The Omnivores Dilemma
is a very indulging book to read. It incorporates various food and health
subjects that you might find interesting if you are a person whom wants to know
more about where food comes from as well as the pros and cons over this
matter. I enjoyed learning and exploring
new findings that were in relation to what I ate every day and the kind of
meals that I picked out to be “healthy” for me.
Reading further into the book I realized that I could prove everything
that I had read from only taking food labels and reading its details on the
back proving that everything said in the book was 100% accurate, and personally
my preference in books have to be based on quality not quantity. This book kept
me entertained and well guided with each page that I read. Each page was filled
with opinions from the author and I appreciated his well-written evidence that
supported his theories and analysis. There weren’t just a bunch of statements
that all of a sudden appeared in the book and you were supposed to believe in
them. He pretty much convinced me into believing his reasons towards why we
weren’t paying much attention to what kind of meals we ate, and what had
brought us to them.
Likewise understanding
his findings was complicated and they were filled with various factors that had
to be explained in depth in order for him to convey his message. This was a bit
challenging for me and made me a little confused while I was following the
theme of the book. Comprehending every little detail that is explained was
complex and frustrating; however, as you keep on reading further and further
into the book you are going to sense that you had to know all that so that you
wouldn’t have questions at the end of each section of the book. This goes along
with how the authors writing style is perceived and maintained. Michael Pollan
is a very famous author whom knows what he’s doing and has accurately
researched all the subjects that are being talked about in his book. In
additions to that he has evidence supporting his every thought, which I think
is something that captures the reader, making every statement valuable and
efficient. He gives many versions of his own opinions and what he thinks
regarding the subject, as well as analyzing situations and explaining what he
thinks about each one. His writing style is unique and many people might agree
that he writes what he thinks based on his experience and research.
The Omnivore’s Dilemma
is set up based on how stable our food chain is, and why our diet has changed
over time. Pollan looks at long term implications of eating a highly processed
diet. The three main sections of the book consisted of, Industrial: Corn which basically
talked about food coming from the farm to the dinner table and how now in days
we have so many processed foods that contain various types of chemicals that
make each one taste different even though it’s supposed to be the same. For
example farmers back then grew normal crops that took a while to produce but
they did it naturally and it was considered normal for everyone, but now you
have people growing as much products in a more rapid way for a larger consumer
which is us. And the consequences of it all are having forgotten how a natural
product tastes like without calling it a processed food. The methods used for
processing foods include canning, freezing, refrigeration, dehydration, and
aseptic processing. All of these effects are indeed something we see that is
made of our food which we eat every day, and as bad as it seems we consider
ourselves to rather go into the more “healthier” side which is supposed to be
more effective and not contain any chemicals, but as a matter of fact even
going “organic” is something you have to really think about before committing.
The book then follows
towards the wild side where he focuses mainly on the business of animals. The
reason for feeding cows corn is a way so they can make more money and sell the
meat for lesser prices at the store. It’s always about business and how to make
more profit over spending less than what the value of the item is really worth.
Companies who do these types of things only think about their benefits and how
they have a say in what we eat and can afford considering that now a days it’s cheaper
to get processed foods that fill you up, then the organic foods that cost more
and are harder to find. The economic situation is something that we are all
suffering with having to make cuts and rank the prices higher in order to gain
business, but that just proves that it is pushing us to buy cheaper, faster,
and unhealthy meals to feed our family, but it all comes with a price that is
likely to make us feel happy at the moment but later on suffer the
consequences.
Lastly comes the part
in which you have to make a decision. When you can eat just about anything
nature has to offer, deciding what you should eat will obviously be a struggle
every day, where you never know what kind of option you’re going to choose
from. With this, Pollan gave good examples about different types of animals
that ate differently. The Koala doesn't worry about food, he just chews and
leaves. Rats and humans have bigger issues. In a large part of the first
section in the book deals with the central role that corn plays in our modern
industrial food production. Corn, or some corn byproduct, has worked its way
into almost every processed food item that we eat, including most of the beef
sold in the US. Considering that cows don't naturally eat corn, and in fact
cannot digest corn well without help, corn has the advantage of getting cows
fat quickly and adding "marbling" to the beef, but only with the help
of drugs and vets. This cuts in to the price tags judging by how full the cows
are, and how satisfying they are going to make you.
In
conclusion to what I think about the book this book is simply described in a
rating of five stars. I just think that the book speaks for itself and
describes every aspect of ways humans have evolved from eating various types of
foods. Everything from Nutrition facts to the way we choose our foods today has
made this book unique and strictly focused on a subject that relates to
everyone. Everyone is included and described in its own way but it’s up to you,
the reader, to complete this book and see how it affects you about how the
author describes food and everything that comes with it such as, animals,
organic, processed, etc.
No comments:
Post a Comment