What I Learned Today: In Defense of Food

I’m almost always reading at least one nonfiction book at any given moment, and in order to retain the intended learning value and perhaps share something interesting from the world of old media, I’m going to share some basic idea gleaned from my reading.

So today, from Michael Pollan’s In Defense of Food: The lipid hypothesis — that saturated fats cause obesity and poor cardiovascular health — gained prominence in the 1970s and led to carbohydrate-heavy guidance from the government (cf. the old food pyramid) which in turn moved the national diet toward a larger ratio of processed carbohydrates (much of it as HFCS). Interestingly, Americans still eat more meat than they used to, meaning they took the government’s advice to mean eat even more carbohydrates. Ironically the avoidance of saturated fats led us to eat more partially hydrogenated plant oils (trans fats, which the NAS concluded have no safe level of consumption). So, the low-fat diet has made America obese. I haven’t gotten to the part where Mr Pollan tells us what we should eat (technically his goal is to change the way we think about the food selection process, not provide a list of acceptable foods), but his advice is on the cover: “Eat Food. Not Too Much. Mostly Plants.”

I would say it’s time to hit the nearest Whole Foods, but there isn’t one within 100 miles and Mr Pollan doesn’t like them anyway.