Pollan says health-care reform will fail unless we change the way we eat 11

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1. 

   AmandaD Posted 1:00 pm
   14 Sep 2009

   Fast food is a major culprit, but the battle should also be over what chemicals, preservatives, and pesticides people are eating as well. Why are cancer rates so high in the US? How much do cancer patients cost insurance companies? For more info about sustainable and healthy eating, check out http://changents.com/OrganicNation.tv.

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   Javaman Posted 7:05 am
   15 Sep 2009

   Oh Mr. Pollan...So it appears as if you are jumping on the john mackey band wagon, huh? First you defend that half wit libertarian mackey by saying in essance, that at least he brought eating heathly to the forefront.sorry no, the very things that you claim to support, you know eating local? It's not part of the mackey walmart inspired plan.by you supporting mackey crazy talk, you also support whole foods importing of garlic from china and cabbage from brazil. Last time I checked those aren't very local. the percentage of actual local foods that are sold at whole food is less than 5%. whole foods is nothing more that food snobbery. that's eating organic without care for the planet and the fossil fuel costs it takes to transport that produce halfway around the world.also, by you supporting whole foods, that means you are also anti labor. Call me crazy, but you yourself stated that the concept of eating sustainable also means paying workers a living wage and supporting unions. whole foods is well known for it's anti union stance. they actively pass out anti union propaganda to their employees. So, what was that again about sustainability?How is this being a locovore, as you prescribe?and further, in your movie Food, Inc. you show cased a company selling yogurt at, of all places, walmart. walmart, again has massive labor problems, is well known to be anti union, is anti national healthcare. Most of it's employees survive on medicade and need food stamps to live. So what part of that is sustainable?  And that same yogurt company, that is "organic", just cut several of the farms that were contracted as part of the coop suppying milk, with no reason and no excuse. So tell me how is that treating workers in that manner part of the green sustainability movement? sounds like just more of walmarts typical corporate practices.From a film makers stand point, that segment on walmart, in your film, reeked of being slapped together at the last minute. The editing was poor and it's flow was disjointed. it appears as if someone bent over to win some corporate good will so they could get their DVD sold in their mega stores.I could go on and on, but you get the picture, mr. pollan. You once wrote of how we need to change and eat more local, but your message now is: eat at corporation based whole foods and walmart. don't listen to govenment on health care, listen to my new corporate friends who screw their employees on both health care and with anti union practices.epic fail.If there is anyone that we as a nation should be listening to, it shouldn't be you, it should be Sally Fallon from the Weston Price Foundation.She walks the walk and talks the talk.you, mr. pollan, are now yesterdays news and have lost all credibility in my eyes.good day.

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      carol from jersey Posted 2:56 pm
      16 Sep 2009

      Hey, Javaman-Understood that Mr. Pollan may not be the boy scout you'd like to think that he was- let's not forget the part of the equation which is our own ability to read, discern, and make decisions about our nutrition. The message that I've gotten overarching any picking at nits which may occur is that a dialog has begun about what and how we eat. I feel Pollan has had something to do with this.Yeah, Whole Foods doesn't necessarily come up smelling like a rose, either- organic, fair trade, or otherwise. At least they clearly mark the garlic's provenance. I choose not to buy garlic from China, either. This doesn't make me a saint; it merely indicates that I learned to read awhile ago, and I choose to use that skill whilst food-gathering.I wish I could let you in on what it's like to work at a unionized conventional Supermarket (extremely recent experience). We're not talking about enlightened management styles here- trust me.I'm thankful that you're using your discernment to shun produce with a carbon footprint the size of Idaho, too. I'm also thankful that Pollan's gotten us into a food forum here.You've got the opportunity to lead by example, read the labels and make wiser choices.Bon Appetit from the Garden State!Carol

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         ericr Posted 3:39 pm
         16 Sep 2009

         Pollan has indeed been -- and continues to be -- an important voice in our thinking about food. But he is often quite idiotic, as in his twisted self-rationalizing argument for the moral superiority of corpse-eating over vegetarianism (in the "omnivore"s dilemma). And so again here, the problem is his making nonsensical arguments to preserve the profits of health insurance companies so that they might do what they don't do now with the same supposed incentives.

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         Dana Seilhan Posted 6:11 pm
         16 Sep 2009

         Come on now.  "Read the labels"?  Is that the best you can do?  Reading the labels does exactly jack and zip for you if you don't understand what your nutritional needs are in the first place.  If the label says "low-fat" and "no cholesterol" and "contains whole grains" and "evaporated cane juice" and you think that means it's healthy, you can reasonably expect to be diabetic by the time you hit retirement age just like us fatties.As Ericr abundantly demonstrated in the other comment responding to yours, there are people who genuinely believe you can live without animal foods and that you will be healthier if you do.I suffered from reproductive health problems for most of the last three years and could not figure out the problem.  A few months ago I began supplementing with vitamin A of animal (fish liver) origin.  Suddenly my cramps and heavy bleeding were gone.  I mean, literally, at a certain time of the month I had been afraid to venture out of doors, it was so bad.  Only my lack of anemia and severe pain kept me away from putting myself into medical debt to find out what was going on.  Only to find it was a vitamin A deficiency.  And I eat carrots!  And love them!  And was taking a multivitamin with beta carotene as well!Then I found out that contrary to what it says on the nutrition labels, there is no vitamin A in plant foods whatsoever.  U.S. labeling laws allow food sellers to include on plant food labels the amount of vitamin A you would get if you made a perfect conversion of all the beta carotene in the food.  Well, I found in my investigation that not everybody can convert beta carotene.  Apparently, I'm one of those people.  So are diabetics.  So are people with hypothyroidism.  And kids.  And the elderly.Ever wonder why we have an infertility epidemic in this country?  Vitamin A governs that to some degree.They're just now announcing that you need saturated fat in your diet to assimilate calcium so you don't get osteoporosis in old age.  Gee, there were researchers saying that in the 1920s!  It is nothing new--it's just been buried.  I also learned a few months ago that we make cardiotonic substances out of cholesterol, which may explain why people with lower cholesterol levels do not survive as well in old age.Everybody talks about calories and fat when it comes to weight loss.  I used to argue with a friend about this, with everything I was learning about nutrition.  She didn't want to hear about the nutrition stuff, she just wanted to eat less and move more.  I was like, "Eat less what?  Doritos?"  But everybody thinks like that.  And we suffer.  And we die early.3000 calories a day used to be normal fare for American men, back before everybody was getting fat.  Now they tell you to eat 1500 calories a day if you're fat.  1800 is considered semi-starvation.Did you know slender people are developing metabolic disturbances too?  Slender people are getting type 2 diabetes and cancer--even vegetarians and vegans.  (Maybe especially them, sometimes.)  You can even have the dangerous visceral fat buildup around your organs and be slender.  But everyone points at the fat people.  No, we just got lucky that there are outer signs of our ill health.  And most of us would not be fat if we hadn't kept getting bad advice.So yeah, tell people to read the labels.  When they don't even know what they're looking at.  That'll sure solve things.

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      3. 

         carol from jersey Posted 5:36 pm
         17 Sep 2009

         Hey, Dana- I see that it wasn't clear that the labels to which I referred were the ones letting us know where the produce comes from. I agree with you whole-heartedly that each of us needs to take charge of our nutrition by investigating what our own bodies need to thrive.What was that phrase? 'Eat food*. Not too much. Mostly plants.'? The asterisk is to indicate that 'food' is the stuff you find that comes out of the ground, or from appropriately raised animals, if your body needs the nutrients contained therein.I'm personally not in the market for products which have already been mechanically chewed and half- digested for me. I can almost hear the machinery grinding and pureeing and mashing and shaping the stuff as ingredients to optimize the 'shelf-life' are mixed in. You know the stuff I'm talking about, apparently- the stuff with the labels touting 'low fat' and 'no cholesterol'. Stopped believing that fluff long ago...Caloric intake isn't the only way to think of what's going to keep me well and able to live the way I want to live. By the way, I never mentioned being 'fat' as opposed to being 'thin' in my post, either. People of all sizes make wise or foolish food choices, don't you think?Again- thankful for your thought-provoking comments, and glad that your well-being has improved with the fish oil. {my grandmother turned me onto that, and I'm not a youngster myself- I guess she was right about some things}Oops- I'd better go back into the kitchen & check the soup-C from NJ 

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      4. 

         dgama1951 Posted 10:42 am
         19 Sep 2009

         I like your ability to find the positive and the negative and accentuate the positive. Good points and on the button. I am part of a well known group that helps people loose weight. Most of the leaders do not set by example and seem to click together with those who are encouraging poor eating habits. It's quite a fiasco at times. Yet there are positives to the group as well. I agree with the fact that we need to change our eating habits, if only we could get people on the band wagon about eating healthy, and eating to live rather than living to eat. People see the positive as a negative because they are seeking control and do not believe the experts about food. Also, people see the medical professionals as the experts, when this is not always the case. Doctors are lenient about what people should eat and if they are not people get offended, once again. Best of luck on the soda issues.

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3. 

   biotechoutreach Posted 12:35 pm
   15 Sep 2009

   As much as I enjoyed Mr. Pollan's book, "Botany of Desire", and appreciated his openness to botannical innovation, i.e. exploring scientific companies' genetically modified plants, I, too, have to concurr that bending to grocery chains, especially the mass marketing of nonsensical "organic" foodstuff, is a waste of his time, effort, talent and integrity. Capitalism at it's best, in the most capitalistic society of the world, but not purist by any means, as the marketing people like to purport.

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4. 

   sukumar Posted 4:53 pm
   15 Sep 2009

   "If insurance companies are required to accept everyone,.. then the
   insurance industry will become a powerful ally in fight for better food
   and against the agribusiness lobby." Oh, yeah? Are you holding your breath. I'm certainly not! What's this guy smoking?

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5. 

   ericr Posted 5:38 am
   16 Sep 2009

   According to Russell Mokhiber (http://www.counterpunch.org/mokhiber09092009.html), on June 4, 2009, Pollan was part of a panel at the annual convention of the health insurance industry lobby America’s Health Insurance
   Plans (AHIP), "Changing American Attitudes Towards Personal Responsibility and Health" (http://www.ahip.org/links/institute2009/glance.htm). The event is not listed among Pollan's recent appearances (http://www.michaelpollan.com/speak.htm). He was no doubt paid for his participation. One wonders if he is still being paid by AHIP.

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6. 

   dgama1951 Posted 10:52 am
   19 Sep 2009

   If someone were a vegan as perhaps Dana is, they may choose to look at the fish liver oil as from an animal. However, fish are amphibians, and fish is good for us. Well, then again, contrary to the beliefs of those who look at me like I am loony, I am not a vegan. Only a partial vegan, I do eat red meat occasionally, fish twice a week or more, and have problems with my joints, and tendons, and bones. I probably would have them still even if I did consume more red meat, for I definitely would be heavier and thus it would put more weight on my structure, bone, joints and tendons in an unhealthy way. I guess I would have to say I agree and do not agree with Pollan.

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