Food Health = Social Health?

Food is something that I hold near and dear to my heart, or should I say stomach. Just like everyone else, I eat, but I also enjoy cooking and coming up with new recipes. That aside, a few months ago I saw a news story on what is actually in our food, and started really paying attention to what I was feeding myself. When I looked at the ingredient labels I saw things such as “thiamin mononitrate,” and “ferrous sulfate.” I thought to myself “what the heck have I been eating.” Since then I have been paying attention to the food I buy. Because of this, and how the food industry plays with our minds, I am definitely supportive of the “Food Movement” that Pollan examines in his article.

Thinking back, I realize that I have always had an idea of how the large food companies have affected our society, but this article really brought things into a new light. One quote Pollan uses from Janet Flamming really stuck out to me. When she talks about fast food, she lists effects that the industry has had, listing “grazing and snacking instead of sitting down for leisurely meals, watching television during mealtimes instead of conversing” among others. Just looking at these two, they have much more of an impact than seen at first glance. There are the obvious repercussions like increase in obesity and heart disease, but if you look past these, there also sits declining conversation and listening skills. All of this is learned when we are young, during a simple dinner.  What if the concept of a “family dinner” were to vanish completely?

Because of the major health concerns and the various effects fast food has had on society, I am all for the food movement. It may seem silly to think that a dinner can change our society, but I think there is truth behind it. Without any protest or real notoriety, fast food has changed our eating habits completely over the past 50 years. Though I am normally against heavy government regulations, I feel that in this case they would help. I would like to see bans on preservatives and other unnecessary ingredients. Yes, shelf life of food will decrease, but that just means we have to be more efficient. Overall health is very important, and we are killing ourselves slowly with these chemicals. I am glad that these topics are starting to be more and more important to politicians, as this might lead to change. I would much rather have healthy food, than a cheap mixture of chemicals that kills me slowly.