Michael Pollan on Nutritionism

[mindstalk]

Longish essay but well worth reading, I think.  Save a copy if you don't want to read it right off, it's the New York Times.

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/01/28/magazine/28nutritionism.t.html

Comments

[lyceum-arabica.livejournal.com]

ok. except i used to not be able to have sandwiches or anything but water because of the high carbohydrate level in tea/soda and most bread. i know i couldn't have them 'cause i got drunk when i did. sugar issues.
then the evil journalism/nutritionist/food-processing conspiracy of the 'atkins diet' came out, and now i can go to any grocery store and get things that won't do me any harm and taste great (i can tell they don't because i *don't* get drunk when i eat them). and even after the fad has long passed, the useful products and trends are still out there.

so. um.
i'm not sure this guy is *entirely* justified in his rant.

[lyceum-arabica.livejournal.com]

er, i should clarify... by couldn't have sandwiches or anything but water... i could have had diet pop. but now i can have sugar-free la croix (which actually tastes decent and doesn't have a sugar substitute), a batch of unsweetened teas, coke one (which has some diet sweetner but is less syrupy). etc... and while i was limited to slightly unpleasant still fairly-high carb wheat bread before, now there's a batch more i can get (plus I can eat breakfast cereal, noddles, soup, etc...).

[mindstalk.livejournal.com]

Well, I think you're a freak case. Low carb foods didn't hit the market out of medical concern with your digestive problems but out of another nutrionist fad; that it helped you is lucky for you, but kind of random. He's concerned with whether the Atkins diet fad did what it claimed it could do, improve the cardiac health and life for most people. He might also posit that you were surrounded by high-carb choices before because of the prior low-fat fad. And that a more traditional food culture might have had a wider variety of low-processed foods for you to choose from.

[lyceum-arabica.livejournal.com]

oh yah! and spaghetti!!! oh so awesome that i can have just noodles and sauce again. barilla plus or something (and it's not even soy protien... it's all from lentels/beans). before there was just no way... i wouldn't have been able to walk straight afterwards unless there was a lot of meat in the sauce.