In Defense of Food Part 1

Nutritionist from Columbia, served on the panel that put forth the above guidelines. What did she have to say regarding the research vs. the guidelines?

Cancer is pretty clearly linked to the consumption of certain animal proteins and dietary cholesterol.

What is parking lot science? How does it relate to nutrition research?

Doctors are not a fountain of knowledge that knows everything. Even if your doctor tells you one thing, it is still important to do your own extensive research.

Pollan uses the term "macronutrients at war." What does he mean by this and how does it relate to nutritionism?

Every good nutrient has its negative counterpart. There is a duality to nutrition.

Why should you be wary of health claims when shopping for groceries? If you only paid attention to foods labeled with health claims, what kinds of foods would you miss out on buying and eating?

Food that is labeled with certain ingredients suggesting healthiness may be unhealthy because they need to be labeled in the first place.

What is the French paradox? (This question requires outside research)

France has extremely low levels of coronary heart disease when compared with other nations and they have a longer lifespan than many nations even though they often eat a diet high in saturated fat.

How have animals been affected by nutritionism?

Gov. has made it cheaper to breed animals for meat by making corn cheap. Animals shouldn't eat corn, it causes disease.

Paul Rozin, a psychologist, thinks that "worrying so much about food can't be very good for your health." Now that you've finished part one of the book, do you agree with him? Why or why not?

I agree partially that one should not dedicate all their focus to diet, however it is also vital to have a healthy diet if one wants to live a long life. Worrying about it constantly will cause more stress.

What does the research say about the lipid hypothesis?

Low fat diets may be even worse for our health because the fat is replaced with other nutrients in excess..

Pollan references the story of margarine, the first synthetic food to enter our diet, throughout the book. What is the story of margarine? How does it relate to nutritionism?

Margarine is a cheap, unhealthy substitute for butter.

Define nutritionism. Why is this way of thinking potentially bad?

Nutritionism is not scientific but rather an ideology, which can translate to unhealthy fixation around reaching certain nutritional goals.

When it comes to studying people's diets, research relies on questionnaires. What is the major flaw of this method of research?

Only individuals who want to know if they are eating healthy answer these surveys, so the stats are skewed. They are not as reliant.

What are orthorexics? Why is this potentially a bad thing?

Orthorexics are people with an unhealthy obsession with healthy eating. This is a potentially bad thing because 4 of the top 10 causes of death have well established links to diet, and what is so called "healthy" is really making us sick and fat.

Who is Senator George McGovern?

Senator who responded to reports of chronic diseases such as obesity, heart disease and cancer are linked to blood cholesterol levels. He tried to help, and blamed it on the meat. He eventually backed down. From south dakota.

Something seems to be more important than the total levels of fat in our diet. What is it?

The amount of nutrients that are consuming is far more important. Counting fat is pretty futile ultimately, but keeping track of nutrient consumption is far more effective. The ratio is whats important.

What was the imitation rule? In 1973, the FDA revised the imitation rule. How was it Revised?

The imitation rule states that if food looks typical but differs in preparation then it must be marked as such, but after 1973 this rule became irrelevant.

Pollan believes that the most troubling aspect of nutritionism is that "any qualitative distinction between whole foods and processed foods is apt to disappear." What does he mean by this? Is it a bad thing? Why or why not?

The line between processed and organic foods is slowly getting destroyed.

Since the government started recommending that Americans eat less fat, what has happened to the rates of obesity and diabetes?

The rates have gone up a ton!

Low fat campaigners believe they're right because fewer people are dying from heart attacks. What is the counter argument to this hypothesis?

There are only less deaths because medical care is far better than in previous times.

Rates of heart disease dropped during World War II. The lipid hypothesis uses this to support its claims. But what else could have caused the rates to drop during this time period?

There may have just been less diagnosed cases because of lack of medical care, or people may have been eating healthier, natural foods.

In 1977, McGovern's committee issued a set of dietary guidelines. How were they received? Who specifically criticized them and why? How were the guidelines rewritten to address this criticism?

There was a ton of criticism surrounding his hypothesis, especially from the community of farmers, because nobody wanted to acknowledge that there could be a link.

After "the McGovern fiasco," the National Academy of Sciences posted guidelines relating diet and cancer. In their guidelines, they discussed nutrients rather than foods. Why is this?

They chose from that point on to mainly discuss the negative effects of nutrients rather than of specific foods as to not create outrage from the meat industry.

Pollan suggests that "Americans have always had a problem taking pleasure in eating." What does he mean by this statement?

We always choose the short term value of unhealthy, good tasting food instead of eating what is good for us.

There are two main reasons why nutrition science is hard: (1) studying one nutrient at a time (which is pretty unavoidable giving the way experiments are designed) and (2) the simple fact that everyone is different. Discuss these problems in more detail.

We have a horrible knowledge of the relationships between various nutrients and all experiments are based only on a small test sample of people, therefore information about the activity of nutrients in the body is not totally accurate to all people.

The food industry loves nutritionism because it "solves the problem of the fixed stomach." What is meant by this statement?

We often get stuck eating the same things and the food industry continues to make a huge profit.

Did Americans actually start eating less fat? If not, what changed instead?

We started eating more trans fat instead which is very bad and also a lot more sugar.

What is the lipid hypothesis?

the concept that eating tons of fat/cholesterol is bad and can cause heart disease