My interest towards this particular topic has to do with a limitation that Pollan states about nutritional science. In Defense of Food has a section called, Nutritionism’s Children in which he describes a study that states, “Assume you are alone in a desert island for one year and you can have water and one other food. Pick the food that will be best for your health.” What do you think people answered? “The choices were corn, alfalfa sprouts, hot dogs, spinach, peaches, bananas, and milk chocolate. The most popular choice was bananas (42 percent), followed by spinach (27 percent), corn (12 percent), alfalfa sprouts (7 percent), peaches (5 percent), hot dogs (4 percent), and milk chocolate (3 percent). Only 7 percent of the participants chose one of the two foods that would in fact best support survival: hot dogs and milk chocolate.” Personally, I would have chosen spinach, but I do not understand why the study had hot dogs and milk chocolate as an option. Doesn’t this go against Pollan’s theory of how bad processed food is to our body? Why are hotdogs and milk chocolate proven to best support survival? Why did only seven percent of the people chose these foods? Was there a misconception with Pollan’s principles of healthy food, such as fruits and vegetables? Besides this confusion, I believe that this book has been somewhat helpful to further my knowledge about
My interest towards this particular topic has to do with a limitation that Pollan states about nutritional science. In Defense of Food has a section called, Nutritionism’s Children in which he describes a study that states, “Assume you are alone in a desert island for one year and you can have water and one other food. Pick the food that will be best for your health.” What do you think people answered? “The choices were corn, alfalfa sprouts, hot dogs, spinach, peaches, bananas, and milk chocolate. The most popular choice was bananas (42 percent), followed by spinach (27 percent), corn (12 percent), alfalfa sprouts (7 percent), peaches (5 percent), hot dogs (4 percent), and milk chocolate (3 percent). Only 7 percent of the participants chose one of the two foods that would in fact best support survival: hot dogs and milk chocolate.” Personally, I would have chosen spinach, but I do not understand why the study had hot dogs and milk chocolate as an option. Doesn’t this go against Pollan’s theory of how bad processed food is to our body? Why are hotdogs and milk chocolate proven to best support survival? Why did only seven percent of the people chose these foods? Was there a misconception with Pollan’s principles of healthy food, such as fruits and vegetables? Besides this confusion, I believe that this book has been somewhat helpful to further my knowledge about