Unhappy Meals

I just read a great article by Michael Pollan called "Unhappy meals". He talks about how modern nutritionists have done us all a disservice by telling us that everything we need from food can be reduced to a small number of nutrients and vitamins (this is called "nutritionism"). Untrue. There are necessary components of real food that have not yet been "discovered", but that our bodies need. We cannot get them from fortified, refined food products. They only come in the form of real food. Here's a great quote from the article:

No one likes to admit that his or her best efforts at understanding and solving a problem have actually made the problem worse, but that's exactly what has happened in the case of nutritionism. Scientists operating with the best of intentions, using the best tools at their disposal, have taught us to look at food in a way that has diminished our pleasure in eating it while doing little or nothing to improve our health. Perhaps what we need now is a broader, less reductive view of what food is, one that is at once more ecological and cultural. What would happen, for example, if we were to start thinking about food as less of a thing and more of a relationship?

Although it is long, I highly recommend this article, but disagree with the author on the following points:

• He recommends a mostly vegetarian diet. I believe that at least most people need some meat in their diets, and some people need a fair amount of meat in their diet.
• The role of evolution in humans' ability to digest certain foods is debatable. I wouldn't follow that line of thought too far. How can we know for sure if people originally had the proper enzymes to digest milk? How could we possibly "evolve" to benefit from high fructose corn syrup?

He includes some great tips for eating well, including eating food your ancestors would recognize, avoid foods with any sort of "health claim" (New! Fortified with Omega 3's!), and get out of the supermarket as often as possible (as in, go to the farmer's market or grow some of your own). His advice is all good, and this guy is a great writer. I put his book on hold at the library (The Omnivore's Dilemma) some time ago, but apparently I'm not the only one who wants to read it. The New York Times Book Review editors chose it as one of the top ten books of 2006.