BERKELEY, CA -- Michael Pollan holds up a box of Fruit Loops, calls it an “edible food-like substance” and asks the audience: “How about a new label that says, ‘better than donuts?’” The crowd breaks out into raucous laughter at the sheer audacity that Fruit Loops has a check mark next to healthy choice—courtesy of the industrial agriculture marketing machinery. “We’re no longer growing food,” said Pollan “we’re growing food for manufacturing.”
I am at UC Berkeley, where wildly successful food-guru author Pollan “Omnivore’s Dilemma” and “In Defense of Food” is a journalism professor. The six-foot Pollan looks Berkeley-cool with his sports coat and wire-frame glasses. The near-capacity crowd of 1800 at Zellerbach Hall is a combination of gray hair seekers and hip, with-it students—all trying to get a grip on the best way to approach the unscientific pleasure of eating. Pollan claims we’ve undergone 150 years of diet change and it has taken a tremendous toll on our health.
“How do we escape the western diet without leaving civilization?” He offered a few rules to help guide the omnivore’s dilemma:
--If it has more than five ingredients, don’t eat it.
--Avoid any foods you’ve seen advertised on television.
--Don’t get your fuel at the same place your car does.
--Avoid foods that never rot—like Twinkies.
I am at UC Berkeley, where wildly successful food-guru author Pollan “Omnivore’s Dilemma” and “In Defense of Food” is a journalism professor. The six-foot Pollan looks Berkeley-cool with his sports coat and wire-frame glasses. The near-capacity crowd of 1800 at Zellerbach Hall is a combination of gray hair seekers and hip, with-it students—all trying to get a grip on the best way to approach the unscientific pleasure of eating. Pollan claims we’ve undergone 150 years of diet change and it has taken a tremendous toll on our health.
“How do we escape the western diet without leaving civilization?” He offered a few rules to help guide the omnivore’s dilemma:
--If it has more than five ingredients, don’t eat it.
--Avoid any foods you’ve seen advertised on television.
--Don’t get your fuel at the same place your car does.
--Avoid foods that never rot—like Twinkies.
My personal favorite tip is the seven words on the "In Defense of Food" book cover. Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants.
No comments:
Post a Comment