One main point that Michael Pollan brings up is the general shift from complexity to simplicity. He means that nutritional quality is eventually sacrificed because the complex interactions and combinations of nutrients are being simplified by industrializing and processing food. Biological and ecological interactions that culminate in the plant and animal products that we consumeRead More
Category: Some Comments
Interpretations, insights, reactions and comments on news, events, articles, etc.
California Academy of Sciences
While on my trip last week out to the West Coast to visit my cousin before attending a wedding, I had the opportunity to check out the new building for the California Academy of Sciences that opened last September in San Francisco.
Nutritionists at work, one nutrient at a time
A good quote from page 62 of In Defense of Food: “The problem with nutrient-by-nutrient nutrition science,” points out Marion Nestle, a New York University nutritionist, “is that it takes the nutrient out of the context of the food, the food out of the context of the diet, and the diet out of the contextRead More
Nutritionism
I just started reading Michael Pollan’s In Defense of Food. I read The Omnivore’s Dilemma about a year and a half ago and found it very perspective-changing so I am looking forward to what this book will have to say. The first few chapters have focused on discussion of the ideology behind “nutritionism.” Pollan pointsRead More
Google and extension of the mind
The amount of stimulation the Internet can provide can be overwhelming at times, but I think that this characteristic may be surpassed by the benefits of having large amounts of information at your fingertips. “Googling” has become almost a daily part of our lives, and only becomes more so as the power of the GoogleRead More
Pirates on the high seas: a human-environment conflict?
Pirates and their relationship with international fishing industry Illegal fishing and dumping continues to be a major problem on the Somali coast, but you wouldn’t sense that from reading the news (unless you pay especially close attention, see the paragraphs at the end of this article). International ships also are huge competitors in the fishingRead More