Michael Pollan Food Culture

Throughout history, food culture has been appreciated all over the world. Michael Pollan proposes a rule of eating more like other countries. “People who eat according to the rules of a traditional food culture are generally healthier than we are”, he says. Ofcourse, not every country is going to eat and cook the same way, different foods, different cultures. There are a lot of ways that the way other countries prepare, eat and enjoy food differs from America. As an American, it is evident to me how the food we eat is different from the rest of the world. According to the article, “Why French People Are Thin (Hint It’s Not Their Diet)” by Frederic Patenaude, these difference includes the components in the meals, the portion size aspects of …show more content…
The term diet is often understood as a temporary change in calories and intake in order to lose weight. A lot of emphasis has been placed on the quantities of carbs and calories, despite how people actually feel about these notions. Certainly, the word carbohydrate has taken on a negative connotation despite the fact that carbs are the body’s main source of energy and are a major component in calories in most healthy based foods. The key to such a solution is providing the public with unbiased and accurate information regarding diet. There is an expression, “calories are calories”. Beliefs about weight gain are tricky. There is much disagreement about the core cause of weight gain. One fraction argues that weight gain is caused by simply eating too much, while the other fraction contends that its not how much you eat but what you eat that matters. Who is right? Michael Pollan’s rule presents an idea of focusing more on eating more like a culture, whereas Frederic Patenaude discusses how it is more than just eating certain food, it is more of the lifestyle that includes portion sizes, and tradition. Frederic mentions in his article many different things regarding the food cultural differences between Europeans and Americans. For example, in America our eating frequency is way more extensive than those living in France. Americans are known to live faster than Europeans. We are always in a hurry, …show more content…
American’s eating habits do not just simply contain of breakfast, lunch and dinner. Our erratic mealtimes contain a sugary breakfast, lunch, coffee or snack time, happy hour, dinner and midnight snacks which means we eat more often, causing habits leading to unhealthy, overweight individuals. Not only is the eating frequency a factor in it all but portion size control plays a role also. Everything in America is known to be bigger than in Europe. The country, the lifestyle, the cars and portions are no exception. In America, when asking for a small drink, that is what is considered to be a large in Europe. Small does not exist in America. “Go big or go home”, they say. When a person is given more food, they will eat more and is more likely to underestimate how much food they are actually consuming but when they are given less food, they’ll eat less. Advocates of this view argue that if you eat too much of anything, you will gain weight, and that changing what you eat would not cause you to lose weight. Americans act as though we are threatened by imminent famine- causing us to eat so much, when in reality our supermarkets offer thousands of products.
In the article, Frederic proposes another point to this claim. He mentions “food angst”. He gives an example of the french being able to being able to cook and eat foods filled with calories and still will eat less than Americans do, without little thought of it.