There are so many issues that this world is currently facing but hardly anyone of us is actually trying to solve these issues. Many of our fellow human beings are suffering from some sort of health issue ranging from diabetes to heart disease. Not only are we slowly killing ourselves with our poor diets but we are also killing our environment by creating more and more waste and pollution. The third issue that we are currently facing is our economic issue due to our excessive spending and lack of money and income. The issues that we are currently facing can be resolved by decolonizing our diets because our health will improve, it will save the environment and it will provide the economic growth that we need. We are currently facing a war within …show more content…
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 …show more content…
The truth is that if we decolonize our diets it’ll be more effective than just simply exercising. In Layne’s article, she says that, “decolonizing our diet is about removing the items from the diet that would not traditionally be there.” We have to eat only items and foods that are native to our region of the world to prevent any more health issues related to food. In the past our ancestors lived off the land and had a plant based diet and they continued to live for many years because their diet kept them health. Layne also states that, “a plant based diet is 80 to 90 percent plants, grains, fruits, nuts, seeds, and veggies which was the Native diet.” With a plant based diet we are not only eating healthier but we are removing all the harmful effects of what the Spanish have caused when they colonized the early Americas. Though we might not like the idea of decolonizing our diet at first it's a start that need to happen. Layne concludes her article by saying, “Our bodies are craving nutrition and that has been lost down the genetic line, but our bodies remember.” The reason why we might eat so much meat is to try restore or reobtain the nutrition that we are craving but in order to get that nutrition we have to go back to having a plant based
In the article “Escape from the Western Diet”, Michael Pollan suggest to the people that they should stop eating a western diet because western diet is also responsible for western diseases such as diabetes, high blood pressure and many more. In his article he said that “People eating a Western diet are prone to a complex chronic diseases that seldom strike people eating more traditional diets.” He also gave the solution of this problem by telling people to stop eating a western diet. New theories made new treatments to treat different diseases. In his point of view, if people want to escape from western diet they need to stop eating western food daily. He thinks that if people want to stay healthy they should eat food, not too much,
The world’s dietary functionality differs from region to region, but a consensus remains constant; americans have an unfulfilling diet overall. In other countries the have their diet scheduled for three structured meals for each day, whereas americans eat whenever their minds tell them that they are hungry. The problem with the american way is when americans eat, they eat food that is filling to the brain but not to the stomach. Americans are always on the run, therefore there is not sufficient time to prepare a structured meals; instead americans rely on fast food. This method of nourishment comes with its own set of issues, food is of a lower quality than that of a home-cooked meal. Along with that comes poor beverage quality instituted
We could institute a national, comprehensive program that would make us a world leader in preventing chronic or “lifestyle” diseases, which for the first time in history kill more people than communicable ones. By doing so, we’d not only repair some of the damage we have caused by first inventing and then exporting the Standard American diet, we’d also set a new standard for the rest of the world to follow (Bittman 299).
In addition to bringing to light these contradicting scientific theories, Pollan goes further to include how these theories benefit the food industry as well as the health industry. Pollan observes “for the medical community too scientific theories about diet nourish business… new theories beget new drugs… and new diets organized around each new theory’s elevation of one class of nutrient and demotion of another” (Pollan, 436). Basically, Pollan is informing that the health industry wants to profit off the theories declared by making drugs in regards to the nutrients cut down on. Similarly, Pollan notes the food industry comes out with a new line of products to match with the new theories made for the western diet. He reminds the reader to escape the western diet even though it will be hard because these industries only seek to profit rather than change the way people eat for the better (Pollan, 436).
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 .
The Omnivore’s Dilemma, written by Michael Pollan, gives light to the question, “What should we have for dinner?” that he thinks Americans today cannot answer simply due to the fact that there are too many food options. This book serves as an eye-opener to challenge readers to be more aware and accountable of what is consumed daily. In order to understand fully where our food comes from, we must follow it back to the very beginning. Pollan goes on to discuss three different modern food chains in which we get our food: the industrial, the organic, and the hunter-gatherer. By tracing our food back to the beginning, we can understand that most of the nutritional and health problems America is going through today can be found on the farms that make our food and the government that can decide what happens. America deals with many food related illness such as, heart disease, obesity, and type II diabetes. Majority of a human and animals diet consists of being corn-fed leading to a high cause of obesity in the United States these are just some of the many diseases that come with over processed foods and diets we are unaware of. In this study, we will highlight the environmental and health issues and impacts related with modern agriculture and how these systems can be made more sustainable.
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
Industry is about efficiency; ideally, turning the most profit from the least expense. Therefore, how can we trust an industry to make an ethical choice that will potentially hurt their business model? As exhumed by the articles “Escape The Western Diet” by Michael Pollan and “Don’t Blame The Eater” by David Zinczenko, the health care and food industries are not interested in suggesting we shift our diets towards a what they define as a “healthier”, more natural one, but rather they are set upon developing and distributing a variety of processed, nutritionally-overloaded supplements and cheap foods that conveniently further their return of profit.
How much should a person truly value his or her health? According to Michael Pollan’s views, people should take what they put into their body serious because diet is the main difference between life and death. Michael Pollan, who has written multiple books about food and eating, focuses on the Western diet in his essay, “Escape from the Western Diet.” In the essay, he argues that people need to stop eating a Western diet because it leads to health complications, such as chronic disease. The standard way of thinking about health has it that the Western diet is an acceptable lifestyle choice; however, Pollan argues that escaping the Western diet is the best lifestyle choice because the diet promotes disease. On one hand, I agree with Pollan; on the other hand, I believe that consuming organic food is key to improving health as well as the environment rather than just escaping the Western diet.
In this this reading “Escape from the Western Diet” by Michael Pollan, Pollan talks about a variety of scientific nutritional theories that are believed to be responsible for the numerous number of people that have been plague by diseases due to following the “Western Diet”. But Pollan believes that these theories are invalid and states that the food and health industries are the ones to blame. He believes that both the food/health industry are to blame because when the food industry decides to release new products they use nutritional theories while the health industry does the same when creating new prescriptions and treatments. His solution to this problem is follow what Denis Burkitt suggested which is to revert and follow the diet of our
Breaking the habits of a Western diet is what this whole essay focuses on. Eating healthy food is really important because it help to maintain a good healthy body. In Michael Pollan’s essay “Escape from the Western Diet”, he informs people about the western diet and tells them that they need to escape from it. The reason why people should escape from the western diet is to avoid harmful diseases. There are three main points of this essay which Michael Pollan has told and they are; scientists make new theories of nutritionist in which food industries supports those theories by making products and the medical industries make new drugs of medications to support those theories. I agree with Michael Pollan that the companies and especially the food companies are responsible for the western diseases as they make new products day by day with lots of calories, fat, and many other different nutrients which can be harmful to the people's health.
In “Escape from the Western Diet” Michael Pollan argues against the scientific theories of nutrition, and discusses the harmful effects, and chronic diseases associated with the Western Diet. Pollan offers an alternate view of a healthier lifestyle to escape the western diet that simply suggests that we “stop eating and thinking that way.” (Pollan 423) He explains that the food industry has changed the wholeness of our food, which causes us to eat unhealthier things such as fast food. He approaches a solution to these contradictory theories and science by focusing on a personal approach to eating that is based on the individual's view of food. Pollan three rules to create a healthier lifestyle are to “Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants” (Pollan 426) which suggest to eat “real” food in a new balanced and healthy way that creates a pleasurable approach of eating. I agree with Pollan’s concepts about the western diet and his rules of eating simpler.
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
The Western Diet mainly consists of fried foods, refined grains, sugar, high carbohydrate and fats, and meats (3). It has been hypothesized that having a Western Diet increases one’s chances for developing depression. There has been a great deal of research into why the western diet increase’s one chance of having depression. A common sense reason maybe that the Western Diet consisted of large amounts carbohydrates, fats and sugars which promotes obesity and then causes depression (1). More scientific evidence suggest that having a improper diet like the Western Diet negatively affects peripheral and central dopamine, which are neurotransmitters (chemical which transmit signals across the synapse from the nerve cell to the target cell)
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