Michael Pollan Escape From The Western Diet Summary

In the beginning of Escape from the Western Diet, author Michael Pollan introduces the thought that nutritionism is one of the most used sciences used to categorize food today. Moreover, Pollan’s main claim is that nutritionism and the Western diet are not forms of dietary rules that we should follow. Pollan himself writes, “Scientists can argue all they want about the biological mechanisms behind this phenomenon, but whichever it is, the solution to the problem would appear to remain very much the same: Stop eating a Western diet” (Pollan 421). To me, I believe Pollan makes a very convincing point to stop eating a western diet, due to the examples he shares. All throughout the article, Pollan shares his various opinions on the western diet like how it leads to western diseases and thoughts on how the medical and food industries are affected. Pollan’s theory of Western diet is extremely useful because it sheds insight on the difficult problem of Western diseases such as cancer, heart disease and diabetes. According to Pollan, “People eating a Western diet are prone to a complex of chronic diseases that seldom strike people eating more traditional diets” (Pollan 421). I agree that a western diet of processed food does aid in the cause of chronic illnesses that Mr. Pollan states. In Escape from the Western Diet, the …show more content…
The first question being, what are the downsides of eating a western diet? As already discussed, the Western diet can lead to many Western diseases. The author even calls to Denis Burkitt, an English doctor who was stationed in Africa during World War II, to share his opinion on the Western diet and diseases. Burkitt stated, “The only way we’re going to reduce disease is to go backwards to the diet and lifestyle of our ancestors.” I particularly do not agree with Burkitt’s statement, because thing have drastically changed and adapted since the time of our