Read the following sections by Michael Pollen & answer the discussion questions:
Adapted from: PBS
INTRODUCTION TO DOCUMENTARY BY MICHAEL POLLEN
I began the research for the book that would become In Defense of Food because so many of the readers of my earlier books on food told me that what they really wanted to know was something very practical: what they should eat to be healthy. They said they felt whipsawed and confused by the constant changes in the nutritional advice they were hearing. Once I began to understand what we really do know about food and health,
I discovered, to my surprise, that the answer to their question was a lot simpler than I had thought it would be. Healthy eating does not require us to master a lot of complex biochemistry, or read stacks of scientific articles. All we have to do, I found out, can be summed up in seven words: Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants.
But while the key to healthy eating is simple, putting it into practice, for many of us, unfortunately is not. When I say, “Eat food,” I’m talking about real food, the kind that people have been eating for tens of thousands of years. Meat. Fish. Vegetables. Fruits. Grains. But today, in the United States as well as in many other developed countries, most of what we’re sold in supermarkets or served in restaurants is not real food at all, but highly processed products made in factories. I call them “edible food-like substances.” They’re things like processed meats, sugary beverages, convenience foods, snack foods, fast foods, and junk foods.
These products have enormous appeal, because they’ve been engineered to be tasty and cheap. But they are not good for our health. As our consumption of them has gone up, especially over the past three decades, so have our rates of diet-related diseases. Children and teenagers are especially vulnerable to unhealthy processed food. They are the targets of billions of dollars of advertising for candy, fast foods, sugary beverages and sugary breakfast cereals. A generation ago, it was exceedingly rare for a child or teenager to have type 2 diabetes. Now, tragically, it has become increasingly common.
But all of us, working together, can take simple, practical steps to take control of our diets and move away from “edible food-like substances’ and toward real food. We are offering one of those steps here. By watching this documentary, you are joining the ranks of people around the country and the world who want to “defend food” in their lives and communities.
I hope the documentary will encourage everyone to make common sense food choices more common, and to vote not just with their forks, but also with their votes!
I am delighted to see my work give rise to this exciting new project and I want to thank you for bringing it to the attention of your friends, family, neighbors and colleagues.
SSU English 100 
Michael Pollan
Film Synopsis
Best-selling author Michael Pollan starts In Defense of Food with a simple question: What should I eat to be healthy?
The answer turns out to be hidden in plain sight. The diet most Americans eat today includes lots of meat, white flour, sugar, and vegetable oils. It’s cheap, convenient, and has been processed to taste really good. But its effects on health are not so tasty, including alarming increases in obesity and type 2 diabetes.
Recommendations about healthier alternatives seem to change daily. Eat more protein and fewer carbs. Eat less meat. Have more fiber. Drink less milk. Eggs are bad. Eggs are good. No wonder people are confused.
The film follows Pollan on a fascinating search for answers that takes him from the plains of Tanzania, where one of the world’s last remaining tribes of hunter-gatherers still eats the way our ancestors did, to Loma Linda, California, where a group of Seventh-day Adventist vegetarians live longer than almost anyone else on earth, and eventually to Paris, where the French diet, rooted in culture and tradition, proves surprisingly healthy. Along the way he busts common myths and misconceptions about food, and reveals the ways in which a combination of faulty nutrition science and deceptive marketing practices have encouraged us to replace real food with scientifically engineered “food-like substances.”
In Defense of Food shares the remarkably simple seven-word guide to healthy eating that Pollan discovered on his quest: Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants. It’s an eloquent reflection of the power of common sense and old-fashioned wisdom. And it frees us to rediscover the pleasures of eating while at the same time avoiding the chronic diseases that so often stem from the modern diet.
Discussion Questions