How Junk Food Can End Obesity Pollan Summary

We Americans are always on the go, no matter if it is on our way to work, school, or exercise. Most people are eating some types of processed food usually for almost every meal due to how quick it is to prepare. However, most Americans do not realize that the nutrition facts on the other side of their granola bar shows the ugly truth about what they are eating. Michael Pollan who is a highly esteemed author on this subject refers to the “Western Diet” as mostly processed foods. Pollan’s main argument is that Americans need to reduce the amount of processed foods that are consumed so that health risks will be reduced. Pollan says, “People eating a Western diet are prone to a complex of chronic diseases that seldom strike people eating more

This can be due to people like celebrities or nutritionists that are advertising single nutrients like Vitamin C tablets that will make people healthier, which is allowing the food industry to take the promotion of these single nutrients, and advertise to the people that just don’t know. This benefits the food industry by being able to take advantage of people by selling them products that will be “healthier” but not so much due to the amount processing. An author named David Freedman wrote an opposing article titled “How Junk Food can end Obesity”. Simply, we can see the already conflicting views between the two authors, however, Pollan has the more realistic view than Freedman that processed foods can cause more adverse health effect due to low income as

Maria Andrea Gonzalez, the mother, says that she feels guilty giving her children poor meals, but living on a dollar a day is the reason why they can’t afford food at a grocery store (Kenner).

Pollan’s view on income being a factor in the obesity and other adverse health effects seems to be completely valid. Freedman argues that while spending nine dollars on a healthy smoothie seems to be totally unnecessary and basically should not be a thing due to the high cost. Freedman does have a point there saying how high the prices are for healthy products, but having fresh products is going to have a cost to them. Stores like Whole Foods are made to attract more an audience with higher incomes who can afford organic products which may defer people with lower incomes due to the high prices.

In the United States where heart disease is the number one killer, Americans should instead start looking at what they are eating for the sake of their health. The word obesity has hurt so many people due to the amount of processed foods that they are taking in which composes of lots of fat and high amounts of sodium which is notorious for heart disease. Pollan says “Eat food, Not too much. Mostly plants.”, meaning to limit how much food you are eating, and to eat more vegetables than meats mostly. Saying that junk food can end obesity is a rather blunt statement due to