Nutritionism

Download or read book Nutritionism written by Gyorgy Scrinis and published by Columbia University Press. This book was released on 2013-06-18 with total page 363 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Popularized by Michael Pollan in his best-selling In Defense of Food, Gyorgy Scrinis's concept of nutritionism refers to the reductive understanding of nutrients as the key indicators of healthy food—an approach that has dominated nutrition science, dietary advice, and food marketing. Scrinis argues this ideology has narrowed and in some cases distorted our appreciation of food quality, such that even highly processed foods may be perceived as healthful depending on their content of "good" or "bad" nutrients. Investigating the butter versus margarine debate, the battle between low-fat, low-carb, and other weight-loss diets, and the food industry's strategic promotion of nutritionally enhanced foods, Scrinis reveals the scientific, social, and economic factors driving our modern fascination with nutrition. Scrinis develops an original framework and terminology for analyzing the characteristics and consequences of nutritionism since the late nineteenth century. He begins with the era of quantification, in which the idea of protective nutrients, caloric reductionism, and vitamins' curative effects took shape. He follows with the era of good and bad nutritionism, which set nutricentric dietary guidelines and defined the parameters of unhealthy nutrients; and concludes with our current era of functional nutritionism, in which the focus has shifted to targeted nutrients, superfoods, and optimal diets. Scrinis's research underscores the critical role of nutrition science and dietary advice in shaping our relationship to food and our bodies and in heightening our nutritional anxieties. He ultimately shows how nutritionism has aligned the demands and perceived needs of consumers with the commercial interests of food manufacturers and corporations. Scrinis also offers an alternative paradigm for assessing the healthfulness of foods—the food quality paradigm—that privileges food production and processing quality, cultural-traditional knowledge, and sensual-practical experience, and promotes less reductive forms of nutrition research and dietary advice.

Download or read book In Defence of Food written by Michael Pollan and published by Penguin UK. This book was released on 2008-01-31 with total page 243 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: 'A must-read ... satisfying, rich ... loaded with flavour' Sunday Telegraph This book is a celebration of food. By food, Michael Pollan means real, proper, simple food - not the kind that comes in a packet, or has lists of unpronounceable ingredients, or that makes nutritional claims about how healthy it is. More like the kind of food your great-grandmother would recognize. In Defence of Food is a simple invitation to junk the science, ditch the diet and instead rediscover the joys of eating well. By following a few pieces of advice (Eat at a table - a desk doesn't count. Don't buy food where you'd buy your petrol!), you will enrich your life and your palate, and enlarge your sense of what it means to be healthy and happy. It's time to fall in love with food again. For the past twenty years, Michael Pollan has been writing about the places where the human and natural worlds intersect: food, agriculture, gardens, drugs, and architecture. His most recent book, about the ethics and ecology of eating, is The Omnivore's Dilemma, named one of the ten best books of 2006 by the New York Times and the Washington Post. He is also the author of The Botany of Desire, A Place of My Own and Second Nature.

Download or read book The Philosophy of Food written by David M. Kaplan and published by Univ of California Press. This book was released on 2012-01-07 with total page 320 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book explores food from a philosophical perspective, bringing together leading philosophers to consider the most basic questions about food. Each essay analyses many contemporary debates in food studies. Slow Food, sustainability, food safety, and politics, and addresses such issues as happy meat, aquaculture, veganism, and table manners.

Download or read book In Defense of Food written by Michael Pollan and published by Penguin. This book was released on 2008-01-01 with total page 268 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: #1 New York Times Bestseller from the author of How to Change Your Mind, The Omnivore's Dilemma, and Food Rules Food. There's plenty of it around, and we all love to eat it. So why should anyone need to defend it? Because in the so-called Western diet, food has been replaced by nutrients, and common sense by confusion--most of what we’re consuming today is longer the product of nature but of food science. The result is what Michael Pollan calls the American Paradox: The more we worry about nutrition, the less healthy we see to become. With In Defense of Food, Pollan proposes a new (and very old) answer to the question of what we should eat that comes down to seven simple but liberating words: "Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants." Pollan’s bracing and eloquent manifesto shows us how we can start making thoughtful food choices that will enrich our lives, enlarge our sense of what it means to be healthy, and bring pleasure back to eating.

Download or read book Hidden Hunger written by Aya Hirata Kimura and published by Cornell University Press. This book was released on 2013-02-15 with total page 241 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: For decades, NGOs targeting world hunger focused on ensuring that adequate quantities of food were being sent to those in need. In the 1990s, the international food policy community turned its focus to the "hidden hunger" of micronutrient deficiencies, a problem that resulted in two scientific solutions: fortification, the addition of nutrients to processed foods, and biofortification, the modification of crops to produce more nutritious yields. This hidden hunger was presented as a scientific problem to be solved by "experts" and scientifically engineered smart foods rather than through local knowledge, which was deemed unscientific and, hence, irrelevant.In Hidden Hunger, Aya Hirata Kimura explores this recent emphasis on micronutrients and smart foods within the international development community and, in particular, how the voices of women were silenced despite their expertise in food purchasing and preparation. Kimura grounds her analysis in case studies of attempts to enrich and market three basic foods—rice, wheat flour, and baby food—in Indonesia. She shows the power of nutritionism and how its technical focus enhanced the power of corporations as a government partner while restricting public participation in the making of policy for public health and food. She also analyzes the role of advertising to promote fortified foodstuffs and traces the history of Golden Rice, a crop genetically engineered to alleviate vitamin A deficiencies. Situating the recent turn to smart food in Indonesia and elsewhere as part of a long history of technical attempts to solve the Third World food problem, Kimura deftly analyzes the intersection of scientific expertise, market forces, and gendered knowledge to illuminate how hidden hunger ultimately defined women as victims rather than as active agents.

Download or read book Healthy Eating, Healthy World written by J. Morris Hicks and published by BenBella Books, Inc.. This book was released on 2011-10-04 with total page 240 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Imagine that the New York Times tomorrow released some amazing news. A health treatment has been discovered that literally cures most forms of heart disease. But not just that. This treatment has a dramatic impact on most of the diseases Westerners face, including cancer, obesity, autoimmune diseases, diabetes, osteoporosis, Alzheimer's, and many many others. And this treatment is so inexpensive to administer that two-thirds of the medical establishment can be shut down as no longer serving any useful function. It's really too much to believe, isn't it? But there's more. This treatment has miraculous implications for the environment. By applying this treatment, we can eliminate the largest source of global warming, and dramatically reduce the waste that is polluting our water supply. We'll also dramatically improve the health and animal population of our oceans and seas. And there's more. By applying this treatment, we'll dramatically increase the supply of arable land, lowering the cost food and allowing us to feed everyone on this planet. Starvation can become a thing of the past. And one last thing. This treatment also has enormous moral implications, allowing us to eliminate almost all of the pain and suffering we are inflicting on the animals, most of which is hidden away from view, but is morally repulsive to anyone exposed to this suffering. Now what if I told you that we don't have to wait for tomorrow's New York Times, that this treatment has been found, and that the amount of scientific data supporting the claims I just made is overwhelming. The "miracle" treatment is simple. It's eating a whole grain, plant-based diet. Skeptical? I'm not surprised. But by the end of this book you'll be exposed to the overwhelming amount of evidence that supports every claim made above. You'll also get to hear the counterarguments made by skeptics and you'll get to decide for yourself whether these claims are true. It's my hope that by the end of this book you'll be convinced and join our movement. You may just save your life and the planet in the bargain. This revolutionary book is Healthy Eating -- Healthy World: Unleashing the Power of Plant-based Nutrition by J. Morris Hicks, and it is the book that finally tackles all compelling reasons for adopting a plant-based diet -- from the environment to solving the world's hunger crisis. Additionally, T. Colin Campbell, acclaimed author of the bestselling book The China Study, provides a riveting foreword to Healthy Eating -- Healthy World. After reading this book, it'll be nearly impossible to ignore the truth: people were not meant to eat animals or animal products, and the time has come to stop.

Download or read book The China Study: Revised and Expanded Edition written by T. Colin Campbell and published by BenBella Books, Inc.. This book was released on 2016-12-27 with total page 496 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The revised and expanded edition of the bestseller that changed millions of lives The science is clear. The results are unmistakable. You can dramatically reduce your risk of cancer, heart disease, and diabetes just by changing your diet. More than 30 years ago, nutrition researcher T. Colin Campbell and his team at Cornell, in partnership with teams in China and England, embarked upon the China Study, the most comprehensive study ever undertaken of the relationship between diet and the risk of developing disease. What they found when combined with findings in Colin's laboratory, opened their eyes to the dangers of a diet high in animal protein and the unparalleled health benefits of a whole foods, plant-based diet. In 2005, Colin and his son Tom, now a physician, shared those findings with the world in The China Study, hailed as one of the most important books about diet and health ever written. Featuring brand new content, this heavily expanded edition of Colin and Tom's groundbreaking book includes the latest undeniable evidence of the power of a plant-based diet, plus updated information about the changing medical system and how patients stand to benefit from a surging interest in plant-based nutrition. The China Study—Revised and Expanded Edition presents a clear and concise message of hope as it dispels a multitude of health myths and misinformation. The basic message is clear. The key to a long, healthy life lies in three things: breakfast, lunch, and dinner.