Michael Pollan vs. Big Food

by Jill Richardson · 2009-05-18 06:00:00 UTC
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I am having a great time watching Big Food try to catch up with Michael Pollan these days. He said to avoid high fructose corn syrup, they made "healthy" junk food with "real sugar." He said "Don't eat food made with more than 5 ingredients," they made Haagen Dazs with 5 ingredients. Are either of these things healthy? No. Nor do they comply with the SPIRIT of Pollan's message. He says "Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants." And that means REAL food. Now, sure, ice cream is real food. On its face, anyway. But what did the cows that made the milk eat? Did they eat real cow food (grass)? Probably not. And no soda pop will EVER count as real food - it will always be sugar water laced with chemicals. Even if it's sugar water made with real sugar.

Now that Pollan sees the ingenuity (and chutzpah!) of the food industry, he's giving out new advice: Don't eat anything you see advertised. Try to catch up with THAT food industry! Stop advertising your food products... maybe we'll be fooled into thinking you're healthy. Or more likely, we'll be bombarded with less ads for junk and we'll all be better off for it.

Another bit of Pollan advice? Don't eat food with health claims. You don't see labels on the broccoli at the grocery store that promise lots of cancer-fighting antioxidants. Yet we all know that pretty much anything you find in the produce department is good for you in more ways than modern science has even discovered. But what about the processed goji-acai-pomegranate crap in the middle of the grocery store that promises to improve your health? Guess what? Goji berries or pomegranates might be good for you, but anything that is refined grains plus sugar plus fat plus goji berries is going to outweigh the benefit of the goji (the real food) with all of the refined carbs and unhealthy fats they mix it with. So, go ahead, Big Food. Give it a try. No more health claims on your packaging. Try that.

I think the score here is clearly Michael Pollan: 2, Big Food: 0.

Photo of Michael Pollan from Adam.Laiacano on Flickr.com

Jill Richardson
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