Why The Fries Taste Good By Michael Pollan Analysis

Malcolm Gladwell’s article “The Trouble with Fries” is about a very invasive topic. Fast Food is killing us. Can it be fixed? Although his thesis statement isn’t exactly clear, he effectively uses evidence to convince his audience that a nutrition movement is needed especially for fast food. By discussing many factors with supporting evidence that is factual he shows why fast food is struggling to have a nutrition movement.

This essay compares Michael Moss’ “Junk Food” to Virginia Heffernan’s “What If You Just Hate Making Dinner”. Both of these authors write about food, and they specifically discuss the topic of junk food. The key difference between these articles is that Heffernan looks at the topic from the point of view of a consumer, a busy mother seeking a convenience; and Moss focuses more on the food and beverage industry and its impact on the consumers. Many industry professionals, doctors and scientists alike are concerned about spreading obesity epidemic. The similarities between “Junk Food” and “What If You Just Hate Making Dinner” are pronounced, and they deserve thorough investigation.

Michael Pollan's In Defense of Food: An Eater's Manifesto is an eye-opening analysis of the American food industry and the fear driven relationship many of us have with food. He talks in depth about all the little scientific studies, misconceptions and confusions that have gathered over the past fifty years. In the end provide us with a piece of advice that should be obvious but somehow is not, "Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants." He follows the history of nutritionism and the industrialization of food, in hopes to answer one question….. how and when "mom" ceded control of our food choices to nutritionists, food marketers and the government.

The essay “Eat Food: Food Defined,” from Michael Pollan’s 2008 book In Defense of Food was written to address the American general public about the food industry. Pollan focuses on relatable topics as examples, such as family, common food items, and common belief that everyone wants to be healthy. The essay brings across Pollan’s point by establishing his credibility, explaining why this is important to us, and telling us how to react to the given facts. Pollan makes the readers inquire how we define food by drawing our attention to the importance of examining our food before eating it.

Many people have grown up around school lunches without knowing much about them. With these people trusting the schools to serve healthy lunches to students, not many people care to worry about what they are eating. Growing up ignorant about food is easy to do, but why settle for convenience if it harms the body? In Melanie Warner’s novel, Pandora’s Lunchbox: How Processed Food took over the American Meal, she goes over the history and science of many well-known food companies and the products these corporations sell to individuals. Warner explains how food science became popular to study and how progressive America’s food technology has come. Pandora’s Lunchbox is a remarkable read through its personal stories and demonstrations. Despite her fruitless comments about the science of food, Warner’s approach shows that her writing style and personal testimonies connect with the reader.

Malcolm Gladwell’s podcast on Revisionist History, “McDonald’s Broke My Heart”, is centered around Phil Sokolof’s experience of having a heart attack. Sokolof single handedly decided to attack the issue of unhealthy food head on. Sokolof does this through the help of newspapers and billboards, to promote a healthier lifestyle within the United States. Malcolm Gladwell discusses during the podcast how McDonald’s oil is unhealthy for humans, through the use of pathos. Gladwell effectively spreads this message throughout the duration of his podcast. The podcast informs the listeners how unhealthy McDonald's oil was and how the company needed to make a change in order to provide its customers with a healthy food option.

Berry begins the article by pointing out the consumer’s ignorance as they do not realize the connection they have with the agricultural cycle. Many believe that eating is an agriculture act, however, they do not associate themselves with this act because they do not have direct contact with the actual food production process. Berry explains that the reason why people think this way is because “they just buy what they want - or what they have been persuaded to want” without a second thought on the qualities and the states of the products (3). He appeals to the reader’s emotions as he describes the nature of the consumers because it demonstrates the reality of how little people nowadays care what they consume into their body. Berry further enforces his appeal on the audience’s emotions by claiming that “food is pretty much an abstract idea” to most of the urban shoppers (4). Shoppers understand that food is produced on farms, but have no knowledge on the locations of the farms, the type of farms, and the techniques that are involved in farming. This statement supports Berry’s claims on the consumer’s ignorance because it points out the important role that consumers actually play

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.

American food culture is not like other countries in the world; the diversity in foods and ethnicity creates its uniqueness. However, Americans mindset of “what should we have for dinner” and the poor decision making about food choices created the “omnivore’s dilemma” or what Pollan, in The Omnivore’s Dilemma calls the American national eating disorder. Pollan explored more about the food that Americans consume in “an investigation of food called the industrial food chain”(Pollan, Omnivore 110). While studying the products in supermarkets, Pollan realized that supermarkets offer a large variety of foods that contain corn, an unhealthy component, in most of its products. While Pollan is compelling claiming that American’s healthy food

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.

“They (Food Production Corporations) may have salt, sugar, and fat on their side, but we, ultimately, have the power to make choices. After all, we decide what to buy. We decide how much to eat.” (Moss 346). In today’s society, junk food needs no introduction as everyone enjoys the taste of junk food because it is fast, tasty, and affordable but not everyone knows what all goes into their food. Over the years the food industries have drastically changed how food is produced and manufactured. Moss reflects upon the motivations and practices by the food industries which have transformed the American food supply by the use of the three key ingredients, salt, sugar, and fat. Through Michael Moss’s use of rhetorical appeals in his book Salt, Sugar, Fat: How the Food Giants Hooked Us, he discusses the extraordinary science behind what is considered tasty food, how multinational food companies use the key ingredients, salt sugar, and fat to increase sales and how other literary elements can help create trust between the author and audience thus increasing the effect of his arguments.

Many consumers are not able to see where their food comes from, similarly to how the corn no longer has the information of how it was produced. The change in food production also is evident in the decline in personal nature via packaging. Two centuries ago, people were able to purchase their corn from “the farm where the corn had been grown” and most likely where they had developed a more personal linkage with the farmer on a local level. Now, the connection between the source of consumer’s food production and the consumer itself are separated by thousands of miles, lacking communication, acknowledgement, and awareness of the production process. Pollan implements something as simple as a produce “sack” to showcase the reality that modern-day consumers are denied their right to know where and how their food was developed, violating one foundation of food justice: the right to know what one is eating.

McDonald’s Fries are iconic food in America culture and around the world, people love and they enjoy it. The author, Eric Schlosser used the popularity of the French fried to catch the attention of the readers. The author have used a different introductory statement, such as using foot in general in this country. He chose McDonald’s French fried because not only are all people familiar with it, but most people know how unhealthy and its processes actually are. Schlosser drew the readers into his article with this known facts, and at the same time he also introduced new less known facts to keep the readers interested.

In the report “Why Mcdonald’s Fries Taste so Good” authored by Eric Schlosser, his overall thesis was to inform his audience that the majority of the food that Americans (and other countries globally) are accustomed to consuming e.g., from fast food restaurants, household food items, and desserts have their own flavor additives that are produced at flavor industries with the sole purpose of mixing chemicals to create particular smells that ultimately influence a unique taste. Schlosser means to enlighten his audience in order to reveal how the components in the food that is eaten on a day-to-day basis are being chemically generated and how. His thesis was effective in the sense that he used an unbiased tone throughout the report to provide

In the article “Why the Fries Taste Good” the author points out how the French fries, once made fresh and natural handmade ingredients, now contain “natural flavor” that are actually made of chemicals and artificial ingredients, which severely affect our health. Schlosser argues that companies like IFF are artificially creating aromas of every kind to make our food taste and smell good, with the exclusive purpose to increase the producers’ profit. This article warns the consumers about all the chemicals contained in processed foods, which are labeled as natural flavored with the sole intent to mislead them. Indeed, the market of processed food does not take in consideration one’s health by focusing on creating addiction on hordes of unsuspecting