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Literature review of effects of junk food in 2019
Review of literature on effects of junk food
Literature review of effects of junk food in 2019
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When it comes to your health, who do you listen to, your body or the experts? Do you
consider food that has harmful effects on our body “bad food” or “junk food”? Well a graduate
student from Bowling Green State University, Mary Maxfield recommends we should listen
more to our body then we do the experts. She further noted we should label food, good versus
bad instead of utilizing the word “junk food”. While journalist Michael Pollan, argues our body
are not always correct and that’s the reason we should leave it to the professionals. He also
argues in order to live healthier lives we need to eliminate junk food. Both Pollan and Maxfield
have very different views on the way we should take care of our health.
In the essay, Escape from the Western
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diet, Pollan argues in order to live healthier lives and to avoid chronic diseases we need to completely eliminate the use of junk food. Junk food is filled with tons of carbohydrates and Omega-3-fatty acids that increases the causes chronic diseases. He then goes on to say, “Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plant.” (Pollan,426). In the essay, Food as Thought: Resisting the Moralization of Eating, Maxfield writes that we need to consider food either “good” or “bad” instead of junk food. Also, we need to listen more to our body because the body knows what’s best for our health. Maxfields first argument is we need to trust our body when it comes to taking care of our health. When we eat ,our body will reveal to us when we’re hungry or when we’re full. It futher reveals whether something we ate was really bad for us or really good. Our body has many ways to inform us what is good and what is bad for our bodies. On the other hand, Pollan would say our body can't predict everything that is going to happen. That is the reason we leave it to the experts to inform us. They can perform lots of testing that will indicate what is really going on in our body. In addition with those test come with results which can further educate the knowledge of our body. On this topic, I agree with both to a certain extent. I do trust my body to inform me what is good versus what is bad, but there are things my body will not always feel and that’s why I have to rely on annual check ups by doctors. Not every time something is abnormal, my body will I feel it , and therefore I still depend on testing requested by doctors to maintain good health.
Another topic they both disagree on is the label they put for foods that are not the best
for you health. Pollan is very blunt when he says we need to eliminate “junk food” from our diet
in order to maintain healthy lives (Pollan,421). He uses the word junk food because that’s how
he would describe the food that are very harmful for our bodies. Pollan is very direct, where as
Maxfield is a little more sensitive to her choice of words. Maxfield uses the term “good versus
bad”(Maxfield,446. She uses good versus bad because she is more sensitive in her words of
choice. She believes in not being so strict on ourselves. In my opinion, I think sometimes we
need to be more strict on ourselves in order to live healthier lives. I am more likely not to eat
food that contains the term junk food versus food that just has the term bad food. To me, junk
food has more of a negative notation and thus keep me away from eating it.
Lastly, Maxfield states in order to fix the issue of unhealthy eating we need to accept it
first. Once we accept the fact that we’re fat, it will then help motivate us to want to make
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the change. It takes the acceptance of the issue in order for us to be motivated enough to make the change.
Not only once we accept, it will be much easier to make the change, but it will also help
mentally too. Pollan states, we should “Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants” (Pollan,426).
Meaning that we need to eat more food that has been naturally grown and not processed. We
also need to eat enough to fill us, but to not overeat. And lastly to eat more plants. Plants have
such a positive effect on our bodies proving why we need to eat more of it. They benefit our
bodies in so many ways, but yet is one of the most avoided or ignored category of foods. In this
argument, I agree with both of them. I feel like accepting the fact that your body is in need of
better care is the easiest way to actually change it. Accepting change can be one of the hardest
things to do but once it’s done, it keeps a person motivated to change. I also like Pollan’s
advice on how and what to eat. Yes, we need to more foods which are not processed and yes
we need to refrain from overeating because that can cause a lot of damage to our body and we
definitely need to eat more plants. I, myself try to eat a lot of fruits and vegetables because I
know it’s very good to my body. In addition I highly encourage my husband and son to
make healthy choices, hoping to strengthen their healthy eating habits now rather then later in life. In conclusion, both Pollan and Maxfield bring up very good debatable topics on what way we should maintain healthy lives. Both bring up different but very good points. With obesity on the rise and now children are also being diagnosed with obesity, we need to put a stop on feeding our children processed food. We need to educate our kids on the difference between the good and the bad food. There are many programs out there such as, WIC which provides low income families with free healthy food. They also do free check ups on the children to ensure they are growing and staying healthy. But that’s not enough, we need the parents to be educated and for them to pass on the knowledge to their kids in order for them to grow up
Michael Pollan, an American author, journalist, activist, and professor of journalism at the UC Berkeley Graduate School of Journalism (Michael Pollan), writes in his book In Defense of Food, the dangers of nutritionism and how to escape the Western diet and subsequently most of the chronic diseases the diet imparts. In the chapter “Nutritionism Defined” Pollan defines the term nutritionism. Pollan’s main assertion being how the ideology of nutritionism defines food as the sum of its nutrients, and from this viewpoint Pollan goes on to write how nutritionism divides food into two categories, with each macronutrient divided against each other as either bad or good nutrients, in a bid for focus of our food fears and enthusiasms. Finally, Pollan concludes that with the relentless focus nutritionism places on nutrients and their interplay distinctions between foods become irrelevant and abandoned.
Pollan used the technique of ethos in order to appeal his trustworthy to his audience. Michael pollen organized his argument very well. He builds the arguments, by going through and describing the facts and claims he made regarding the western diet, followed by reasoning which made his argument trustworthy, like first he made claim that “stop eating a western diet” After that he gave reason for his claim that why we should escape western diet. He mention that “We should escape the western diet because western diet is a processed diet which has more carbohydrates and less micro nutrients which are the cause of many harmful diseases in United States” Pollan explain that lack of micro-nutrients, omega-3 fatty acids are the main cause of many chronic diseases in our country. To support his view on issue, He also describe the neo-lipid, omega-3 and carbohydrates hypothesis. Pollan quoted Denis Burkett
In this essay “How Junk Food Can End Obesity,” published in 2013 issue of The Atlantic Daily, David Freedman explains how junk food is a better source of the organic food. Stressing the price and how many calories to natural/healthy smoothies and fast food /junk food. While most people believe junk food contributes to obesity, Freedman advocates eating junk food but making smart choices.
The Western Diet is basically processed food, which is foods that are full with hormones, refined grains, sweet food, and food that is high in saturated fats. This food method that America is following is the reason for the increased rate of obesity in the country and many chronic diseases, due to why many Americans are suffering from. Pollan wants Americans to take control and set goals for themselves and their health. As he states, “A hallmark of the Western diet is food that is fast, cheap, and easy.”(424) This is the reason why people tend to buy it this food. Pollan is right about how the Western diet is affecting the people’s health negatively because of recent studies have shown that most of the food that people consume are processed foods, which gone through a process letting most of its nutritional values. Also, the food is full of unhealthy nutrients that are added to it during the process. An individual cannot have assurance of what he/she is consuming from a fast food place or a cheap prepared meal from grocery store. Western diet needs to be taken away from American’s life. He states “Not Too Much”(pp.426) will be the focus from the foods themselves to the question of how to eat, the manners, mores, and the habits that go with creating a healthy diet, and pleasing culture of eating. This way it will allow Americans to live their life healthier and
Published In his article “How Junk Food Can End Obesity”, David Freedman begins by talking about how misinformed people are about wholefood restaurants and stores. These stores are run by so-called health food experts. Freedman makes himself distinguishable himself from the position of Michael Pollan and his adherents. His adherents are known as Pollanites. They are the people who believe that processed food is the reason we have health and obesity issues.
Americans are viewed by Pollan as “a notably unhealthy people obsessed by the idea of eating healthy”(Our National Eating Disorder). An example of this obsession is the current epidemic of carbophobia.
They both are right and wrong at once, when reading the articles I could not help but to think of the Morgan Spurlock’s documentary “Super Size Me,” for those that don’t know in this film Morgan goes on a one month McDonald 's only diet, during which he gets the oversized portions and eats every hyper processed food on the menu. Turning the average relatively fit adult American into a sluggish shadow of what he was before the one month. Morgan did both things that Pollen and Maxfield wanted to avoid. Pollen a processed diet and Maxfield a feast beyond your body’s
According to Pollan the question “what to eat” is complicated but “to guide us we have culture” (The American Paradox). Culture influences food likes and dislikes. Culture creates food preferences which make patterns of food choices, making everyone 's selection different. Whoever the influence of our culture has been changing throughout the years, with the food industry taking over the markets. Now we do not necessarily eat what our grandparents or even what our parents used to eat, instead we have this new massive produced packaged products. This is the reason why Americans food habits are changing, now more than ver we see people consuming products not because hey are part of their culture but because is what the media tells you to consume. The 21st century has a new obsession which is body image, now more than ever people is caring about the way they look due to all the advertisement about having a perfect body. Now America is obsess with making every product beneficial to your body but how many chemicals do they use to make that diet yogurt so it can be fat free, sugar free and still have some natural ingredients in it. This is the exact point pollan is trying to make in his article we are obsess with being healthy that we forget to check what are we really eating and where ir comes
As a result, she concludes that science has nothing to do with Pollan believes that Americans rely on nutrition science, the study of individual nutrients like carbohydrates, fats, and antioxidants, to fix the Western diet because it is the best source that exists. However, scientists have developed conflicting theories that confuse people to conclude as to how the Western diet causes disease, such as heart disease, diabetes, and cancer. Pollan disagrees with any type theory and instead blames the food and health industries who take advantage of new theories but do not to fix the problem of the Western diet. In turn, not only does he suggest people spending more time and money on better food choices, but he also proposes many tips to eat better, as well as a rule that will allow Americans climb out of the Western diet: Eat food.
Pollan is against trusting your body with virtually everything you eat and digest. He thinks that the human body cannot always be trusted with the ability to accept different kinds of foods and nutrients. Maxfield on the other hand tried to counter Pollan’s idea as she mentioned in her article, “Trust yourself. Trust your body. Meet your needs” (446). I totally agree with Maxfield’s idea of trusting our body because we know the needs of our body and how to satisfy those needs better than anyone else. However, it is not everything we eat that we can trust at all
According to Pollan, the dietary advice made by nutritionists deprives us from the pleasure of eating, expressing our identity, and connecting to our family
Michael Pollan discusses two categories of food: one is real food (the kind our great-grandmother would recognize), while the other is “edible food-like substances”. The category that needs defending according to Pollan is the real food. This category of food is minimally processed, fresh (will eventually rot), and includes mostly things that are taken straight from the source (the ground, tree, etc.). When one walks into a store, they should look for and pick the foods that are more “quiet”such as fresh produce than the ones that have more labels that say they are more healthy, or better for you.
Many people in America, from toddlers to the elderly, have shown numerous signs of bad health. People have the desire to keep on eating due to more, new things being merchandised as “new and improved items” from the producers. For example, nowadays, people are eating pure junk that they find satisfying on the grocery food shelf. As, stated by Michael Pollan, in his article, “Eat Food: Food Defined” he affirmed that “real food is the type of things that our
In the book, In Defense of Food, Michael Pollan explores the relationship between nutrition and the Western diet, claiming that the answer to healthy eating is simply to “eat food”.
It became so clear that junk foods lead to a punch of catastrophic diseases like obesity, type two diabetes, vascular diseases and cardiac disorders. Those kinds of diseases cost more than $150 billion annually, just to diagnose, treat people who suffer from them. That disease is chronic and leads to many health-related issues, for example, obesity considers a risk factor for type two diabetes, and high blood pressure, joint disorders and many others (The Denver Post 2012). The key of preventing many chronic problems is nutrition. Low income plays an important role of limiting most people to buy and eat a healthy diet and in the other hand, it is easy for people budgets to purchase junk foods. So controlling the prices of healthy foods to be suitable for all people make good nutrition available for everyone. Adequate diets mean decreasing the epidemic of those serious diseases, and stopping the spread and break the bad sequences that may happen. Long-term exposure to junk foods that are full with chemicals like additives, preservatives have led to chronic illnesses difficult to treat. Also, the chemical added to junk foods are tasted unique and made millions of people becoming addicted to them and are available everywhere for example in restaurants, cafes, lunchrooms (The Denver Post