Wednesday, September 16, 2009

Blog #1

            So far in the book In Defense of Food: An Eater’s Manifesto, Michael Pollan has basically shot down almost every idea that I and most of America, has thought to be true of food. Pollan, at least so far, has challenged many well-believed tales and tricks about food and good health. One in particular is that products that say they are healthy usually aren’t. He claims that if food is labeled as a health “product”, that’s usually what it is, a product, not food, which is what you want to put into your body. I would have to say I mostly agree with this claim. It’s like a selling point for food products. If I were the manufacturer of a processed food product, not very healthy because it’s processed, but not necessarily bad for a person either, I would try to tie as much health points to it as possible because that’s what our society is obsessed with today. The fact that a product says its healthy will basically sell itself. Another interesting point Pollan brings up is the idea that vitamins really aren’t that beneficial to a person’s health. The thing that is helping our bodies grow strong is when the vitamins are eaten as food. An article from the New York Times called “Vitamin Pills: A False Hope?” by Tara Parker-Pope, also argues this point. In this article Parker-Pope claims that there have been numerous studies over the past decade and most of them have shown that there was no significant change in the subject’s health that took vitamins versus ones who didn’t. I must say I completely agree with Pollan and Parker-Pope. I think that the reason for vitamins is so a person’s body can get nutrients that the body can’t make on its own. As Parker-Pope states in her article, “But a balanced diet typically provides an adequate level of these nutrients,” I completely agree and so does Pollan. If people would just eat a healthy diet of FOOD, and not try to supplement their under-nutrient diet, with vitamins and heath products, I think we all would be a little better off. 

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