We saw Michael Pollan speak at MSU last night. This article does a good job of summarizing his talk at Tufts, which looks like it was very similar to the one we heard at MSU: http://tuftsjournal.tufts.edu/2009/04_1/features/01/.
He caught me off guard with his criticism of nutritional science: “Nutritional science is fascinating, but sort of where surgery was in 1650. It’s interesting and promising, but are you ready to get on the table?” He thinks we need to simplify the way we eat by following a few basic rules: “Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants.”
Our focus on various nutrients in food is part of the problem: “There is always some satanic nutrient we are trying to drive from the food supply, such as trans fat or sodium. At the same time, there is always a blessed nutrient that if we ate enough of, we would live forever, such as omega-3 fatty acids or fiber.”
It was disturbing to hear how hard this nutrition science mono culture has been on our farmers. They get a tiny fraction of the money that is spent on our so called “food”. Even the packagers make more than the farmers. Most of our grocery dollars go to the marketing and manufacture of food like substances that barely resemble the real food that farmers grow/raise. The message was clear to me — get to know your local farmer and buy directly from him/her whenever possible.
He also discussed how different cultures handle the concept of eating enough at a meal. In America we eat quickly and keep eating until we are “full”. Other cultures have settled on a different strategy — they eat until they are no longer hungry. This requires that you eat more slowly, and take time to listen to your body.
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