Blog Post 6

           Pollan, a food author with many books and articles, writes about our problems with eating in this country. He begins by describing many Americans fascination in dieting, citing examples of the lipophobia (the fear of fatty diets) and carbophobia (the fear of eating carbohydrates). Pollan then goes on to compare and contrast the American and French styles of eating and the overall health that results from these varied habits. He uses examples of the stereotypical American snacking and worrying about their diets resulting in a typically unhealthy society. The stereotypical Frenchman is seen as eating at meal times and not worrying about the food they eat and a much healthier society. He attributes the ability to eat whatever the French population wants to their eating habits, carefree approach to eating, and some genetics. Genetics are important to health, people may have predisposed conditions that allow them to eat whatever and retain a healthy body while others need to be a strictly regimented diet to retain the same health. The comparison between the French and American styles of eating was very interesting and made me think about my own eating habits in comparison to the styles presented in the article.

            While I have never been one for diets, mainly due to my age and outlook that eating should be enjoyable and not regulated I have always fit the snacking stereotype, especially when life gets stressful. However, I accompany this with working out and the French mentality that it does not matter what I eat as long as it is nourishment. If I truly do care about my body the exercise and the less stressful stretches in life will allow me to recover from the unhealthy snacking. While I do fit the one stereotype I believe I have a healthy balance between the two controllable aspects of the stereotypes and with the physical exercise in my life I hope this will counteract the negatives of snacking. Also, genetically it is unclear in my family; some relatives are nearing 90 and still going great while others are having health problems at a younger age. Who knows how I will end up? Time will tell and all we can do is do what we think is right for our own bodies to stay nourished while enjoying what we are eating.