Soc 160 Exam: In Defense of Food

3: nutritionism comes to market

- Nutritionism justifies processing foods by implying that with a judicious application of food science, fake foods can be made even more nutritious than the real thing - Margarine: trailblazer - Not accepted at first because of its fakeness - The Jungle (1960): Upton Sinclair - the "adulteration" of common foods has been a serious concern of the eating public and the target of numerous federal laws and FDA regulations - Food, drug, and Cosmetic Act (1938): the word "imitation" must appear on products - Food industry fought with this - 1973: FDA repealed this law - Adulteration into food science: any thing in food could be replaced with food supplements

10: Nutritionism's Children

"Thirty years of nutritional advice have left us fatter, sicker, and more poorly nourished. Which is why we find ourselves in the predicament we do: in need of a whole new way to think about eating." So, now what? All this has left the American eater confused and anxious about what's safe to eat and what we should or should not be eating. High carb, low-fat? High protein, low-carb? There's even a new eating disorder called Orthorexia nervosa, which is an obsession with healthy eating.

7: beyond the pleasure principle

- Americans have always had difficulty finding pleasure in eating - Harvey levenstein: "a vague indifference to food, manifested in a tendency to eat and run, rather than to dine and savor" - Abundance of food - Scientific emphasis on nutrition and sanitation over eating what tastes food - You cant taste or see what's good for you - Diet fads including enema breaks: removed pleasure from eating and eating from social life - How a people eats is important to cultural identity - To make food choices more scientific, is to empty them of their ethnic content and history

4: food science's golden age

- Dietary Goods (1977) & National Academy of Sciences report on diet and cancer (1982) - Reengineering thousands of popular food products to contain more of the nutrients that science and govt had deemed the good ones and fewer of the bad - Leaner meat, remake the egg - Handful of whole foods have gotten the "good nutrient" marketing treatment - Pomegranates, walnut - Chocolate science: breakthroughs in the antioxidant properties of cacao - Easier to slap health claim on box of cereal over produce

6: eat right, get fatter

- Habits shifted: replace evil fats at the top of the food pyramid with good carbs spread out at the bottom - Industrial food supply was reformulated to reflect the new nutritional wisdom - Giving us: low-fat products (some with high fructose) - Americans got fat on this low-fat diet - Diabetes and obesity emerged - Eat less meat and fewer dairy products - If a product is healthy, eating a lot of it must also be healthy - Not focussing on portion control - Medical establishments and govt endorsements help promote certain products

2: nutritionism defined: Problems:

- Hinges on dualism (good vs bad nutrient) - It has trouble discerning qualitative distinctions among foods - Processed foods may be considered healthier than whole, unprocessed food if they contain the appropriate quantities of nutrients

1: the aborigine in all of us

- Kerin o dea: takes aborigine peoples who suffer from diabetes, etc. back to their old way of living - Western health issues from food are reversed

5: the melting of the lipid hypothesis

- The amount of saturated fat in the diet may have little if any bearing on the risk of heart disease, and evidence that increasing polyunsaturated fats in the diet will reduce risk is slim to nil - A higher intake of trans fat can contribute to increased risk of CHD (coronary heart disease) - While total levels of fat in the diet have little bearing on risk, the ratio between types of fats does - Even in the past, as Americans began cutting back on animal fats and increased their intake of vegetable oils, there were more heart issues - Link between high rates of cholesterol in the blood and the likelihood of heart disease - Link between saturated fat in the diet and cholesterol levels in the blood - Dietary goals emerged

Chapter 4. Not Too Much: How to Eat

First of all, focus on quality over quantity. Shake off the idea of supersizing your meals or trying to maximize the food you get for your dollar. Instead, spend more money on less. You'll find the quality of the food and it's improved taste will satisfy you with less. Second, eat meals. No more eating in the car, at your desk, in front of the TV or computer, standing at the sink or sitting on the toilet or wherever you grab your meals. Sit down at the table for crying out loud and enjoy your food. Preferably with family and friends. Thirdly, eat slowly and listen to your belly. Don't hoark down your food so fast that your brain doesn't recognize that you ate so much that you have to unbutton your pants. Or, worse yet, you're so full that you can't stand up and walk upright without discomfort. It takes your brain about twenty minutes to catch up with your gut, so give them time to communicate with each other. Lastly, become a cook and grow a garden. Doing both gives you an appreciation between the plants and the soil and between the ingredients and those you are feeding. How many meals do you eat at home? How many with your family? Are you so overly busy that you don't have time to cook or eat with others?

1: from foods to nutrients

Food was being replaced by "nutrients" Liebig: discovery of macronutrients Made baby formula and boullion Casimir Funk: micronutrients Vitamines Lipid hypothesis: fat and dietary cholesterol (from meat and dairy products) was responsible for rising rates of heart disease during the twentieth century No more saying "eat less of (insert food here)" focussed on consumption of less of certain nutrients

2: nutritionism defined

Grygory Scrinis: we should understand and engage with food and our bodies in terms of their nutritional and chemical constituents and requirements Nutritionism: foods are essentially the sum of their nutrient parts The whole point of eating is to maintain and promote bodily health

3: The Industrialization of Eating: What We Do Know

In this chapter, Pollan discusses the relationship of food with nature. As a species we have adapted to different environments and different foods based on its availability. One example he uses illustrates the relationship between cows and some humans who have the ability to digest cow's milk beyond weaning age that occurred about five thousand years ago. This provided a nutritional benefit for those who possessed the gene to digest the milk as it provided a "terrifically nutritious new food source" and was beneficial to the cows as it created a symbiotic relationship with humans. The relationship between plant foods and the animals that eat them are complex as the plants are dependent on the spreading of seeds to proliferate. In turn, animals learn what foods are suitable based on color, taste and smell of ripeness. Detecting these signals is a whole lot easier when you have developed a relationship with a food over many years. It becomes a lot harder when manufactured foods are available that mimic "real" food with artificial flavors and synthetic sweeteners because the relationship was originally between the eater and whole foods, not with nutrients or chemicals. Do you think that it matters what food history humans have had? Is there really a difference between foods grown in nature or ones created in a lab if they have the same nutritional components and values (protein, carbohydrates, fats, etc.)? Do the sci-fi fantasies of taking a pill for all your nutritional needs ever seem plausible given the information you've read?

2: the elephant in the room

In this chapter, Pollan is referring to the pattern of eating what we call the Western diet as the elephant in the room. The effect of this diet is that people suffer substantially higher rates of cancer, cardiovascular disease, diabetes and obesity. So, when individuals adopt the Western diet, these problems creep up all too quickly. In other words, immigrants from nations with low rates of chronic disease acquire these health issues quickly. In 1939, Weston Price published the results of his research in working with isolated populations. As a dentist, he noted that people who ate a traditional diet needed no dentists whatsoever. He found little or no evidence of chronic disease, tooth decay or malformed dental arches. One thing that he found was that these groups were eating substantially more amounts of vitamins A and D. Price's conclusion after years of research was that modern civilization had sacrificed much of the quality of food in the interest of quantity and shelf life. Interestingly, he found that groups that ate diets of wild animal flesh (or milk, meat and blood of pastured cattle) were generally healthier than agriculturalists who relied on cereals and other plant foods. In general, it would appear that humans can thrive on a variety of different diets, but the Western diet isn't one of them. What does this mean for you? Are you willing to stay on the standard Western diet and continue risking heart disease, diabetes, cancer and who knows what else? Has reading this made you decide to eat better or confirmed your actions if you already are eating a healthy diet? If you want to get off the Western diet bandwagon, do you know where to start?

9: Bad science

Nutrition science is a sticky wicket to say the least. It's impossible to distill one nutrient at a time, without ignoring how those nutrients interact with others in a food when digested. This sort of scientific reductionism works wonders in other areas of scientific research, but when it comes to nutrition, it can be a disaster. Because people don't just eat nutrients, they eat foods and each person metabolizes food differently. There are too many chemical compounds in a food to be able to determine, with much assurity, that it's one compound over another that is healthier. There isn't much risk in this sort of reductionist thinking when you are eating whole foods. But if the goal is to distill out the components (like polyphenols or carotenoids), can you really substitute those for "real food"? Are the benefits the same?

Chapter 3. Mostly Plants: What to Eat

Okay, so we're supposed to eat whole foods. Any more words of wisdom? Eat mostly plants, especially leaves. Plants are chock full of nutrients, vitamins, fiber and antioxidants all delivered in a format that our bodies are evolved to uptake most effectively. Antioxidants help us get rid of toxins and the rest are necessary for health and function. Enriched foods just don't get processed the same way and plants supply us with these necessities. You are what what you eat eats too. WTF? In other words, the diet of the animals we eat has a bearing on the nutritional quality, and healthfulness, of the food itself. The same thing can be said for plant based foods - poor soils make for nutritionally poor plants. If you have the space, buy a freezer. If you can buy foods at the height of the season and store them for year-round consumption, you are ensuring that you are getting the most nutrition from your foods. Eating those anemic tomatoes in February just doesn't cut it. Eat like an omnivore. If you eat a wide and varied diet, you are more likely to get the full range of nutrients that these foods supply. Eat well-grown food from healthy soils. Again, soils rich in organic matter produce more nutritious food: higher levels of anti-oxidants, flavonoids, vitamins, etc. Have a glass of wine with dinner. I love Michael Pollan.

8: the proof in the low-fat pudding

Pleasure < better health Have we really done any better?

Chapter 1. Escape from the Western Diet

This chapter recaps what has been covered in the earlier sections of the book and sets up what we are to read in the remaining chapters. The main concept is reiterated: People eating a Western diet are prone to a complex of chronic diseases that seldom strike people eating more traditional diets. No matter what infighting occurs between scientists, the take home message is to stop eating a Western diet. How do we go about doing this? Pollan isn't expecting us to truly go back to a "traditional" diet because how can you define traditional for each person? The genetic makeup of each individual and their ability to process certain foods relies tremendously on the environment in which their ancestors adapted to the local foodsheds. So, what is he recommending? Well, to start off, choose whole foods. But how can we determine if that whole food is really unadulterated? Is that CAFO beef really a whole food? What about vegetables grown in nutrient depleted soil under a host of chemical pesticides and petroleum fertilizers? Is that a whole food?

Chapter 2. Eat Food: Food Defined

What the heck should we be eating then? Here are some rules of thumb: Don't eat anything your great-grandma wouldn't recognize. Squeeze yogurts, cheese food products, Twinkies, non-dairy creamers - all of these can be readily identified as something not "whole". Avoid foods containing unfamiliar or unpronounceable ingredients or high fructose corn syrup. This doesn't mean so much that the ingredients are inherently harmful, but they are good indicators of food quality. Avoid food products that make health claims. This is a big neon sign screaming "processed". Generally, only big food companies have the wherewithal to secure FDA-approved health claims for their products. Shop the peripheries of the supermarket. You know what's lurking in the middle - packaged, boxed, processed foods. Stick to the outside where produce, dairy, meats and bulk items live. Get out of the supermarket if you can. Farmers markets generally don't sell highly processed foods, neither do farm stands or U-pick farms. Shop from your garden and you're assured of getting whole foods. Do you focus on buying mostly whole foods or are you more concerned with buying healthy or organic even if it's processed (like cereals, crackers, soups, etc.)? There are a number of highly processed foods that are marketed as "healthy" - do you think they are? Do you really need to eat whole foods or are products found in the natural foods section okay?