Summary Of The Documentary 'Diet For A New America'

There are more ways to shun obesity. Michael Pollan, who wrote “Escape from the western diet”, claims that the fast food industry is one of the main reasons why people struggle with their health. He believes that the processed food we consume gives us harmful deceases. Pollan urges us to listen to his words to avoid the western diet, he preaches that we should start eating healthier and to put more time and effort when it comes to buying food. Pollan provides us with his rules as well and claims that it will help us plot our way out of the western diet. Also, Pollan informs us that when it to the intake we tend to over eat, thus it becomes a huge threat to our health. The government has also made an attempt to put a stop to obesity by inverting an array of food options. By focusing on the main causes of obesity, Pollan overlooks the deeper problem of the lack of insufficient information, thus he leaves us with a lot of question marks .

Forks Over Knives, directed and written by Lee Fulkerson, examines the profound claim that most, if not all, of the degenerative diseases that afflict us can be controlled, or even reversed, by rejecting our present menu of animal-based and processed foods. This film follows multiple doctors and their experimental process of attempting to understand the connection between the human diet and the many human ailments that occur in the world. Forks Over Knives creates a very persuasive case for eliminating meat and dairy from the dinner table.

One of the most unhealthy diets in the world is that of an American. It is made up of processed foods and a good amount of television. America easily has the most fast food restaurants in the entire world. Leave it to McDonald’s, Wendy’s, Burger King or any other fast-food restaurant to serve extremely cheap and even unhealthier food at any time during the day or night. ”It tastes good so why not?” That seems to be the question many people are asking now-a-days. Because it is so easily accessible and processed, it is made to be very tasty and extremely unhealthy. Many Americans find his or herself indulging on the these fatty foods of America on a day-to-day basis. While it may taste good at the time, it has a terrible effect on your body

The second focus of Forks Over Knives is ‘a whole-foods, plant-based diet is the solution.’ The documentary has already effectively proven that something about Americans’ eating habits needs to change. Half of Fulkerson’s burden is complete. Viewers are scared by the unhealthiness of America and the possibility of surgery for themselves. They have seen the cost of their diet and even scientific studies showing that the diet promotes cancer growth.

I had chosen the book Eating Mindfully (Second Edition), by Susan Albers. Albers is a US-based psychologist who not only specializes in mindful eating, but also, eating issues, weight loss, and body image concerns. On top of creating these books Albers organizes mindful eating workshops across the country and internationally to assist people from all over the world.

It is a known fact that other countries eat healthier than here in the United States. For example, the Mediterranean diet contains many fruits and vegetables. It also replaces fattening oils with olive oil. In the article “Mediterranean Diet Shown to Ward Off Heart Attack and Stroke”, Gina Kolata states, “About 30 percent of heart attacks, strokes and deaths from heart disease can be prevented in people at high risk if they switch to a Mediterranean diet rich in olive oil, nuts, beans, fish, fruits and vegetables, and even drink wine with meals, a large and rigorous new study has found” (nytimes.com). Many people who have gone on the Mediterranean diet have decreased their risk.

In the article, “Escape from the Western Diet” by Michael Pollan, he argues that, “people that eat the Western diet are prone to a complex of chronic diseases.” Since meat is available everywhere in the United States, everyone is able to get their hands on meat and processed meat on a daily basis. We can eat more than double our weight of meat in the entire year, that just shows us that we tend to eat a heavy meat diet on a daily basis but we are too stubborn to change that. Pollan also states that, “the flood of refined carbohydrates has pushed important micronutrients out of the modern diets.” We live in a world that wants stuff to be done as fast as possible and well that includes food. Since we mass producing meats with the use of drugs and other forms of processing it causes some of the important nutrients that we need to leave the food. In Pollan’s article, it states that, “since healthcare is an industry, it stands to make profit on new drugs and procedures to treat chronic diseases than people changing their eating habits.” Not only are we harming ourselves in not making the proper eating choices but the healthcare industry will stay idly by in order for them to release a new drug to make money. In order for us to improve our health we have to take the first move into that direction

Type two diabetes is preventable with the right kind of lifestyle, but if it is not prevented the only one to blame is the individual because it is self done. Obesity and type two diabetes are two ilnesses that are done to ones self through the acts of not eating a healthy stable diet and not exercising on a regular basis. If the United States did not promote so much processed foods the american families probably would not be in this epidemic. Unfortunaley, this epidemic is spreading worldwide, it will continue to have this domino effect if individuals are not more aware as to what they are eating. Khanna goes on to explain how when this type of diet is used in different parts of the world such as in Japan there becomes an apparent difference in their health. She notes that there is a decline in their health. She also states that “in the West, we have far too many additives in our foods, high fructose corn syrup, things we cannot even pronounce in our foods."According to the authors of the Harvard University of Public Health Web Team, Deane Eastwood, Christopher Ternan, and Jacob Yerdon, the Western diet plays one of the largest roles in obesity. Obesity has become a growing epidemic in every age group due to the toxic environments that have prevented many Americans from healthy living. We are constantly surrounded by processed foods, whether it be in schools or work areas, which makes it difficult for individuals to

The article ‘ Escape from the Western Diet” by Michael Pollan found in the textbook “The say I say” claims that Americans must escape from the western Diet. The western diet is the cause of chronic diseases. Michael Pollan touch the point that the different nutritional theories are behind those diseases. He goes on to argue that the industries used, their nutritional theorie to release new products . Michael Pollan also accused the health industries in fact that their theories are to develop new prescriptions and treatment methode. Denis Burkit suggests that to avoid the disease, we have

“Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants.” Michael Pollan, one of Time magazine’s top 100 Most Influential People in 2010 and author of “Escape from the Western Diet”, proposes these three rules to live a healthier life. Pollan strongly believes that the Western diet is responsible for Western Diseases. Throughout the excerpt, he explains how the epidemic of obesity is caused by the business of food and medical industries, the degree of food that is processed, and how much time and effort is put into developing a well-balanced diet.

The Omnivore’s Dilemma by Michael Pollan was written to oppose the common misunderstanding of Americans as a whole on what we should eat when options are so plentiful. The book begins by asking a straightforward rhetorical question projected to make the reader think on a more personal level how they would answer this. Pollan asks, “What should we have for dinner?”, Then goes on to elaborate just how difficlut the answer is. Pollan breaks down the book into three main sections being “Industrial Corn”, “Pastoral Grass”, and “The Forest”. Within each section he goes on 4 different eating adventures. Throughout each section he does an excellent job going into great detail to convince the omnivores of America that ultimately we need to have a

A new type of agriculture, locavore, is becoming larger and larger, the locavore lifestyle is promised to give anyone who lives it a healthy life. locavore is the practice of only consuming locally grown foods. Joining the locavore movement and eating locally grown foods is more healthy and helpful to the human body, but forcefully changing Americaʼs diet would prove to be dreadfully difficult, not to mention the negative impact it will have on the economy, including the fact that eating local foods is not the only way to stay healthy .There are many issues that must be taking into account before determining whether a transition so large would truly benefit any community or wreak havoc.

There were a few key points that stood out in the reading of chapter 4 and the articles provided. One point that stood out to me in chapter 4 is located on page 102. In 1996 Dr. Peter D’Adamo the author of “Eat Right for Your Type”, was able to tell which foods a person would process best, and which foods would produce useless calories. This was all determined by your blood type. The small reference towards the Dr’s program goes on to say “while there are many serious critics of Dr. D’Adamo’s program, and the research that supports it, there are also testimonies to the programs life savings values”. Another couple points that stood out in the reading of chapter 4 are both located on page 104. The first point noted was the variety of cancers and mortality rates that are high in regions where the population had a high rate of meat consumption. The other point which stood out from chapter 4 is that “ ½ of the harvested agriculture land in the U.S. is planted with feed crops which brings up a fact that grain which is being fed to cattle is not being fed to the many people who are starving”.

“Dietary patterns of Americans differ widely, but most Americans eat a diet that could best be described as in need of improvement”. Compared to other countries, the American diet is very different. I have first hand experienced how much different Americans eat from other countries. For a brief, but very beneficial and productive time, I lived in Barcelona, Spain with my host family. Over in Spain, they eat much more fresh, organic food. There was a lot more seafood in the average diet. The meal configuration over there is also different than ours. Lunch is the largest meal eaten every day; different than America, where dinner is the largest.

Growing up in the United States, there are many things that I had just accepted as the norm. Eating a diet heavy in meat and dairy are staples in the diet of the average American that those who differ are considered strange. Interestingly, the United States is also referred to as one of the unhealthiest nations in the world. How could we be so unhealthy, when we are such a developed country that has access to the best medical care and information. The documentary “Forks Over Knives” focuses on exactly this point. It claims that there is a fundamental problem with the diet of Americans, particularly our heavy consumption of meat and dairy. This documentary asserts that the cure for all of our health related problems is to switch to a whole