Book Review: Michael Pollan's "In Defense of Food"

So, I must preface this review/summary of In Defense of Food with the fact that I adore Michael Pollan; he is one of my favorite contemporary authors. Possibly, this is because I like his journalistic style of writing or the serious humor he incorporates. Or, maybe I just enjoy that he writes about a topic most of America cringes to think about. Now that I have stated my bias in this matter, let us discuss the contents of the book.

I had managed to condense about 200 pages of text into four pages of notes, but as I wrote this post, those pages expanded considerably (I have proceeded to cut them down twice over). I cannot ever hope to achieve the likeness of Pollan's compacting the entire solution to the problem of the Western diet into seven words: "Eat food. Not too much. Mostly Plants." These are the first words read upon opening In Defense of Food; words that Pollan himself reflects should be self-evident. In the Introduction, Pollan goes on to explain that the rest of the book is broken into three sections: 1) discussing "The Age of Nutritionism", 2) discussing the Western Diet and disease , 3) stating rules for eating in a healthy, pleasurable manner. Pollan states, "My aim in this book is to help us reclaim our health and happiness as eaters."

Pollan has filled a profusion of facts into the 200 pages. I cannot possibly present them all for your perusal without simply re-writing his book. Therefore, I am going to address the overarching ideas he presents in each section. At the end of each summary, I've included my favorite quotes from the section (the ones that really drive the point home); feel free to skip them if you prefer.

"Today in America the culture of food is changing more than once in a generation, which is historically unprecedented - and dizzying. "

The Age of Nutritionism
In this section, Pollan explores the history surrounding our eating practices and explains the origin/development of the nutritionism ideology. The overall point of this section in the book is to point out the flawed logic behind the ideology of nutritionism and nutritional science. There are too many factors that we don't, and often cannot, examine in our research of nutrition. Our methods in examining the effects of nutrients and diets are based on trials that have too many human and reductionist errors (placebo effect, lying on surveys, removal of lifestyle context, etc.). The ideology of nutritionism is causing too much anxiety coinciding with the Western diet; our obsession with health and eating borders on becoming a medically recognized eating disorder ("orthorexia nervosa"). Journalism, government and the food industry are responsible for the prevalence of this ideology. Plus, nutritionism has failed at its root goal to make us healthier. Thus, we need a "whole new way to think about eating."

"By framing dietary advice in terms of good and bad nutrients, and by burying the recommendation that we should eat less of any particular actual food, it was easy for the take-home message of the 1977 and 1982 dietary guidelines to be simplified as follows: eat more low-fat foods."

"Not only does nutritionism favor ever more novel kinds of highly processed foods (which are by far the most profitable kind to make), it actually enlists the medical establishment and the government in the promotion of those products."

The Western Diet and the Diseases of Civilization
In section two of In Defense of Food, Pollan examines several studies that show exactly what transformations the Western diet has wrought on our way of eating and how we can change them. A 1982 seven-week experiment with diabetic Aborigines in Western Australia showed that the health problems brought on by the westernization of a diet can be reversed by adopting a more traditional (hunter-gatherer) lifestyle [note: not just a traditional diet]. Pollan explains that his regard for this study revolves around Kerin O'Dea "not attempting to pick out from the complexity of the diet (either before or after the experiment) which one nutrient might explain the results [...] focusing instead on larger dietary patterns." He points out that most nutritional researchers treat overall dietary patterns as a fixed matter, that is, unchangeable. Considering the Western diet consists of "lots of processed foods and meat, lots of added fat and sugar, lots of everything except fruits, vegetables, and whole grains," is it really any wonder why adding this or that nutrient to our diet doesn't lead to being healthier? Other studies Pollan presents examine the connection between overall health of soil, the food grown and the eaters of that food (us and the animals we eat).

Pollan states five transformations caused by adaptation of the Western diet that can be reversed; we have moved from:

1. Whole Foods to Refined
• Part of this adaptation was refined foods acquired a prestigious status upon first entering the market since not everyone could afford them and "refining grains extends their shelf life." Many food products in today's market are extensions of the refining process started with grains.
2. Complexity to Simplicity
• Here, Pollan discuses how we've simplified foods into nutrients and the biochemistry of soil. We've reduced the complex nutrients in soil to Liebig's big three, nitrogen, phosphorous, and potassium. We've reduced the food in our diet to what nutrients and vitamins they provide us. By processing our food we deplete some of the natural nutrients, only a small amount of which science can add back during "fortification". We've also reduced the number of species in our diet by breeding sub-groups together for greatest yield.
3. Quality to Quantity
• We are producing increasing amounts of food with our high-yield crops; however, "USDA figures show a decline in the nutrient content of the forty-three crops it has tracked since the 1950s." We are consuming a lot more calories since 1980, but "nearly a quarter of these additional calories come from added sugars."
4. Leaves to Seeds
• We grow grains because they are so efficient at "transforming sunlight, fertilizer, air, and water into macronutrients [and] these macronutrients in turn can be profitably converted into meat, dairy, and processed foods of every description." Grain seeds can also be stored for long periods of time. However, these seeds provide a minuscule amount of the vitamins, minerals and other nutrients that humans need to live. This ecological change has caused the change in biochemicals that are found in our diet, which scientists are always studying.
5. Food Culture to Food Science
• "Before the modern food era - and before the rise of nutritionism - people relied for guidance about what to eat on their national or ethnic or regional cultures." These traditions were passed down through the history of our people's and had stood the test of time. Today, we rely on the newest information about nutrition to dictate what we eat. What is this information based on, but a few (relatively unreliable) studies? Not only is this information not tested by evolution and centuries of history, but it often contradicts itself leading to confusion about exactly what we should eat.

A way to reverse this is to simply add more whole grains and produce to your diet. Do not eat anything with high-fructose corn syrup (HFCS), which is a by-product of refining corn.  Try to cut the amount of pure sugar down in your diet and consume whole fruits, which cause a less harmful effect on the body thanks to the fiber slowing its absorption. Another part of the solution is to eat more organic foods which have been shown to have higher levels of minerals and phytochemicals. Of those organic foods, we should try to eat more leave based foods than seeds (like soy, corn and wheat). When it comes to eating animals, we should eat those that were pasture-raised rather than fed more seeds (mostly corn), especially cattle who are not meant to digest corn. Last but definitely not least, we should attempt to reclaim a food culture rather than relying on food science to tell us what to eat. [In my house, I eat a lot of homemade foods (like salsa, jams and pickles) because my grandparents grew a garden, made their own food and canned a lot of it.]

"Looking at eating and food through the ecological lens opens a whole new perspective on exactly what the Western diet is: a radical, at least in evolutionary terms, abrupt set of changes over the course of the last 150 years, not just to our foodstuffs but also to our food relationships, all the way from the soil to the meal." 

"Our food system has long devoted its energies to increasing yields and selling food as cheaply as possible. [...] Today, corn, soy, wheat and rice account for two-thrids of the calories we eat." 

"You now have to eat three apples to get the same amount of iron as you would have gotten from a single 1940 apple, and you'd have to eat several more slices of bread to get your recommended daily allowance of zinc than you would have a century ago."  

"Of all the changes to our food system that go under the heading 'The Western Diet,' the shift from a food chain with green plants at its base to one based on seeds may be the most far reaching of all."

"We think of culture as a set of beliefs and practices to help mediate our relationship to other people, but of course culture - at least before the rise of modern science - has also played a critical role in helping to mediate people's relationship to nature. Eating being one of the most important manifestations of that relationship, cultures have had a great deal to say about what and how and why and when and how much we should eat."

"The concept of a changing food environment is not just a metaphor; nor is the idea of adapting to it. In order for natural selection to help us adapt to the Western diet, we'd have to be prepared to let those whom it sickens die." 

Apparently it is easier, or at least more profitable, to change a disease of civilization into a lifestyle than it is to change the way that a civilization eats."

Getting Over Nutritionism
 In this section, Pollan gives us some suggestions on how to adjust our diet to combat the ideology of nutritionism; expounding upon his original seven words of wisdom: "Eat food. Not too much. Mostly Plants." [Most of the following are direct quotes that I will refrain from putting quotations around for the sake of attractiveness.]

• Avoid foods that make health claims.
• Don't eat anything your great-grandmother wouldn't recognize as food.
• Don't eat anything incapable of rotting.
• Avoid products containing ingredients that are a) unfamiliar b) unpronounceable c) more than five in number, or that include d) high fructose corn syrup.
• Shop the peripheries of the supermarket and stay out of the middle.
• Get out of the supermarket whenever possible (shortening the food chain).
• Eat mostly plants, especially leaves.
• You are what you eat eats too (so consume animals who mostly consumed leaves).
• If you have the space, buy a freezer (because buying in bulk is cheaper).
• Eat like an omnivore (diversify your diet).
• Eat well-grown food from healthy soils (mostly organic, ideally local).
• Eat wild foods when you can (berries are found everywhere in summer! Venison, squirrel, rabbit and wild hog are also good options).
• Be the kind of person who would take supplements (but don't need to take them).
• i.e. be more health conscious and better educated (reading many perspectives on the subject of food; I recommend Michael Pollan and Carlo Petrini).
• Eat more like a traditional food culture ( French, Italian, Greek, Indian, Japanese, etc.)
• Remember, "the whole of a dietary pattern is greater than the sum of its parts."
• Have a glass of wine with dinner.
• Pay more, eat less.
• This goes back to quality over quantity; better food will be better for you and you will need less of it.
• Eat meals
• Do all of your eating at a table (a desk does not count).
• Don't get your fuel from the same place your car does.
• Try not to eat alone.
• "The shared meal elevated eating from a mechanical process of fueling the body to a ritual of family and community, from a mere animal biology to an act of culture."
• Consult your gut.
• "Eating more slowly, and then consulting our sense of satiety might help us to eat less."
• Eat slowly
• "I means 'slow' in the sense of deliberate and knowledgeable eating promoted by Slow Food."
• "Eating with the fullest pleasure - pleasure, that is, that does not depend on ignorance - is perhaps the profoundest enactment of our connection with the world. In this pleasure we experience and celebrate our dependence and our gratitude, for we are living from mystery, from creatures we did not make and powers we cannot comprehend."
• Cook and, if you can, plant a garden.
•  "To reclaim this much control over one's food, to take it back from industry and science, is no small thing; indeed, in our time cooking from scratch and growing any of your own food qualify as subversive acts. These acts subvert nutritionism."
• "The cook in the kitchen preparing a meal from plants and animals at the end of this shortest of food chains has a great many things to worry about, but "health" is simply not one of them, because it is given." 

That last quote is the final sentence of the book and wraps up Pollan's suggestions quite succinctly. Shortening and diversifying our food chain, by buying (or growing ourselves) whole foods that are grown organically, locally, and seasonally (and by cooking those foods ourselves) we are able to increase the quality of our diets and therefore the quality of our health. To shop like a traditional food culture is to worry not about nutrients, but about taste and quality. To enjoy our food, especially in the company of others, is to become better acquainted with our bodies needs and to gain more than simply physical health from the act of eating. To no longer be afraid to eat this or that because of the amount of fat or carbohydrates (or some other arbitrary nutrient) is to lose some of the anxiety that does nothing good for our health.

To eat in the way Pollan suggests is not as easy as it once was. I have been attempting it for the last two weeks, since I completed the book. The hardest point for me is making sure my food has less than five ingredients (find me a flour tortilla in a store that does, please!) as everything has fillers (even lime juice!). It is, however, possible if you can give up some products. I have not eaten processed foods (like microwave dinners) for quite some time, but some processed products, like bread and certain cheeses, were harder to give up. 

Pollan's book has inspired me to attempt to escape the ideology of nutritionism, which I can clearly hear in my head anytime I go to the grocery store. It is my hope that you can now better understand how the Western diet has transformed the way we think about food and how it is not providing us with better health as it claims to do. I encourage you to read Pollan's book for yourself to learn the facts that I have omitted. I will attempt to eat following Pollan's advice for the next two months and report to you the difficulties I find, if there are any, and to aid you in being able to do the same should you so choose.

"In order to eat well we need to invest more time, effort, and resources in providing for our sustenance than most of us do today. [...] For most people for most of history, gathering and preparing food has been an occupation at the very heart of daily life."

Earth Day

Well, I did have this post for you with the statistics about poverty/hunger that I promised a while back. Unfortunately my computer is currently under repair, so I'm unable to procure that post, which is saved only on the desktop. However, I thought that I should write something considering it is Earth Day.

Firstly, I would like to refer you back to previous posts I have written that contain advice which is pertinent to the topic of Earth Day. Specifically the posts on weekday vegetarianism and urban gardens. Both of which topics are addressed in the following articles on Huffington Post: Grow Food at Home and Healthy Food Swaps.

I would, however, caution you not to become too obsessed with what nutrients the plants you decide to plant can add to your diet. I have been reading Michael Pollan's "In Defense of Food," where he cautions against the radical ideology of nutritionism that has permeated American culture since the 70s.  Pollan describes research that suggests we were better off before science became involved in our food habits because we were less stressed, we spent more time gardening and cooking (therefore expended more calories) and we ate real food rather than processed empty calories. I'm only a third of the way through the book at the moment, so I'll have more to say on this subject once I've finished. I would recommend reading any book he has written, though. His writing style makes the topics easily accessible with a serious humor that keeps you turning the page despite the sheer amount of facts presented in so few pages.

Pollans writing always reminds me of the reading I've done on the Slow Food Movement, which tells us to go back to enjoying our food for it's flavor and complexity rather than for what nutrition it can add to the body. (You can look up information on the slow food movement in the U.S. here.)

Mostly, I just wanted to share links with you today. Also, to wish you a happy Earth day and remind you that you can make a difference with small changes.

Cheers!

Happy Discoveries

I recently read in the Arkansas Times about an olive oil/vinegar shop which opened in Little Rock last Fall. I was intrigued by this since I had visited similar shops while traveling in Europe. Yesterday, I was able to visit this shop, aptly named Strippaggio. As Richard and I walked in the door, we were greeted with samples, including a vinaigrette, an award-winning strawberry jam, and the house bread dip blend in a mellow oil. I was instantly in love with the shop after tasting the vinaigrette, which was a combination of the blood orange olive oil and pineapple vinegar. I would definitely recommend this combination for a tropical feeling salad.

Within seconds of taking my first sample of olive oil from a tiny plastic cup, one of the shop girls came up to me and explained the proper way to taste the oil. The shop is named Strippaggio, which is the proper Italian tasting method of taking the oil into your mouth, coating your taste buds and then inhaling air from the corners of your mouth to allow the scent to reach your nasal passages and get the full effect of the flavors. I have to say, it changed everything. I retried the first oil and was able to detect the hints of banana and flowers. I tasted around twenty different flavors of oil, including a delectable black truffle. The shop also has about fifteen varieties of balsamic vinegar, mostly fruity flavors.

Richard and I agreed on a Tuscan Herb olive oil to pair with a Cranberry Pear Balsamic vinegar, which we planned to put on a shrimp salad for dinner. Then, Richard pointed out the chocolate and espresso vinegars. I was absolutely smitten. Espresso vinegar! Such an amazing flavor, anyone who drinks espresso would agree. I decided to grab a small bottle of this to pair with fresh strawberries as a dessert. I managed to leave with only these three bottles, but will definitely be going back for more soon.

We cooked the shrimp in the Tuscan Herb olive oil with no other seasoning. Our salad consisted of some local romaine, local broccoli leaves, local green onion, bell pepper, carrots, tomato, and feta. The Cranberry Pear vinegar added a sweet touch to the rich tomato like flavor of the Tuscan Herb oil and made a perfect vinaigrette for this salad. I give it four stars.

The dessert was phenomenal. I can say this because I managed to make Richard, who is not a vinegar fan, declare that it was delicious. I literally just quartered some organic strawberries and poured about two tablespoons of the espresso vinegar onto them. I turned the strawberries about four times while preparing the salads, then allowed them to soak up the vinegar while we ate. This might be my new favorite dessert. If I had cooked the mixture down, let it cool, and topped vanilla ice cream with it, I think it would be just as good, if not better. (I had to try this dessert even though it's still a little early for strawberries to be in season.)

  

Strippaggio is located in the Chenal Parkway shopping center. Each of the olive oils are true extra virgin oils, unlike a majority of the ones you buy in a grocery store. At only $11.15/200 ml bottle, I believe these quality oils/vinegars are worth the expense. I recommend you splurge a little for a friend or a lot for yourself.

Heifer Ranch and other updates

Sorry it has been so long since I last wrote. I got caught up in preparing to leave for Heifer Ranch and then my work here on the Ranch. I've learned a lot since coming to the Ranch, about hunger/poverty, about intentional communal living spaces, and about myself. In the near future, I will write about the statistics of hunger/poverty around the world that we tell our participants. For now, I want to tell you a little about what it's like to live/work on the Ranch and the self-awareness it has brought me.

As you know, I was accepted to work as the Village Caretaker at Heifer Ranch in Perryville, Ark. This truly is a jack-of-all trades position. There are four broad departments that volunteers can work under on the Ranch: Education, Livestock, Gardening and Maintenance. My position encompasses work from all of these departments, though I am technically classified under education. As the Caretaker, I am responsible for setting all of the supplies needed for our Global Village experiences (you can learn more about those here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xi10qHUDh10); I care for the animals that remain in the village during our programming seasons; I am responsible for trail and site maintenance; and I plant, care for and harvest the gardens in the Global Villages. In effect, I do all of the behind-the-scenes work that keeps the Global Village programs running smoothly and effectively.The point of these programs is to raise awareness in participants about hunger/poverty around the world and to provide them with a simulated "real-life" experience of what the living conditions of the hungry/poor are like.

Since my position relies on program participants to be scheduled, I sometimes have quite a bit of spare time during the week. I use this time to work in other departments, occasionally maintenance, but mostly livestock. I've had the pleasure to bottle feed goat kids and lambs. Yesterday, I helped another volunteer chase down a sheep who was having trouble giving birth. I ended up tackling the sheep to the ground in the end so we could assist and was rewarded with a live baby. I've helped give sheep shots, soak their hooves and herd them from pasture to pasture. I also added AgroForestry to my resumé by helping maintenance to plant baby pine trees.

I am very much enjoying working here on the Ranch. It's a unique experience that is allowing me to gain practical knowledge about the trials and rewards of farming/raising animals. It is also bringing more understanding about intentional community living.

I live in Valley View Up, which is the upstairs portion of the volunteer house known as Valley View. For the sake of consistency, I am going to talk about Valley View Up and Down as one unit, VV. Within our household, there are eight girls and two boys. At the beginning of the Spring season (meaning the period where the new volunteers arrived), we set a chore chart. This included taking out compost, trash and recycling as well as general household cleaning like sweeping and vacuuming. The problem is, everyone ignores this chore list. Which means that recycling, trash and compost only get taken out when they start to overflow. Generally speaking, the house is pretty good at getting everything taken out at once. Someone just has to take initiative and decide they will be the ones to remove everything that week. The main problem with this many people in one household is the dishes and cleanliness of the common areas (kitchen and living room).

Dirty dishes are a pet peeve of mine. I have a tendency to get frustrated with them and do them myself, even when I wasn't the one who used them. Which, in turn, frustrates me even more. This week has been the best week out of seven, as far as dishes are concerned, so I won't go into any rant about them. My observation is thus, for myself, the hardest part of communal living is sharing dishes and others not having the same standard of cleanliness as myself. As far as the intentional living goes, everyone is really good at recycling and composting because we all really are for the environment.

A nice thing about communal living in a situation such as this is that all of my housemates are concerned with the same things as myself. Sustainable living is at the forefront of everyone's agenda, everyone has an appreciation of good food, and all of us have dedicated our time to volunteering to help educate ourselves and our program participants about the challenges the world faces. All of these commonalities mean that we are able to get along on a base level.

I am learning quite a bit about myself living and working on the Ranch. I'm learning that I like to take charge and delegate, I like to get my hands dirty, I enjoy working with livestock in addition to gardening, and I have a tendency to be hot tempered. I am attempting to make progress as far as the last point is concerned. Now when I start to get upset about some little thing going wrong, I take a deep breathe, count to ten and then joke about it (if possible). As far as the other points are concerned, they are driving me more towards having my own farm someday. It has always been a dream of mine to own a restaurant or café. I think that owning a farm where I supply a café of my own would be a fantastic career for myself. At the moment, this is no more than a dream, however, I do plan to look into it when I am finished with my philanthropist career.

Speaking of which, I am applying to work for another non-profit organization after Heifer. My FoodCorps application has been submitted and I am eagerly awaiting May when I will hear back from them about my advancement to the second round of the application. FoodCorps is a subsidiary of AmeriCorps who works to "teach kids about what healthy food is and where it comes from; build and tend school gardens; and bring high-quality local food into school cafeterias". Currently, FoodCorps has sixty sites in twelve states around the U.S. The application to work with them is highly competitive because there are only about eighty positions every year. I am very much hoping that this will be the next step in my career. Though I am unsure about where these steps will eventually lead me, working at Heifer Ranch has taught me that I want to continue working with food and helping to educate others about sustainable food practices.

A New Development

I was so bored yesterday that I decided to cook a three-course meal for Richard, myself and three friends. It was an excuse to be busy all day and to use my crystal dish-ware. However, I ended up being pleasantly surprised by a phone call while I was out getting groceries. This phone call turned my three-course dinner into a celebration.

Many months ago, I applied to be a volunteer at Heifer Ranch. It was one of the many jobs/volunteer positions I have applied for over the past year. During that phone call, Diane, the volunteer coordinator at Heifer Ranch, told me that a new position was opening up for Animal Caretaker. She explained that she thought I would be a good candidate for the position (which would start before February). I informed her that I was absolutely interested in the position, especially after she stated it was a jack-of-all-trades position. (Those are my specialty.) A few hours later, I got an email saying the committee had approved me for the position and it was mine as soon as my background check came in clear.

I have to admit, cooking became a little bit more difficult after this. I was so excited I couldn't stop bouncing around (and squealing, according to Richard). So, in a week or two I will be working on Heifer Ranch, probably through the Fall. I am superbly excited to finally have something work out for me. For a while, I was trying to teach English in South Korea for a year. I ended up having two interviews with schools, but neither panned out. So, instead I will continue to work with agriculture.

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My three-course meal turned out fabulously. My friends all approved, especially of the strawberry tartlets. Below you can find the links to the dishes I made. There were, of course, variations made for each recipe. My main comment on variations is for the strawberry tartlets. I used five inch quiche dished to make individual tartlets instead of large tarts. I recommend making only half of the crust recipe for 4 five inch tartlets. I used a full recipe of the custard for the four tartlets. Since it is winter and strawberries aren't in season, I bought frozen strawberries and let them thaw.

Butternut squash and apple soup.             Strawberry tartlets.

When it came time to make the custard I was a little confused as to why it called for corn flour. So I replaced the two tablespoons of corn flour with a tablespoon of cornstarch. I think the flavor was delicious and the thickness was just right with this substitution. I recommend it for a smoother texture.

Sadly, I don't have a picture of the roasted chicken and vegetables for you. I was talking and carving and completely forgot a picture should be taken, haha. But I assure you, it was scrumptious.

Altogether, cooking this meal only took about three and a half hours. Definitely something I would recommend for a weekend adventure. Remember, the key is finding foods that flow well together. Start with a light appetizer, a medium or heavy entree, and a medium or light dessert.

Here are the recipes:
http://www.simplebites.net/butternut-squash-and-apple-soup-recipe/
http://cookinginsens.wordpress.com/2013/01/13/a-little-chicken/
http://hungryatmidnight.com/2012/09/16/strawberry-tarts/

Weekday Vegetarianism

I am starting to realize that I should count myself among the lucky. I grew up with grandparents who grew gardens every year (and still do). I knew what fresh vegetables were supposed to taste like. I was able to eat freshly made salsa out of the pot while helping my grandmother to can it. When I was home with my mom, during weekdays we ate a lot of boxed dinners and casseroles. But on weekends, we would go crazy cooking food. Sometimes, it was the southern traditional food like barbecue or hamburgers, but other times we would make stuffed bell peppers or something else healthy. We always had fresh fruit and vegetables around. That is the real reason why I am lucky. I didn't grow up eating only processed foods.

I began to realize how lucky this made me when Richard started commenting on how he had never had certain foods fresh before, like cauliflower. He grew up in a family that pretty much always ate food from a box, with the exception of holidays. When I introduced him to all of my crazy cooking, he was amazed to find that he liked foods he thought he didn't. I finally got him to enjoy eating a stuffed red pepper the other night, it was his third try. It's really difficult to adjust to a vegetarian lifestyle if you don't know how to add fresh fruits and vegetables to your diet.

I used to tell my mom that I could be a vegetarian easily, if I wanted. However, growing up in that family, it would have been more difficult than I thought. It was mid-way through sophomore year of college before I made good on that statement. I decided I was going to be healthier, so I became a full-fledged vegetarian and started going to the gym every other day. It wasn't as hard to adjust as people made it out to be. I didn't ever like red meat that much anyways, so I only missed chicken, shrimp, and sushi. For about eight months I was a vegetarian. Then I got tired of the occasional cravings for protein and decided to become a pescatarian. So, I supplemented my diet with fish and shrimp. There are people who say pescatarianism is the healthiest diet. I stopped craving protein even though I only ate seafood about once a week. It was the best decision I could make for my diet.

Richard isn't taking being a pescatarian quite as well as me. He craves fried chicken on a weekly basis. I don't even understand what could be missing from his diet to make him crave that. So, occasionally I break down and buy a chicken from CLG, which I end up cooking in three or four different meals. My favorite being chicken and dumplings.

Today, we watched the TEDtalk by Graham Hill about becoming a weekday vegetarian. When it finished Richard immediately exclaimed, "See! That would be so much easier!" I could only shake my head at him. On reflection, though, being a weekday vegetarian is definitely an improvement from his old lifestyle. It would probably also mean he didn't consciously miss eating meat. So, maybe that would be an easier way for him to transition.

I would definitely recommend becoming a weekday vegetarian as a starting point. I know several people who have tried giving themselves a New Years resolution to become vegetarian and quickly failed. It's the age old problem where when you deny yourself something, you want it so much more. So, instead of denying yourself completely, try to limit your intake to the weekends. On top of that, buy local organic meats, which are better for you and the environment. I have to say, chicken from CLG definitely makes me miss the diversity of dishes you can make when you add meat to the plate. In the past year, I have had a number of slip ups with eating meat. Curried goat and lamb is just too delicious to pass up every time I eat at an Indian restaurant. Admittedly, it all started with a roasted leg of lamb in Paris, France. So, I think it is okay.

For the most part, I plan to be pescatarian this year. Or perhaps I will become a weekday vegetarian, reserving seafood, poultry, and deer for the weekends. Otherwise, I'll stay away from red meat. The smell of it makes me gag anyway. I will make a concession for meats that are locally produced, or shot in the wild, since my main problem with meat is the conditions in which animals are kept.

I am glad to have grown up in a family who taught me what fresh food tastes like. I am also glad to have taught myself how to cook proficiently, so that the transition away from meat was made that much easier.

Hungry for Change: A film review

Today I watched the film Hungry for Change, which is made by the same people who brought us Food Matters. This is a 90-minute film, which follows the every day life of Natalie, who is meant to represent the average American. While we follow her path to self-discovery, we are bombarded with information from various sources. I say bombarded because there are many quotations that are repeated at various times throughout the film, effectively beating you over the head. Most of the sources are authors; a few are nutritionists; some journalists; and one or two “experts” in strange fields, like wild food. I tell you this, not to discount the information that they present to you in the film, but so you can have some perspective on where the ideas presented are coming from.

The film presents you with a number of ideas surrounding food and the food industry of today. If I had to pick an overall theme for the film, I would say it is we live in an age where we are overfed, but are starving nutritionally. The film talks about how our hunter-gatherer-gardener ancestors ate food with a high nutrient content and low calorie content, whereas today we have a high calorie, low nutrient diet. The film goes on to encourage you to change your diet to almost no processed foods, more fresh vegetables and to stop “dieting”.

According to Dr. Alejandro Junger, creator of the Clean detox program, "The problem is we are not eating food anymore, we are eating food-like products. The objective is not to give you a healthy product; it is to give you a product that will make you buy it, that will last long, and will make a lot of profit for the company." In today’s society, we eat foods that are highly processed, refined and full of additives. They give an example of Total brand blueberry pomegranate cereal, which, in fact, contains no blueberries or pomegranates. There are fillers and flavorings that trick the mind into thinking it is getting nutrients, when it truly isn’t. The film explains that in a world where we have empty calories from fillers paired with an indoor lifestyle and no exercise, we are wreaking havoc on our bodies: “You’ve got way too many calories, not enough nutrients and not enough use of those calories.” They also mention that those empty calories make us continue eating, because our bodies are striving to get the nutrients we aren’t providing it.

Food additives are highly denounced in the film, especially MSG and aspartame. MSG is used in a huge variety of foods as a flavor enhancer. They are exasperated with the labeling of MSG and free glutamates, which are hidden behind names we often cannot even pronounce. The authors in the film explain that MSG is used to fatten rats for experiments, yet companies are allowed to use it in our food. Aspartame is an artificial sweetener used in diet food and drinks. They claim that aspartame causes formaldehyde build-up in the brain and frontal lobe inflammation, which can lead to migraines. Despite their claims, there have been no conclusive studies done to prove or disprove the connection between these chemicals and migraines.

The film also addresses the issue of sugar, claiming, “Sugar is without doubt the cocaine of the food world, but they get away with hiding it in food.” They show one of the best examples possible; a TED talk by Jamie Oliver where he explains how much sugar is consumed by school children just by drinking milk. The picture below shows the mountain of sugar consume by a child in the first five years of school.

They continue with the simile of sugar and drugs by explaining how you become addicted to it. They also liken the addiction to that of a smoker. You think you can stop eating, but really the foods you consume are manufactured to make you eat more and more. I don’t know the number of times they use the simile between food products and drugs, but my favorite has to be: “Eating high-fructose corn syrup is, in my view, a lot like snorting cocaine." They go on to explain that both are highly processed and refined from a natural plant source, corn and cocoa leaves, respectively. An interesting comparison to be sure, but it may be a little extreme for most viewers. HFCS is said to promote type-2 diabetes and obesity, which are huge problems in the U.S.

 

Dieting is completely bashed by the film. Though use of the word seems to be becoming passé, the film reminds us of the true definition: “a diet is the foods that an organism habitually eats to sustain itself.” They repeatedly remind us that dieting never works. We cut out one of the essential nutrients, like fat, instead of trying to change our eating habits to include the good kind of those nutrients. Most “fat-free” foods replace the fat with carbohydrates. Carbohydrates break down into sugars in the body, which then turn into fat. A better solution is to eat the right kind of fats, like those that come from plant-based sources such as avocado.

The film also brings up an important point regarding the studies that are published on new food additives and chemicals. The manufacturers of these products pay for most of the studies that are published involving the effects of a food or food additive on the body. As an example of this link, author and researcher William F Engdahl states, “Over half of the scientists involved in the [genetically modified organism] GMO panel which positively reviewed the Monsanto’s study for GMO maize in 2009, leading to its EU-wide authorization, had links with the biotech industry.” The FDA does not have it’s own scientists who study the effects of new chemicals on the human body. This could obviously lead to botched studies and misrepresented evidence. However, finding proof of that would be an expensive and difficult endeavor.

The film does at least present us with a solution to the problems: add more local, organic, whole foods to our diet; cut out the processed and refined junk; cut out the unnecessary chemicals. The experts explain ways to detoxify your body and present juicing as a catch-all answer. They explain that consuming juiced vegetables is a way to get the nutrients into your body that you usually wouldn’t. They even address the question of why not just eat the vegetables? It is because most people do not eat enough vegetables and fruits. Juicing is a fifteen-minute solution to our nutrient-deficiency. It is also a way to detoxify the body. They recommend a three-day detox period where only juiced vegetables are consumed. Then consuming whole foods, mostly vegetables, seeds and nuts, and some fruits. As Jessica Carr explains, “If it’s made in a garden, I eat it. If it’s made in a lab, it takes a lab to digest. If it has a shelf life longer than me, I don’t eat it. The simpler I get, the healthier I get.” Additional sleep, more laughter, and regular exercise are recommended to reduce stress and help maintain your metabolism. Your body is made to take care of itself and if you feed it the right foods, it will.

I am not convinced that you should take all of the information in the film to heart, as many claims are made without sufficient proof.  In a scientific world, we need more proof than a handful of people who swear by the solution they used to get healthy. However, we have learned in the past that bringing the public’s attention to a topic can create change. Take the book The Jungle, for example. This book led to an uproar over the malpractices of the American meatpacking industry in the early 1900s. Having read this book myself, I can understand how the graphic imagery used in The Jungle caused people to react. When you are able to relate to a person how a subject affects them (and everyone else), through written or shown images, it gets their attention more than statistics and numbers ever could. This is the reason that films such as Food Matters and Hungry for Change can be important to the food movement, despite their sometimes-overzealous claims. They do bring up valid points, such as the capitalistic nature of food businesses, the administrative fallacies in food governance, the health issues that are faced in the United States, and the reasons behind these issues. 

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I have decided to do a little experiment myself. I am going to take the next three days to detoxify my body using their method of consuming only freshly juiced vegetables/fruit for every meal. I went out and bought a large amount of fresh organic produce this afternoon and, luckily, already have a juicer. I plan to record how I feel for the three days and the affect the juice has on my body. Richard is planning to also participate so we can give a male and female perspective. I have to admit, I am weary of this experiment because I expect to be very hungry for the next three days. However, for the sake of knowledge, I will prevail.
Jan. 10, 2013
Okay, upon review, I lied. I will not make it three days. I barely made it past 1:30 before I broke down and had a bowl of yogurt, walnuts and honey. I am finally starting to feel the effects of hunger. My head aches and I don't think I'm going to make it to dinner, let alone past dinner. I will continue to drink juiced veggies and fruits (since I bought them already), but I cannot eat no solid food, especially no protein.