Topic > Nutritionism and the Western Diet in Pollan's In...

One of the main contributors to this lifestyle is the Western diet. During this time the low fat trend was underway. Scientists found that people binged on low-fat foods because they thought it would help their diet. However, the low-fat trend has led to horrible diets like the Western one, which consists of processed foods, meat, lots of added flour, fats, sugars, everything except fruits, vegetables and whole grains. Freedman states in his article “How Junk Food Can End Obesity” that there is no hard evidence about the health risks of processed foods. An essential claim about whole foods is that they don't stay in our system for days, weeks, or months like industrialized foods do. All of these things can lead to serious health problems. Some of these health problems include hypertension, heart disease, stroke, diabetes, and cancer. On the other hand, people who follow a traditional diet typically don't have as many, if any, health problems. However, there are many different diets; we are addicted to the diet that can make us all sick the western diet. There are many diets to choose from, but the Western diet is really a problem for more reasons than one. Americans can continue to develop a high tolerance for the Western diet or wean themselves into better eating habits. Other countries eat what they want, like beans and rice, and still don't have the same problems as Americans