dictate provided by an expert to those who cannot properly nourish themselves. Furthermore, both Maxfield and Pollan seem to reject nutritionism claiming that these people are in it for the money as well

Obesity is becoming one of the biggest problems in the country, but there has to be reasons for it. It can be the economy, society now, or people and companies. It’s time that our country starts to realize that we can’t live like this anymore. We need to see what is causing the sudden rise in obesity, and what we can do to fix it. Education of risks and solutions can be very helpful. Obesity is killing so many people, yet is still 100 percent avoidable. Our country is beginning to care less and really let themselves go. The fast food industry, supermarkets, and schools are the ones at fault for the spreading problem of obesity.

This source provides a lot of study based research information on several topics that relate to obesity. The article gives a lot of information about the battle between for fighting obesity and advocates that want Americans to make their own choices about the food they consume. This article covers a wide range of informative data from food served in schools, to the rise of industrial farming. The author is a freelance reporter that does not seem to have a bias for the obesity subject. Instead this author provides information for the government to regulate or not regulate the food Americans consume on a day to day base. The article’s audience could be made up of people looking to for the pros and cons of government regulations to help fight obesity. This source provides information to help anyone with some research material to in order to form their own opinion on the problems of obesity in this country. I found this source while using the CQ researcher website and searched for obesity in America.

The Western Diet mainly consists of fried foods, refined grains, sugar, high carbohydrate and fats, and meats (3). It has been hypothesized that having a Western Diet increases one’s chances for developing depression. There has been a great deal of research into why the western diet increase’s one chance of having depression. A common sense reason maybe that the Western Diet consisted of large amounts carbohydrates, fats and sugars which promotes obesity and then causes depression (1). More scientific evidence suggest that having a improper diet like the Western Diet negatively affects peripheral and central dopamine, which are neurotransmitters (chemical which transmit signals across the synapse from the nerve cell to the target cell)

     The growing prevalence of obesity and overweight is a reflection of the enormous success for there United States food system. Food that is cheap and frequently high in calorie content is widely available. Over ten thousands years ago food was essential problem for most people. Food was considered sacred. Obtaining food by hunting and farming require a lot of physical activity. Now food is easily gotten and people no longer need to over exert themselves to obtain it.