The Omnivore's Dilemma: Food Choices and America's Obesity Crisis

Introduction: The Omnivore's Dilemma and American Eating Habits

"What should we have for dinner?" It is the question Michael Pollan asks at the beginning of his book, The Omnivore's Dilemma. Pollan wrote the book partly in response to the "carbophobia" that seized the nation soon after the start of the millennium, supplanting bread — "one of the most ancient and venerable staples of human life" (Pollan, 2006, p. 1) — in favor of a high-protein and often high-fat diet. Animals, he points out, instinctively know what to eat. Human animals have this instinctive knowledge too, but we live in a culture where a bewildering array of foodstuffs is available to us. The dilemma is to figure out how to eat what is best for us.

Recent figures from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention show that one-third of American adults are obese. Approximately 17% of children and adolescents are obese as well, a figure that tripled since 1980 (CDC, 2011). It is a dilemma with serious consequences if we make the wrong choices.

Humans, like every other living creature, take part in the food chain. Unlike non-human creatures, we have learned to "substantially modify the food chain" (Pollan, 2006, p. 6) through cooking, hunting, farming, food preservation, and industrialization. Pollan's purpose in writing the book was to trace several food chains from beginning to end. He believes it is essential that people understand where their food comes from and, hopefully, learn to make informed and healthy choices. He advocates getting as close to the food source as possible — not only do we eat healthier foods, but we also reduce our carbon footprint by cutting costs associated with manufacturing, processing, and transportation.

Corn, Industrialization, and the Modern Supermarket

In Part One, Pollan looks at the plethora of products available in today's supermarkets and the ubiquity of one plant: corn. Corn is a grass native to Central America and was unknown in other parts of the world before 1492 (Pollan, 2006, p. 23). After Native Americans taught colonists to plant corn, they quickly learned to appreciate its value and versatility. Corn was ready to eat, could be dried and stored, and could be ground into flour. The grain fed people and animals. Dried stalks became heating fuel. Mashed, fermented corn could be made into whiskey and beer. It was a commodity that sustained people in many ways.

For nearly 450 years, corn remained an important staple that nourished humans and animals alike. A huge change occurred after World War II with the advent of chemical fertilizers. The government was looking to repurpose chemicals no longer needed for defense manufacturing. It may have seemed like a good idea at the time, but it changed farming — and eating — forever. The corn plant readily absorbed these synthetic inputs, growing prodigiously and eliminating the need for farmers to rotate crops. The government, Wall Street, and private industry capitalized on the resulting bounty, ultimately producing the omnipresence of corn, in one form or another, in the American diet.

As an example, Pollan cites McDonald's popular Chicken McNugget, which contains thirty-eight ingredients, thirteen of which are derived from corn (Pollan, 2006, p. 113). This striking illustration underscores how thoroughly industrial agriculture has embedded a single crop into nearly every processed food Americans consume.

Polyface Farm and the Case for Organic, Sustainable Agriculture

In Part Two, Pollan chronicles his experiences living and working on Polyface Farm, an organic farm in Virginia. He was impressed with the farm's natural symbiosis. Cattle graze on grass; chickens eat grubs and larvae from cowpats and in doing so provide nitrogen-rich, natural fertilizer that allows the grass to continue growing. Polyface Farm stands as an alternative in almost every way to the highly industrialized farm Pollan described in Part One.

Pollan enjoyed preparing a meal from foods with which he had a direct connection during his time on the farm. He recalled, with distaste, the slaughter of the chickens for the meal — "a fairly brutal transaction between animals" (Pollan, 2006, p. 264). Pollan cooked the chickens over a gas grill but flavored the meat with applewood smoke created with the help of apple trees from the farm. He prepared heirloom corn fertilized by chickens and used fresh eggs to make a dessert soufflé.

Pollan notes that he later duplicated the meal in his home kitchen on a number of occasions, observing that these later versions were neither as healthy nor as tasty as the original. Grass-fed meat, milk, and eggs have less fat than the products of grain-fed animals, but higher levels of omega-3 fatty acids — essential for human health — as well as conjugated linoleic acid, a fatty acid thought to aid in weight loss and help prevent cancer (Pollan, 2006, p. 267).

Conclusion: Eating Mindfully in a Fast-Food Culture

The Omnivore's Dilemma does not tell readers exactly what they must or must not eat. Instead, Pollan urges us to eat mindfully — something clearly missing from modern life, when most people find themselves gulping meals and snacks with little thought. As Pollan points out, there is plenty of food available that is bad for us, but there are also ways we can eat better without resorting to the drastic experiments he describes. He invites us to be discerning and to think carefully about what we eat.

It is a call that the public health community would do well to amplify. The gap between abundant nutritional information and the persistent reality of obesity suggests that knowledge alone is insufficient. Pollan's deeper argument — that reconnecting with the origins of our food fosters better choices — offers a framework that goes beyond calorie counts and diet programs. Mindful eating, however modest in practice, may be one of the most powerful tools available to individuals and health educators alike.

References

Brocamp, R. (2006). Stop eating your retirement. The Motley Fool. Retrieved from http://www.fool.com/personal-finance/retirement/2006/01/19/stop-eating-your-retirement.aspx

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. (2011). Overweight and obesity: Data and statistics. Retrieved from http://www.cdc.gov/obesity/data/index.html

Pollan, M. (2006). The omnivore's dilemma. New York, NY: Penguin.