Do you know what's in that package you're eating? Michael Pollard gives a great analysis of the food trends and fads of the Western Diet, along with some general principles to guide your eating habits. I found it interesting that scientists cannot replicate breast milk and continue to find new things in it, that margarine was toute as the savior for American hearts by the anti-fat fad, that the symmetry of a food is not accounted for by nutritionists, and that the FDA has made labeling less and less consumer-friendly.
While I thought Pollard could have given more ideas about what TO eat, rather than what to avoid, I found him honest in stating that this way of eating costs more, but that food really isn't the best place to economize. Tell that to Randy when I go to Whole Paycheck, oops I mean Whole Foods.
I have adopted his suggestions and am trying to stay away from processed and canned foods. I have joined a CSA to try to get us to eat more variety (who knew there were turnips in our potato salad the other night??). And I have switched all our foods to the whole variety (yikes, whole milk??). I think Pollard is dead-on about the scare away from fat has actually made us fatter. I also found the "you are what what you eat eats too" nutrition interesting. We are now eating beef from grass fed organic farms, which some people say means you are eating as much Omega-3s as is found in fish (we'll buy into this theory, seeing as how we would rather eat bugs than fish at our house). Either way, we are eating less meat, but healthier meat.
Best of all, Pollard isn't scaring anyone away from eating and enjoying food. He briefly mentions what my soon be another eating disorder of those who worry and obsess about every bite that goes into their mouth.
My biggest critique is that Pollard has not explained enough about how grains are processed - he criticized white-wheat bread, but does not explain how to include grains in a healthy way (is freshly grinding them yourself processing???)
So, all in all, his knowledge has improved some of our eating habits, and I am no longer at the whim of GNC and the supplement industry. I am still struggling with the snacks though - seems like the convenience of a package is just too tempting in this arena!!
