Blog Post 9 Shiffrin

Taylor Shiffrin

WRIT 1133

Blog Post 9

            In the U.S. there is an epidemic of obesity, diabetes, heart disease and countless other faults in the health of Americans. This, ironically, derives from trying to eat healthy.  There is one major fault in the way Americans view food that seems to be consistently present throughout all of the readings of both Pollan and DuPuis. It is one that has stemmed from the earliest development of the U.S. dating back to the 13 colonies. This fault is the misconception that simply by eating healthy, one will be healthy. This ill-advised notion has created a systemic and infectious concept in the consumer’s mind, which in turn has led the suppliers to create products that focus primarily on the healthy ingredients in food. As well as that early leaders of our country created fads around eating healthy in order to live healthy. Rather than suggest eating healthy to support living healthy. As Pollan so aptly put this into words, “Where once the familiar names of recognizable comestibles — things like eggs or breakfast cereal or cookies — claimed pride of place on the brightly colored packages crowding the aisles, now new terms like “fiber” and “cholesterol” and “saturated fat” rose to large-type prominence.”

           

            However Pollan simply depicts the evolution from “food” to “nutrient” where as this plague of a fallacy was born far before the 19^th century. I read through the numerous examples in DuPuis’ writings about how various cults and utopian societies were formed around healthy eating and a clean living. Yet, there was one particular detail that stuck out in my mind as the beginnings of food “produced” as a healthier alternative to the already existing sustenance. That was the Graham cracker. Sylvester Graham developed a new flour and a new food to combat his view of unhealthy living and eating. “Graham preached the creation of a perfected life through abstention from the evils of meat, spices, fat, and sex (especially the so-called solitary vice). His invention of the graham cracker was meant to deliver the public from the evils of white bread.” This one quote encompasses my entire point, which is that the American concept of health and fitness is a by-product of eating healthy.

            Prior to reading “Unhappy Meals” and “History of Food Advice” I suspected that the unhealthy American populous spurred from our collectively poor eating and even more atrocious dedication to fitness. Now I feel that my thoughts have been validated and substantiated by the writings of Pollan and DuPuis. Therefore I can now say with confidence that American’s will remain an unhealthy, obese, disease ridden population until they acknowledge the solution. Which means that to be healthy one must live healthy and therein support healthy living with a healthy diet.