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Robin Shreeves

Pollan: Don't buy food you've seen advertised

Monsanto, swine flu, Lay's claim to be local, Michelle Obama's organic garden, school lunch programs and more. This video has Michael Pollan weighing in on a lot of important issues.
Thu, May 14 2009 at 3:56 PM EST
Read more: GENETICALLY MODIFIED FOODS (GM), HEALTHY EATING, MICHAEL POLLAN, OBAMA, ORGANIC FOODS

Michael Pollan was interviewed this week on Democracy Now, and the interviewer asked him about so many of the issues I would ask if I had the chance, including Frito-Lay claiming to be local and marketers hijacking his "don't eat anything with more than five ingredients rule." He has come up with a new rule that will be tough for marketers to hijack, though — "Simply don’t buy any food you’ve ever seen advertised."
 
He also talks about the marketing of sugar as a healthy food, preventing illness through changing our food system, using our school lunch programs as a disposal for "excess ... cheap ground beef and cheese and all these corn products," and many, many other food issues that are on my mind — and probably your mind, too. 
 
The video is broken into two parts; watch the top one first.
 

 

 

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Comments(5)

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Posted By D May - Sun, May 17 2009 at 9:40 PM EST

High Fructose Corn Syrup

HFCS is biologically and structurally different from sucrose. HFCS is a mixture of two simple sugars: glucose and fructose. Sucrose is a disaccharide--a compound composed of glucose and fructose chemically bonded to each other. Sucrose must be digested; HFCS is not. So as soon as the HFCS hits the stomach, the bloodstream receives a double whammy of glucose and fructose which the pancreas and liver must deal with right away. With sucrose, the process happens over a longer period of.... More

Posted By Houghton - Fri, May 15 2009 at 11:24 AM EST

Silly

I'm all for localism and local food and I like reading Pollan's stuff, but this is just plain silly. It would in fact rule out some fantastic local producers in our area -- who have advertised, which is they way we found out about them! What a mindlessly elitist rule. How about this? Use common sense. Get your food fresh (and as much as you can from your own backyard). And drop the elitist nonsense.

Posted By Robin Shreeves - Fri, May 15 2009 at 11:39 AM EST

Silly

I think that Pollan's comment about not buying anything that's been advertised needs to be taken in context. He's just been asked about the marketers who take his rules and bend them so he's come up with a rule that the marketers can't bend (at least he can't see how, but you never know with marketers)

Here's his comment in context taken from the Democracy Now transcript:

"you just can’t underestimate their [the marketers] ability turn any critique into a way to sell.... More

Posted By Hanlie - Fri, May 15 2009 at 10:38 AM EST

A voice of reason

I love Michael Pollan. It's up to us to spread the word...

Posted By Grey Garvin - Fri, May 15 2009 at 9:55 AM EST

A man of common sense

But the marketers keep foiling him! The reality is that people don't want to leave their processed food behind...but what has changed is that they want the *illusion* that they're doing better. Farmers' Markets may save us....people meet farmers & begin to understand where food comes from....this is good stuff.

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