Summary Of Michael Pollan's Unhappy Meals

Science, Food and Beyond in Michael Pollan’s “Unhappy Meals” “Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants” is the opening statement in Michael Pollan’s article “Unhappy Meals” (Pollan 1). In this article Pollan presents to the reader a new standpoint on what food really is. Pollan’s main argument is that nowadays nutrition has stopped being about whole foods, and is all about nutrients like vitamins and carbs. New terms like “fiber” and “cholesterol” replacing real food in American supermarkets, claiming to help “live longer” and posses larger health benefits (Pollan 2). Thus, replacing “old-fashioned” foods to processed food-like substances, and eventually rising the ideology of “nutritionism”, in which deals with the notion of what nutrient qualities there are in beef, instead of looking at it as a whole (Pollan 4,5). In this essay I will present Pollan's misrepresentation of science ,in which has done more damage than good to the study of food. Therefore, Pollan’s article and the elements in the text do not …show more content…
Pollan states that scientists “need individual variables to isolate,” and that this is the way science is conducted (Pollan 7). Pollan did not mention the fact that science by common definition deals with the pursuit of knowledge, and stills allows himself to believe that science ignores “complex interactions and contexts” (Pollan 7). Pollan neglects the fact that there are essential elements in science which concerns observation, hypothesis, prediction and experiments. Thus, logically, scientist cannot neglect even the smallest detail when testing. Pollan continues to contradict himself when he states that scientists discovered that beta carotene ingested as a supplement “actually increases the risk of certain cancers” (Pollan 8). In other words, scientist acting to their job discretion: expanding human