Complexities of Nutrients and Food

American's have the tendency of going along with any and very health craze that is popular at the time. This doesn't sound like a bad thing, however many of these health regimes actually end up being unhealthy for you. Something will be said to be great for you or bad for you and then flip flop the next year. This is because of many factors such as bad science and bias of reporters.

One recent craze is that of Nutritionism, which is discussed in Pollan's essay, "Unhappy Meals". While the word nutrition automatically sounds healthy in ones mind, this craze has actually proved to be unhealthy for Americans. Food is very complex, and when it is broken down to figure out what exactly is healthy about certain foods scientists often make mistakes. Scientists have figured out that a diet consisting of many fruits and vegetables helps protect one from cancer. Because of this they isolated the compound beta carotene, and turned it into vitamins and supplements. But in fact, "beta carotene ingested as a supplement, actually increases the risk of certain cancers. Big oops."(Pollan). No matter how much scientists do experiments, and add nutrients that are thought to be healthy into processed foods, nothing is going to be as healthy as the natural untouched foods.


The essay, "Angels and Vegetables" by Dupuis, also demonstrates the faultiness of listening to the popular belief of what is healthy. As well as the fact that food is complex and scientists have problems understanding everything about it, there is also the problem of bias by those giving the advice about what to eat. McCollum said that having a diet of plants creates things such as, "are characterized by small stature, relatively short span of life, high infant mortality"(Dupris 41). He also said that his diet consisting primarily of milk and dairy is far superior, but, "What cannot be ignored here is McCollum’s close relationship to the dairy industry"(41). 


The reality is that experts opinion about what is healthy is always going to be influenced by their own personal views and business connections. Meat companies and lobbyists sue any people that say negative things about there foods. While there is a great amount of information out there, it is very hard to figure what foods are actually healthy for you.