Omnivore's Dilemma Discussion Questions

The Omnivore’s Dilemma: A Natural History of Four Meals, by Michael Pollan, is about one man’s journey through the food production system and how he arrives at the conclusion that although hunting and gathering may be an excellent means to keep oneself healthy, it is really up to the individual as to what they are willing to put in their body.

Pollan’s central claim is that the food we eat nowadays contain multiple complicated food products which most of us have no idea what they are. He claims that we should eat as our ancestors, a loaf of bread should only include a few ingredients like flour, yeast, water and a pinch of salt; not a list of complicated ingredients like Sara Lee’s Soft & Smooth Whole Grain White Bread. As Pollan’s said in his essay “there are in fact hundreds of foodish products in the supermarket that your ancestors simply wouldn’t recognize as food.” (Pollan 2) Pollan wants to inform us about nowadays supermarket product, guiding the reader with his 4 main rules and indicating how to buy in a supermarket knowing about the FDA. I personally enjoy culinary, so

A happy sunny farm versus a dark and bloody slaughter room. This is where most naive young children think where their meat comes from versus the reality. The Omnivore’s Dilemma by Michael Pollan is a book with a purpose to educate people about their food system so they can make informed choices. The three writing techniques Michael Pollan uses to persuade his readers are ethos, pathos and logos. He uses the method ethos by making his readers think he is a reliable and credible source. He uses pathos by evoking an emotional response from the readers. Michael Pollan uses logos to appeal to logic and reason. The persuasive techniques ethos, pathos and logos used by Michael Pollan helped him to convince his readers to feel plus think a certain

What am I exactly eating? Where does our food come from? Why should I care? “The Omnivore’s Dilemma” may forever change the way you think about food. I enjoyed Mr. Pollan’s book, “The Omnivore’s Dilemma” and learned a great deal of information. Pollan’s book is a plea for us to stop and think for a moment about our whole process of eating. Pollan sets out to corn fields and natural farms, goes hunting and foraging, all in the name of coming to terms with where food really comes from in modern America and what the ramifications are for the eaters, the eaten, the economy and the environment. The results are far more than I expected them to be.

The Omnivore’s Dilemma by Michael Pollan is a comprehensive look into the present day food culture of the United States. Throughout the book the author tries to find out the true composition of the diet that is consumed by Americans on a daily basis. There is an excessive dependence by the American population on the government to know which food is good for them. This paper will critically analyze the book as well as the stance that the author has taken. Since there is a deluge of information about diets and health available today, the relevance of this well researched book in the present day world cannot be emphasized enough. Its relevance is not limited to the United States alone but to the entire human society which is moving towards homogenous food habits.

In the documentary film “Fed Up”, sugar and the sweeteners in our food or beverages is featured to be the prime ingredient that is making the most of our adolescents obese. It tells of a few families struggling with obesity, and how these families have been trying to do everything they can to help their children lose weight. It shows what kind of food that they are eating at home and the weight problem that most of the family is struggling with. The food that is being served at schools and also the thousands of products that contain sugar, everywhere groceries are bought; sugar is the main cause for obesity. It tells that low wage earners have no choice, but to buy unhealthy food, because healthier food cost more. “The bottom line: cheap, unhealthy foods mixed with a sedentary lifestyle has made obesity the new normal in America. There is no single, simple answer to explain the obesity patterns in America, says Walter Willett, who chairs the department of nutrition at the Harvard School of Public Health” article in the U. S. News. Although it does cost more, a school of public health wrote in an article, “While healthier diets did cost more, the difference was smaller than many people might have expected. Over the course of a year, $1.50/day more for eating a healthy diet would increase food costs for one person by about $550 per year. On the other hand, this price difference is very small in comparison to the economic costs of diet-related chronic diseases, which would be

Indeed, Pollan’s views appear to be convincing since the different cultures in America offering a large variety of traditional food dishes causes a problem in food choices. As a consequence, Pollan mentioned, the mindset of American’s about, “what should we eat for dinner?” is caused by the food options in America being very diverse and not limited.

Michael Pollan, in his book The Omnivore’s Dilemma, advocates for organic, locally grown foods. He contends that processed foods, unlike organic foods, are

The answers Pollan offers to the seemingly straightforward question posed by this book have profound political, economic, psychological, and even moral implications for all of us. Beautifully written and thrillingly argued, The Omnivore’s Dilemma promises to change the

When I go shopping most of the products ingredients have listed in the list high fructose corn syrup. The products with filler and corn syrup taste very similar to the product, but because they do not use the natural (healthier) ingredients. People all around are happy. The producer can make the product cheap, in turn the customer can purchase it cheaper that more healthy foods. This seems great cheap production and cheap to buy, sounds like a win -win, right. Wrong! Tirman states from a Tufts University nutritionist, “This economic paradox of continued growth in spite of apparent market saturation results in the calorie source of much of America’s pandemic obesity” (Tirman 203). If people would eat foods without the corns syrups, high sodium, and fat content then maybe America can see reduction in this preventable epidemic called obesity. There is good news though, both the producer and the consumer will continue to see growth. The producer wallet will be bigger; at the same time the consumer pants size will continue to grow. Processed foods are why McDonald’s is a cheap place to

When Michael Pollan's book The Omnivore's Dilemma was published, many readers began questioning him for advice on what they should eat in order to stay healthy. In his more recent book, In Defense of Food, he responds with three rules, "Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants"(Pollan 1). This seven word response seems too simple for a relatively complicated question, but as he further elaborates these rules into specific guidelines, this summary turns out to be surprisingly complete. Using inductive and deductive reasoning, he debunks the ideas behind nutritionism and food science, and proves that the western diet is the cause for food related diseases. Inductive reasoning is when a

example, Michael Pollan, the author of The Omnivore’s Dilemma, exposes the true nature of our

Thesis As I said earlier high fructose corn syrup is commonly used for a cheaper sugar substitute. But government subtitles aren't the only price we are paying. Fructose corn syrup is much more fattening than sugar. Michael pollen states in omnivore's dilemma that “Kids in the us today may turn out to be the first group of Americans with life spans that are shorter than their parents.” This important because fructose corn syrup is part of that. If we keep eating the way we do things are not going to go well. Already “momently 17% of children and teenagers are obese in 2015b compared to 5% back in the 1970s”. If we keep eating way it could lead to debits heart problems and more food policies need to be change so there is not even a possibility of choosing colorful high fructose corn slurp over an apple

When a child is born, the parents hope that they have a better, and longer life then they did. Yet for the first time in modern US history, “Today’s children are expected to have shorter life expectancies than there parents” (Life Expectancy of U.S. Children Cut Short by Obesity). The somber realization is the result of a several decade long epidemic which threatens to poison future generations and prevent them from living long prosperous lives. The obesity rate in the United States has sky rocketed in the last ten years to a staggering 34.9% of all adults (L. Ogden, Prevalence of Obesity in the United States, 2011-2012). This number is only expected to increase with the current generation of children, as diseases such as type two diabetes, high blood pressure, high cholesterol, and coronary heart disease increase in prevalence (Center of Disease Control and Prevention). The culprit, is what Americans eat. Almost all the food that is accessible by the average American is processed, and therefore contains a ridiculous amount of artificial ingredients such as high fructose corn syrup (Hojjat 86). Many companies such as Coca Cola have been a contributing to the current state of the United states poor health, by advertising to younger ages and relating there product to creating a sense of happiness.

Showing the transition that America is going into. The problem has become so crucial that nearly 3 in 5 Americans are bound to obese. If people really knew what they were consuming and not just to eat because of hunger. But pay attention to the details it would make a bigger difference. Pollan introduces “Fast Food”, which is nearly connected to corn. Most people do not understand that most of their food consists of corn; even with its vegetable status, people do not know what it is concentrated to. The Corn industry is big and known for the concertation of high-fructose corn syrup. (HFCS) Most Americans do not have an idea of what that is. Pollan writes, “To wash down your chicken nuggets with virtually any soft drink in the supermarket is to have some corn with your corn” (Pollan 19), which relates to the fact that every soft drink has HFCS yet also the simultaneous fact that the people that consume it are not aware of it. This is what Pollan is trying to get across in what people are consuming, but are not educated about the nutritional deficiencies in what they are eating. There have been, and will be arguments, about how much education is necessary, if not more, about teaching people what they should and shouldn’t eat.