Nutritionism - What Is It and Why Does It Matter (In Defense of Food review Part I)

On the cover of In Defense of Food there is a picture of a head of pretty lettuce (red leaf lettuce not
iceberg) and on the band that most grocery stores have around their heads of lettuce it reads not the plu number but "Eat food. Not too much. Mostly Plants." Right away this book has my attention. (And maybe my heart.)

Before selecting this book, I was already very familiar with the author, Michael Pollan. I had recently read The Omnivore's Dilemma and really enjoyed his writing and the way in which he approached his research on food -- with four meals he sought out to represent conventional farming, organic farming, small sustainable family farming and foraging. It was written very well and left me waking my husband at one in the morning to just share one more thing I learned about corn (both fascinating and disgusting all at the same time...)

This book takes a different approach. And I am so into it that I am going to review each of it's three parts. (If that works out while I am reading. Flexibility and going with the flow -- they are on my personal goals list for this year.) So far so good. The first section is so full of information and fits in with what I have been thinking about for the last few months -- eating real food and not edible food like substances. And how focusing on "nutritionism" is what has lead us down this path in the first place.

So what is nutritionism?

According to Pollan, nutritionism is the focus on nutrients, not food. This term and idea first appeared in an essay called "Sorry Marge" written by Australian sociologist of science, Gyorgy Scrinis. The paper focusing on margarine and how it should be the "ultimate nutrionist product, able to shift its identity...depending on the prevailing winds of dietary opinion" (27). Or why in theory a bowl of fortified Lucky Charms, packed with all the vitamins we "need" should be healthier than an apple that only has some of the vitamins.  The ideology behind nutritionism is:

• "[W]hat matters most is not the food but the "nutrient"

• "[B]ecause nutrients are invisible and incomprehensible to everyone but scientists, we need expert help in deciding what to eat"

• "[T]he purpose of eating is to promote a narrow concept of physical health" (8).

This totally sounds like what we believe health to be (and what is promoted constantly!) Make sure you get x grams of protein a day and not go over x grams of cholesterol. Oh wait there is a difference between bad cholesterol not good cholesterol so make sure you eat enough good cholesterol to keep the bad down. And we should only consume x amount of calories and fat grams because fat is bad. Just kidding healthy fat isn't bad and it is actually essential to our diets and metabolism.

No wonder we are so confused about what to eat! It changes constantly. Pollan continues on to point out that this is why nutritionism is extremely flawed. He talks about how nutrients were discovered and which nutrients were deemed good and bad by scientists which then leads to vitamins and why they were deemed so important to our diets -- and how "it wasn't until late in the twentieth century that nutrients began to push food aside in the popular imagination of what to eat" (22).

Enter the dietary guidelines we are familiar with today. These didn't exist prior to the 70's. People didn't need to be told what to eat by scientists. Now we are being told what we should be eating and we are unhealthier than we have ever been.

Pollan quotes Joan Gussow, a Columbia University nutritionist who "argued agains the focus on nutrients rather than whole foods. 'The really important message in the epidemiology...was that some vegetables and citrus fruits seem to be protective agains cancer. But those sections of the [National Academy of Sciences report, Diet Nutrition and Cancer] were written as though it was the vitamin C in the citrus or the beta-carotene in the vegetables that was responsible for the effect...[H]ow do you know it's not one of the other things in the carrots or the broccoli? There are hundreds of carotenes'" (26).

That's a really crazy question -- especially when we have been taught from the time we were small to eat our oranges because of the vitamin C or to up our intake of vitamin C when we feel a cold coming on.

Pollan also talks about how focusing on the nutrients started (and when) and how it has really benefited the food industry. He explains other problems and pokes holes in the idea that nutrients should drive our diets as opposed to real food.

So has all of our focus on nutrients led us down the wrong path? Should we not worry so much about getting x grams of protein? I think no one knows for sure, but what we are being taught about food and nutrition isn't working. So I believe it is at least worth a conversation.

The Amazing Adventures of Dietgirl (finding inspiration in another's journey)

 The Amazing Adventures of Dietgirl isn't the type of book I typically try to review on here since it isn't so much about health and nutrition as it is about an individual's journey to health and weight loss. But there were things about it that I really related to since I am trying my damnedest to stay on the healthy bandwagon.

Here is the basic synopsis -- Girl weights 350 lbs and isn't happy. Decides to make a change and starts to blog about it. Girl starts to lose weight and gain confidence. Girl backslides but gets back on the wagon (Yay!) Girl gains more confidence and moves outside her comfort zone. She starts traveling and enjoying her life instead of hiding from it. Blog becomes way bigger than she ever thought would happen. Blog becomes a book.


So not a super original story but honest and funny. I really enjoyed reading about her adventures, successes and failures. Her failures, in a way, spoke to me the most. She didn't just regain 5 or 10 pounds but 60 pounds (I think....it was quite a bit anyway.) But for her to have the courage and the guts to go after relosing that much weight and continue to lose more spoke volumes to me. I want to throw in the towel if I gain 3 pounds back. I get frustrated and think about the time and effort (and sweat!) I put into losing those 3 (little bitty) pounds and I just want to sit on the couch and eat chocolate. It makes me feel like I will never get there. But reading about her doing it made me feel pathetic and silly, fretting about something like 3 pounds. Yes I have quite a ways to go, but no where near the amount she was aiming to lose. She gave me some inspiration and really made me focus on why I want to lose weight. Why I want to get healthy and in shape. Because the why is what's important. Without a why, getting back on track is so much harder and staying on track is almost impossible.


I think this was one of my favorite moments in the book --

"Weight loss isn't about willpower or motivation. It's just the cumulative effect of tiny actions over time. Putting down the chocoalte bars, putting on the running shoes. you have to keep picking yourself up when you fall, over and over again, for however long it takes."--The Amazing Adventures of Dietgirl

Because how true is that! So many times I have reached for a "magic" pill or solution, wanting and praying for it to happen overnight. Or I would become obsessed and go crazy working out and eating healthy for a month and see no change on the scale and be so upset I would just quit. (I have learned my lesson on trusting and using the scale though, so there's that.) And it isn't a matter of if you fall, but when you will fall. Life happens and it is in the attitude toward it is what counts. Are you going to get back up, dust yourself off and keep moving forward? Or are you going to hide in the house, watch all six seasons of Gossip Girl on Netflix and eat snacks by yourself?

She also talks about her "magic" number a lot. That number everyone has in their head thad dictates how much we think we should weight. And really where does it come from? What we weighed in high school? What our best friend weighed in high school? And what is the expectation when we get there? I for one would like the heavens to open and the choir to sing and for everyone to approach me and tell me how awesome I look because I finally reached that number. In reality, I will probably receive compliments up until that point and no one will really notice the last 5-7 pounds. Plus I need to come to terms with the fact that I may not ever reach that number. And that is okay---right? I mean I definitely have more muscle than my prepubescent self so there is that. If I feel great and am living my life to the fullest, have energy and am setting a good example for my family, isn't that enough? Shouldn't it be enough? So why do we beat ourselves up and let it not be enough? Having a goal is important but maybe that goal should be less about a number and more about a feeling.


"You know what's funny about losing a stack of weight? Nothing really changes. All that happens is that you lose the thing upon which you used to hang all your neuroses. Fat has a shape and substance; you can poke it with a stick. It's a scapegoat and a handy excuse. Once you start to lose it, you realize you're stuck with the same moronic core." --The Amazing Adventures of Dietgirl

I think one of the reasons I enjoyed this book so much is that is what Shauna ended up learning (*spoiler alert* -- even though this book is more about reading her journey the ups and downs rather than the actual ending.) Through it all it was her learning to love herself that mattered. This is what we should be striving for -- yes health is important and we should relish in what we learn our bodies can do, how much weight we can handle or how hard we can push them -- but in the end if we don't love ourselves we will find reasons other than our weight that makes us feel undeserving.

"You can't compare your aceievements to anyone else's All you can do is compare where you've been and where you are now, and what you chose to do in between." -The Amazing Adventures of Dietgirl


I think the lessons I was reminded of when reading this book were really important, especially during a month where everything for me was turned on it's head. I needed to regroup and refocus and decide what I really wanted and recommit myself to that goal.

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For more information on Shauna and her journey you can find her at http://www.shaunareid.com/

The Omnivore's Dilemma (and why we should be thinking about our food in ways other than calories and fat grams)

My favorite reaction when I tell people I try not to eat meat or dairy very often is when they look at me, almost bug eyed and utter (and sometimes whisper) but what do you eat? It is a shock to people that a meal can be filling and full of veggies and grains. This journey of really looking into what my family is eating started about a year ago with the documentary Forks Over Knives. I went crazy for a few months but not in a good way. If it was vegan, I assumed I could eat it. No problems. Well there is a problem when vegan junk food is on the market and sugar is still vegan. I never particularly cared for the taste of meat, but dairy was more difficult to give up. (I still go crazy over some really yummy creamy goat cheese.) Fish and seafood never really left the picture.

But the important part was I started thinking about what I ate. Not in the way of calories and fat grams but what it was and where it came from. So many of our meals are consumed in a rush, on the go, in the car or at our desks while we work and even in front of the television. There is no thinking about what we eat as much as there is let's get shove this in my mouth real quick to get rid of this hunger feeling and move on with what is really important in life.

But our food is important. We spend so much time eating. Our bodies are literally made from what we feed them. From our food is where our bodies get the energy to move, to create new cells, to repair what needs fixed, to fight off infection....what we eat every day could be the most important decisions we make. And it goes even further than that because not only are we affected by what we eat, but we are affected by the food our food eats. The quality, the nutritional value, the taste.... Unfortunately, most of what we eat today isn't what our great-grandparents ate even when it looks like it used to. A steak today is different from a steak 50 years ago. There are farmers out there striving to bring farming back to it's roots and Michael Pollan was able to find one of them.

I just finished reading the The Omnivore's Dilemma by Michael Pollan. I actually read the young adult version as that was what was available from the library (libraries rock!) I expected the book to lean away from the processed and toward the real food movement (even toward a plant based diet.) And while Pollan did not hesitate to admit his personal preference after all of his endeavors, the information is presented in a very matter of fact way (which this English major can appreciate.) The book is set up around his four meals. His goal is to eat one meal that is a direct result from each of the ways to produce food. His first meal is a meal that is produced thanks to the industrialized food industry -- McDonald's and is eaten like many Americans eat fast food, in the car.

He starts off visiting the farms that produce the majority of the food here in America. The industrialized corn farm and the industrialized beef farm. He goes as far to purchase a steer so he can follow the steer until it meets his end (where he was not allowed to visit -- journalists, among others, are not permitted in slaughterhouses and on many industrial farms.) He interviews a corn farmer about how working on a farm has changed. And it is explained (in a way that is both scary and fascinating) how a single kernel of corn is processed. How all parts of the corn are used and extracted and turned into something else. Things I didn't even know were made with corn -- like glue and fireworks. (Seriously. Fireworks. Mind blown. This was the part of the book where I kept waking John up every five minutes to spout off something new I learned about corn. He was nowhere near as enthusiastic as I was.)

For the second meal, he visits an industrial organic farm. While many of these farms started out as small endeavors, they have grown into a billion dollar industries and are run much of the same way as non-organic industrialized farms. They do not use pesticides or hormones, they do allow chickens access to the outdoors but it is  a small sad yard that has a tiny door that isn't even open until the chickens are 5 weeks old. For the remaining two weeks of their lives, they rarely venture out doors.  These are not the happy chickens lives and farming practices that consumers are led to believe they are supporting. There is the fact that these farms are brining organic food to places that normally wouldn't have access to it. They are keeping farmlands from being sprayed with pesticides. There is good here and as a reader (and an eater) we are encouraged to take in the facts, do our own research and decide for ourselves if eating seasonally is an inconvenience we are willing to suffer.

His third meal he calls "beyond organic." Pollan found a farm that farms the way farming used to be done. (And apparently I was trying to see how many times I could use the word farm in a sentence.) He visits Polyface Farm in Virginia which practices sustainable agriculture. He has pasteurized beef and poultry and uses a rotation system so the cows don't destroy the pasture and then the chickens clean up after the cows and fertilize the pasture. Joel Salatin, the farm's owner, refers to himself as a grass farmer and an even more than that an orchestra conductor as he is doing the movement and organization but the animals are doing the work. He will not ship his meats instead he truly practices and believes that burning all that fossil fuel to ship his products is not sustainable. He sells directly to consumers, local restaurants and at farmer's markets. And this is what led Pollan to him in the first place. Because Salatin won't ship a steak to Pollan's home in California, Pollan instead visits, stays and works on the farm in Virginia experiencing it all first hand including processing (a nicer way to say killing) a chicken.

When it gets to the fourth meal, I am wondering really what is next. What kind of farm could he possibly visit to finish this book. But he doesn't visit a farm, instead, he chooses to create a meal from things he has hunted and gathered. Who does that now? Being a Western PA girl I am used to meals made with deer meat but not an entire meal that is foraged. Pollan stays true to the course and learns to hunt wild pig,  how to hunt mushrooms and even gather yeast from the air to make bread (again mind blown. Yeast from the air? Crazy business.) He even attempts to try and gather his own salt from the bay.

After being present at all of Pollan's meals through his writing, I was happy to find him encouraging his readers to think about what we are eating. With the obesity epidemic, we are so conditioned to think of food in terms of calories in and calories out but it is so much more than that. This book was a great way to begin to address that rumbling in our tummy in a much kinder way than just shoving whatever we can grab in our mouths to shut it up (and stay under our recommended calories for the day.)

I am eager to read the adult version of this book (and just ordered it in paper form so I can highlight and make notes in the margin and flip back and forth between chapters when I need to. Sometimes there are things an ebook can't provide. Like the lovely smell of an old book. Mmmmm.)

For more information on Micheal Pollan and his work please visit  http://michaelpollan.com/

Clean Eating and Tosca's Rules

So there is a lot of hype right now about what we should eat, how much we should eat, when we should eat, if we should eat all organic or if it is a waste of money, if GMO's are safe or not and I could go on and on. There are so many differnent opinions that it makes my head spin just to start to sort them out.

One thing I have found that makes the most sense to me is Clean Eating. Now I hate even calling it that, does that mean that eating anything else is dirty? (Cue Christina Aguilera song now in my head.) But, when I look at what this way of eating is telling me, it just makes sense. Eat real food. Food as close as it can be to the way it was when it came out of the ground. Eat lettuce and apples and strawberries and beans. Don't eat chemicals, preservatives, things you can't pronounce (unless it is an exotic fruit or veggie) and don't eat overly processed flour & sugar (my Achilles heel.)

I have borrowed and read The Eat-Clean Diet Recharged by Tosca Reno twice now.  And although she does like to talk about how awesome and healthy she is (and put in  lots of pictures of herself) what she is saying (once you weed through all the narcissism) that we need to eat real food. And the idea of eating "clean" or eating real food isn't her idea. She just got great results and published a bunch of books about it. According to Reno, she borrowed the idea of clean eating from the physique industry. In the book, In Defense of Food, Micheal Pollan says there has been a push back against processed foods from the beginning. Either way, there are plenty of people talking and writing books about clean eating, even if they don't use the term "clean."

Tosca Reno claims that our physique is 80% nutrition, 10% training and 10% genetics and we need to focus on what we are putting onto our plates and into our mouths. (And she isn't the first person I've read that makes this claim.)

So here are her rules:

1. Eat more 

Aim for 6 small meals a day. Ideally this would be breakfast, a mid-morning snack, lunch, an afternoon snack, dinner and an after dinner snack (and my Mom used to tell me snacking was bad...) but it can be adjusted to meet individual schedules. I typically don't ever eat a after dinner snack. We eat dinner late (close to 7 because of my husband's job) and I'm not hungry again before bed.

2. Eat Breakfast

Every day. Without fail. Within an hour of waking up. (I used to skip breakfast and drink about 2 gallons of coffee instead. I started with doing a smoothie or shake in the morning. After some time, my body got used to being fed first thing and I actually wake up hungry now. )

3. Lean Protein plus Complex Carbs at Every Meal

This one is hard for me. I don't eat meat often so I try to throw some beans on my salad or almond butter on my toast. But I also don't worry about it too much. Even veggies have protein.

4. Eat Enough Healthy Fat

This rule might be my favorite because it means I can eat some avocado every day! (I have an obsession. Avocado toast is my favorite breakfast.) Or olives (because I love those too!) Also using healthy oils (I really limit this though based on other books I have read who claim oils for cooking are also processed and not as healthy as we want them to be. And if I do use olive oil try to get cold pressed olive oil.) 

5. Drink Water

Lots and lots of water. 2-3 liters of water a day and sometimes more. 

6. Pack Your Snacks

Since we don't really know what is in all the foods that we order out, we need to get in the habit of packing healthy snacks or meals. This can be as easy (an apple and a handful of almonds) or as complicated as you want to make it. In the long run it should also fatten up your wallet since you won't be eating out as much. 

7. Depend of Fresh Fruits, Veggies and Whole Grains for Complex Carbs

I know it has been toted for a while but all carbs are not bad. If you lived through the low carb craze, this can be a hard thing to wrap your brain around. How I make it easy? Fruits, veggies & grains  = good. White rice, flour, bread, pasta, sugar, processed = bad. And I don't sweat it. 

8. Stick to Proper Portion Sizes

So overall her rules are pretty easy. I honestly feel so much better since cutting out processed foods. I can taste the flavor of fresh foods so much better than I could before. I have more energy. I don't feel sluggish in afternoons (or even when I wake up before my coffee!)

I am always running clean eating groups on Facebook.  Or check out my FREE clean eating bootcamp. If this is something you are interested in message me on Facebook. We share tips, tricks, recipes and generally keep each other on track. 

Hello Gorgeous (some thoughts on Kris Carr & her book Crazy Sexy Diet)

From the first pages of this book, I so wanted to be friends with Kris Carr. And not just the veggie loving, juice drinking, chilled out meditating pillar of awesomeness that she is now but also the party girl who used to run around Manhattan drinking until the sun came up. Despite the fact that she has completely changed her life and how she looks at food and nutrition, she still has the party girl spark that draws others to her. She just uses it now to talk to us about how we can change our lives and possibly what we thought was our medical destiny. Reading this book felt like a conversation between friends over cocktails. That she was spilling all her juicy secrets and discoveries to me because we are the best of friends and she can't imagine something terrible happening to me. This is a powerful way to write a book. It either appeals or is a turn off. For me, it works. I mean anyone who calls me gorgeous on the first page has my attention.

Kris Carr decided to change her life when, at 31, she was told she had cancer in her liver and in her lungs. She went through a slew of doctors who had various recommendations. She finally found a doctor she jived with and the decided to wait it out and see what happened. She completely changed her life. She went back to school to study nutrition. She learned how to sleep and meditate. Today her cancer lays dormant. She has a documentary that focuses more on her medical stuff than this book does (Crazy Sexy Cancer) so if this is something that interests you, by all means pick it up.

After a brief introduction to her start down this path to wellness, she talks about the PH of the body. Acidic vs alkaline and how the right balance in our diet is the key. Animal products, processed foods, sugars, alcohol and even some legumes (black beans, soybeans & chickpeas) are the acidic and veggies, fruits, nuts, seeds and legumes are the alkaline. For drastic change we should strive for a 80/20 ratio and for maintenance a 60/40.

There is a lot of information about the benefits of going vegan in this book, but very little pressure. Her point is that if you can't give up all animal products or don't want to give up all animal products, strive to keep them to a minimum rather than the main. And if you are going to add in dairy or meat (in small amounts) make sure it is good quality. She keeps in mind the big picture and if not being able to eat a little bit of cheese is going to keep people from eating this way, giving into that little bit of cheese is better than going back to the Standard American Diet (SAD - every time I abbreviate this I giggle at the irony....)

There is a lot of info in this book from information about food, our digestive system (a whole chapter so if potty talk makes you uncomfortable you may want to skip or skim this chapter) juicing, meditating and more. It is light, conversational and has lots of pretty charts to help break down all the scary number stuff for people like me - especially when all the acidic balance chemistry talk started to make me a little dizzy. There is also a 21 day cleanse outlined day by day at the end of the book along with some recipes. And if those intrigue you there is a follow up cookbook (which I am going to try and pick up to review.)

Kris Carr is a remarkable woman who could have given up. Instead she empowered herself and is really living each and every day. I love the idea that we have the ability to create our strongest, sexiest selves based on what we pick up and put in our mouths. I love the strength in this way of thinking. It is up to us to do the research, try out the different recommendations for food and see what gives us the most energy.

The decision on how to live your life is up to you.  How's that for empowerment? It makes me want to go grab some kale.

To nab a copy of Crazy Sexy Diet click here.

For more info please visit her website at http://kriscarr.com

The Salad IS the Main Course

I love to read and I read a lot. (Can someone just pay me to read? please?) I never really cared for nonfiction. (I think all the terrible nonfiction we were made to read in school was a complete turnoff.) Typically, YA lit is my jam and what I pick up from the library. Almost a year ago, I watched a documentary on Netflix called Forks over Knives. It really changed my thinking about food and made me want to learn more. Like any good former English major, I started to do some research and since then have read as many books as I can on plant based nutrition. And have gained a new appreciation for nonfiction. (It is not all as boring as the nonfiction we were forced to read in school!)


I just finished up Eat to Live by Dr. Joel Furhman. He believes in reversing (and preventing) disease through nutrition and other natural methods. Basically following what good old Hippocrates (you know the guy the some consider to be the father of Western medicine, they Hippocratic Oath and all that?) told us even before baby Jesus was born.

So if he knew this then, how did we manage to screw it up so royally? Clearly the way we eat now is not working. Look at the stats on Americans. Obesity. Blood Pressure. Heart Disease. Diabetes. We are in a serious mess. So Dr. Fuhrman recommends that we just try what he believes for six little weeks.  Compared to a year (or a lifetime) giving six weeks to something isn't that long.



Anyway...for six weeks the goal is to eat:

raw veggies
steamed veggies (green and non-green nutrient rich)
beans, legumes, bean sprouts and tofu
fresh fruits

And to limit:

Cooked starchy veggies
whole grains
raw nuts/seeds
avocado
dried fruit
flaxseeed

Completely off limits:

diary
animal products
snacks between meals
fruit juice
oil

Of course his book goes into the details of this including the serving size and the method behind his madness.

In addition to describing this six week trial, his book addresses the reasoning behind his philosophy which I can totally appreciate. There is a huge focus on nutrient per calorie and getting the most bang for your caloric buck. He is a doctor so his book is full of lots of medical jargon and numbers. Statistics, blood pressure readings, patient labs, blah. I kind of skimmed through all of this as I am not a numbers girl (but if you are a numbers junkie this book is right up your alley.)   He is basically a groupie for green leafy veggies and beans. Raw veggies are rockstars and steamed veggies come a close second. The buzz words in this book are nutrient rich, plant based and real foods. He devotes a lot of space in his book to talking about heart disease and diabetes. He also addresses how his plan will address these medical concerns while also cautioning to talk to your own doctor about these things. (Again stuff I kind of skimmed since that is not my main concern right now.)

My overal takeaway from this book. Eat more veggies. Lots and lots of veggies. And really think about how many nutrients are in each calorie you eat. Food is nutrition. We should be getting our nutrients from food not supplements. His book supports my belief that real plant based food is best.

My favorite thing in this book -

I may have to post that in my dining room on a pretty canvas or something. Yay modge podge!

To learn more about Dr. Fuhrman please visit his website at www.drfuhrman.com