Peer Response: Chang's Blog

Response to In Defense of Food Post:

“Meat or Plants, does it really matter? Food is food, right? As long as I get filled up and have energy to perform my daily tasks, it doesn’t really matter what I eat, right?” As a response to Chang’s questions, I do strongly believe that it does matter what you decide to consume on a daily basis. Although your stomach is full and you are loaded with enough energy to follow through with your day, you will definitely cause harm to your body by not making healthy food choices! In Chang’s post, he briefly summarizes Michael Pollan’s arguments in In Defense of Food. Chang has stated that Pollan argues about the different kinds of food that would be considered healthy and also, the food that people should stay away from. Furthermore, Pollan argues that instead of replacing fats in diets with carbs (which is what we have all been advised to do within the past half century), people are getting more obese rather than becoming healthier. I do agree that obesity is becoming a huge issue for Americans today.

I took a look at Chang’s link he provided with his post and was surprised to see that during the past 20 years, there has been a dramatic increase in obesity in the United States. No wonder why America is home to the most obese people in the world!!! I found this article to be very frightening, because of the growing adult population of obesity and health issues. It made me realize how important Michael Pollan’s book, In Defense of Food is for consumers today. If we don’t start to eat healthy, in the next 20 years, the United States percentage of obese adults would definitely double. Chang has mentioned in his post that he feels like there is too much information that Michael Pollan has left out, which does not allow people to get a solid answer on whether or not it’s really based on the food they consume that makes a person unhealthy. I don’t agree with his statement, because even though Michael Pollan does not directly say that food choices result in health issues, it's common knowledge to understand that the food someone consumes does have an effect on their overall health!

The obesity epidemic in the US is due solely to increased food intake
By Fran Lowry

I found this article to go along with Chang's post. It clearly explains the reasons why Americans are still so obese till this very day.