In Defense of Food

In Section 1 of Michael Pollan's book In Defense of Food, he talks about how the outlook on food has changed over the past hundred or so years. In the late 1800's, Justus von Liebid proposed the theory of metabolism, which in turn described nutrients' effect on the body. In the early 1900's, a new view on food started, "The Age of Nutritionism," as stated by Pollan. People were becoming more wary of what they were eating and so was the government. Companies started to add nutrients to natural foods to increase the nutritional value. Supermarkets' fresh foods were being replaced with decoratively packaged processed foods. Even fresh foods were becoming somewhat processed.

Pollan stated in his book, "You would not think that common food animals could themselves be rejiggered to fit nutritionist fashion...animal scientist figured out how to breed leaner pigs and select for leaner beef." Livestock producers had to keep up with the way society was changing. With all the health claims against meat, if they would have kept raising their animals the same way, there would not have been a market for livestock. Meat is one of the least altered foods on the market. Even today some consumers prefer white meat over red meat because of a concern about cholesterol and saturated fats. There are not any great studies out there that prove this fact. Today it seems like any food can cause some sort of health risk. Producers now are actually starting to put more fat back on animals because meat has lost flavor. Flavor comes from fat. People should not have the weight of what they should and shouldn't eat on their shoulders. They also need to enjoy their food.