 "Nutritionism" is no replacement for whole real foods!
As a faithful member of LCE for some years - I wanted to share this from my Dad, someone who has never had a weight problem in his life but who is the healthiest 77 year old I know. After reading Michael Pollen's phenomenal article in last Sunday's New York Times, he sent me the following email: Quote:
Thirty years of ?nutritional science? has made Americans sicker, fatter, and mal-nourished.
Here?s a plea for a return to plain old food, excerpted from the New York Times Magazine, 1/28/07. Michael Pollan is a professor at UCal. Berkeley. His 2006 book, The Omnivore?s Dilemma, relates to this excerpted article, which begins:
EAT REAL FOOD. NOT TOO MUCH. MOSTLY PLANTS.
The major shift from eating food to eating nutrients began in 1977. Since then, the collusion of science, government, and the ?food? (nutrient) industry developed the highly profitable ideology of Nutritionism, as a replacement for food.
The article documents several steps in these decades; issues such as cultural shifts, studies of nutrients in isolation rather than whole-diet relationships, and populations of study participants that misunderstand and lie about their eating histories.
Four large-scale negative changes have occurred in our eating habits in the last 30 years:
- From whole foods to refined, carbohydrates to diabetic sugars. Freezing destroys fiber.
- From complexity to simplicity, of food contents and types. Now, 2/3ds of our calories come from only four crops, processed corn, soybeans, wheat, and rice. And all 4 are seeds.
- From leaves to seeds, reducing natural antioxidants, phytochemicals, omega-3 fats. The ratio of omega-6 to omega-3 eaten is now 10 to 1; optimally it must be equal.
- From food culture to ?food science? The ?Western diet? replaces immigrating cultural foods with cheap, handy, fast foods of no complexity or cultural validation. Result; our current diet yields great rewards for the food, medical, and insurance industries.
Escape is possible. Here are nine rules of thumb for breaking the nutritionism cycle:
- Eat real food; avoid any food your great grandmother would not recognize as food. (I LIKE this one!)
- Avoid food products with health claims, most are highly processed and of dubious value.
- Avoid products with ingredients that are unfamiliar, hard to pronounce, or over 5 such. And learn and avoid all ?-ose? words; these are the most dangerous sugars.
- Shop at farmers markets instead of supermarkets, to make all the above much easier.
- Pay more (whole and organic foods must cost more) and eat less ? a lot less. Exercise is critical but no substitute for leaving the table a little hungry. Smaller portions, dmaller plates, no refills.
- Eat mostly plants, especially leaves. Earn your meats as a side-dish.
- Eat traditional foods of other cultures; French, Japanese, Italian, Greek, Inuit, any. Copy their portions and table habits also; at home, family together, quick to rise and work.
- Cook for yourself. From scratch. Plant and use a food garden.
Eat like the omnivore you are. Add new species, not just new foods. Whole, fresh, and raw, from nearby farms, dairies, abattoirs. Avoid sources using chemicals, fertilizers, pesticides, hormones. What?s naturally good for the soil is probably good for you too. | I continue to believe that the movement toward processed foods with additives and other unnecessary 'value-added' garbage (thank you inductrial-food industry)has left us in an era of allergies, cancers, illnesses and much worse - because our bodies were not meant to process any chemicals! None!
sk yourself... Who controls your health? You or Kraft? You or Nabisco? You or Nestle? You or the industries that brought us red dye number 3, mad cow disease, bovine hormones, genetically modified peanuts and corn, tasteless tomatoes and waxy apples, etc.?
I thought I would share this because it is plain and good advice!
__________________ Hugs, Rachel
(the horn is in honor of DH!)
Quien canta, sus males espanta... ("She who sings fightens away her ills") Miguel de Cervantes  |
02-01-2007, 07:23 PM
Similar Threads 
