The basis of our being is cellular, with nutrition being one necessity a cell needs to function. Nutrition comes from the food we consume where it is digested and broken down into simple nutrients. Each food having a different nutritional value. Is the diet we, as American’s, consume nutritionally filled? What role does a typical western diet play in relationship to the diseases we treat in healthcare today? In going back to the diet of our ancestors, consuming a Paleolithic diet, also known as a caveman or stone-age diet decreases the amount of chronic inflammation one has, thereby reducing risk factors for major diseases we treat in healthcare today. You are what you eat. Food is fuel; a necessity for human existence. As human beings have progressed, industrialized, and revolutionized, what we ingest has followed suit. This food progression has been termed the western diet. It consists of high fat, sugar, refined starches, oil, nonhuman mammal milk including their products, and beans. Alongside the western diet, western diseases have emerged: cardiovascular heart disease, diabetes, hypertension and some cancers (Frassetto, Schloetter, Mietus-Synder, Morris, & Sebastian, 2009). A common denominator of all of these diseases, centered on metabolic syndrome, is a chronic state of systemic low-level inflammation (Ruiz-Nunez, Pruimboom, Dijick-Brouwer, & Muskiet, 2013). In the Paleolithic diet refined grains, nonhuman milk, milk’s associated products, sugar, and beans
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
Michael Pollan, a man who has written multiple books about food and eating, focuses on the western diet in his essay, Escape from the Western Diet. He simply argues that people need to stop eating a western diet because the diet leads to health complications, such as chronic diseases. Pollan himself writes, “People eating a Western diet are prone to a complex of chronic diseases that seldom strike people eating traditional diets” (Pollan 421). In this statement, Pollan compares risk of chronic disease within the Western diet to the traditional diet. He then continues by discussing how scientists will argue about the biological mechanisms behind the phenomenon of the western diet and chronic disease, yet the solution to the problem remains the
“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.
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)
Pollen explains that the reason why people in the United States are more prone to becoming obese or having health related problems is due to the term called the “Western Diet”. One of the reasons why the author believes that the “Western Diet” is the reason why people have health issues is due how the food industry does not provide the accurate nutritional values of what Americans are suppose to consume of a daily basis. In today’s society people tend to consume more foods that contain preservatives and chemicals, which were not intended to be in foods. However, due to the fact that Americans consume foods that are unhealthy, they do not know that they are increasing their chances of having the metabolic syndrome. Pollen also claims that health industry is to blame for the “Western Diet”. The reason why the author blames the health industry is because they use these false advertisements to develop new prescriptions and treatment
Michael Pollan says in his argument that the western diet is chiefly to blame for a majority of health deceases, he says “the scientist who blame our health problems on defiances of these micronutrients are not the same scientist who see sugar-soaked diet leading to metabolic syndrome and from there to diabetes, heart deceases, and cancer” (421) Due to all this negative impact to our health Pollan says that the food industry needs new theories to better redesign processed food and the medical community to make new drugs to beget deceases.
The field of nutrition science has yet to understand many factors that allow it to optimize nutrition for every-body. The very nature of the human body is subjective; it cannot be narrowed down to one factor, as science demands and varies from person to person. Pollan (2008) further delineates this point in his critique of reductionist science saying: “there is nothing very machinelike about the human eater, and to think of food as simply fuel is to misconstrue it” (p.
In today’s world, one cannot watch a thirty-minute television show without being bombarded with commercials promoting the latest, “Breakthrough Health Kick.” The Paleo Diet, Atkins Diet, South Beach Diet, along with a vast number of diets on the market has skewed the idea of healthy eating. The textbook, Nutrition from Science to You, states, “Healthy eating means you need to balance, vary, and moderate your nutrient intake.” Sadly, when I took two days to analyze my own diet I found a lack of balance, variety, and the ability to eat in moderation.
Improving the health conditions of the American population ensures the increased quality of life. People eat for various reasons with the fundamental reason being for survival purposes. However, the issue of eating to live and living to eat affects people in different manners as most people develop poor eating habits that affect the body’s nutritional intake and affects their health. Being healthy involves careful considerations of what one is eating and engaging in activities that contribute to better healthy lives that do not imply daily prescriptions or
The everyday routines of life can and will be more difficult if encumbered with obesity.
“People eating a western diet are prone to a complex of chronic diseases that seldom strike people eating more traditional diets.” He suggests that people who eat other foods that are not western tend to have less chronic diseases. His solution to this is to stop eating the Western diet. She points out that Maxwell is contradicting himself because while being a “critic of nutrition and food science he is bolstering the American investment in those industries.”(443) She also disagrees with his maxim, “Eat food, not much, and mostly plants” because she takes his idea as insulting addressing people “who apparently can’t properly nourish
Diet: A Look at Processed Food, Nutrition, and Obesity in the 20th Century was both insightful and interesting. It brought out many key points in why much of the world has become obese in such a short amount of time. It shows the impact processed foods, diet pills, and genetics have on an individual and their weight. It really helped open my eyes to realize that the rode to obesity is much more complex then we might have previously imagined.
Us humans have faced enormous changes in our lives from generation to generation. For instance, we are dealing with a situation best known as obesity or overweigh that will have terrible consequences to our future generations. According to TV shows and Internet in the United States, almost 80% of its population deals with this problem. That been said, there are different methods to start taking action to avoid this kind of disease. For example, dieting can prevent this problem, some people prefer regular dieting while others like to do competition dieting, however, I personally think that competition dieting can have better results in a short period of time.
Obesity basically means having too much body fat. Not being overweight for your height, having too much muscle, or water in your body. What exactly is obesity? “Obesity is a condition that is associated with having an excess of body fat, defined by genetic and environmental factors that are difficult to control when dieting. Obesity is classified as having a Body Mass Index (BMI) of 30 or greater. BMI is a tool used to measure obesity. Obesity increases your risk of developing related conditions such as diabetes, hypertension and sleep apnea, to name a few. Many individuals are affected by obesity and are not aware of it” (O.A.C, 2016). Causes of obesity vary from person to person, but most are from the same reasons. Taking in more calories than your body can burn leads to obesity because your body stores the unused calories as fat. Typical causes are eating too much food than your body can use, drinking too much alcohol, and not getting enough exercise. Many obese people who lose large amounts of weight and gain it back think it is their fault. They blame themselves for not having the willpower to keep the weight off. Many people regain more weight than they lost. Today, we know that biology is a big reason why some people cannot keep the weight off. Some people who live in the same place and eat the same foods become obese, while others do not. Our bodies have a complex system to help keep our
Obesity refers to the condition of having an extra amount of body fat. Obesity is caused by eating too much and moving too little. When an individual’s amount of body fat becomes too high, they are at a greater risk of being affected with life changing diseases such as heart failure, hypertension, type II diabetes, cancer, gallbladder disease, osteoarthritis, and others. This shows that people should become more physically active and attempt to make healthier choices because their life depends on the decisions, they make.