In the Omnivore's Dilemma, Michael Pollen writes about the American Paradox of how even though Americans are so health obsessed but most aren't healthy themselves. They follow fad diets and food trends because they don't know what to eat and lack their own food culture, besides the occasional barbeque and hotdog stands. Like the Atkins diet, that we talked about in class, where mostly meat and protein is eaten but no carbs and no fruits and vegetables. This was a popular fad diet that Americans followed for a while. Even though its not healthy to cut out whole food groups no one thought about that because they wanted the end result.
I've never understood the point of fad diets or any other diets myself because in the end people just return back to their normal eating habits. Some of the diets are so bizarre like, the cabbage soup diet where a person will only eat and drink, you guessed it-- cabbage soup. None of the diets I see seem too healthy. Perhaps because America's a jumble of different cultures that Americans are so confused as to what to eat and are so vunerable to different trendy diets. They feel like they need directions to tell them how to eat because they've forgotten how to.
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3 comments:
I like this post and especially how you referred to AMericans as "they" and not "we", meaning that while they might not be able to see through the fad diet system, you can. I also think it was good for you to reference material discussed in class as evidence to bolster the post.
I never thought about Pollan's argument that way. It's interesting how you thought about the american culture and how we are so diverse and connected it to not knowing what to eat and back to Pollan's argument.
I agree with you about people not being contsant with their habitual way of eating. It might be because they are not comminted to eating healthy or because they are too influenced by the fast food that tastes very good and it is also economic to a certain point. I think that this book might discuss the cultural way of our diet, however it also provides an example on the drastic differences from culture to culture.
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