Omnivore's Dilemma, By Michael Pollan

Register to read the introduction… In Michael Pollan’s Omnivore’s Dilemma, he explains the journey of how corn developed to what it is today. In 1866, “corn syrup . . . became the first cheap domestic substitute for cane sugar” (Pollan 88). Then as corn refining started to be perfected, high-fructose corn syrup became quite popular. Pollan states that high-fructose corn syrup “is the most valuable food product refined from corn, accounting for 530 million bushels every year” (89). Once these different food processes were discovered, processed foods began making their way into the country. At first, the point of having processed food was to free “people from nature’s cycles of abundance and scarcity,” so to have food preserved longer (Pollan 91). But as time went on, the goal changed from “liberating food from nature” (Pollan 91) to “improve[ing] on nature” (Pollan 91). Since processed foods began to be so easy to make with the help of high-fructose corn syrup, the cost to make it was relatively cheap compared to the natural farmers. Pollans statistics show that “a dollar spent on a whole food such as eggs, $0.40 finds its way back to the farmer . . . by comparison, George Naylor will see only $0.04 of every dollar spent on corn sweeteners” (95). So ultimately, the increase in processed foods have to do with its easy and cheap …show more content…
Food corporations have come to a point where they are more interested in how well their company is doing rather than the country’s health. So ultimately, the rise in obesity is because of these food productions little interest to care about the health of the country. In Michael Pollan’s The Omnivore’s Dilemma, he proves that food corporations are only interested in the money rather than the well-being of the country. He says that a “cheaper agricultural commodities [are] driving food companies to figure out new and ever more elaborate ways to add value and so induce us to buy more” (Pollan 96). So if these companies are driven by …show more content…
Even though these people know what is going on, they still do not change their lifestyles. But they have good reasons, according to Michael Pollan’s reasonings in The Omnivore’s Dilemma. Pollan explains how the food corporations have “push[ed] our evolutionary buttons, fooling the omnivore’s inherited food selection system “ (107). Even though humans are not meant to eat these foods, the sensory apparatus in within humans have evolved to always crave these processed foods. It has even gotten to a point where “people with limited money to spend on food would spend it on the cheapest calories they can find” (Pollan 108). These are perfect examples to why the processed food lifestyle continues, and why the epidemic of obesity continues to increase. So the real question is how does America resolve the epidemic of obesity? Yes, food corporations are to blame, but they will keep producing processed foods to help their economic success. So as a country, alternatives and powerful influences must be introduced in order to decrease obesity. Michael Pollan’s article “Unhappy Meals” in The New York Times, has lots of certain advice to steer away from the tricks of processed foods and have America move into a healthier lifestyle. He suggests that processed foods imply they are based around important nutrients to help support human health, when in reality