Kids: Too much chemistry in your cookies?
(Credit: Pinkbelt. Some rights reserved.)
If you take a spin through the supermarket, you’ll notice waffles with added “omega-3 fatty acids”, fruit roll-ups with extra Vitamin C, and even chocolate bars touting their “antioxidant” content.
But will all these added chemical nutrients make you healthier?
Author Michael Pollan, who wrote In Defense of Food: An Eater’s Manifesto, doesn’t think so.
He’s making a case against what he calls ‘eating scientifically.’ Pollan says, “There is so much biochemistry on display in the supermarket today, it’s kind of wild. I mean, where else in your life do you use so much biochemistry?”
He’s talking about the breakdown of foods into scientific terms – for example, antioxidants and omega-3 fatty acids.
According to Pollan, “obsessing about nutrients does not lead to healthier eating or healthier people.”
Pollan believes nutrition science doesn’t yet have the authority to guide us in our food choices. “It is a young science,” says Pollan, “They have not figured it out yet. They have not plumbed the depths of a carrot to figure out what makes a carrot a healthy food.”
In other words, it’s possible that it’s more than just the Vitamin A or “beta-carotene” in a carrot that makes it a healthy food.
What’s more, Pollan said, it’s not necessary to know exactly why a certain food is healthy in order to eat healthfully.
Pollan says, if you want to eat healthfully, “just keep your eye on the REAL FOOD.”
So when you want a snack, instead of reaching for those electric orange fruit-shaped smooshers or splashers with added Vitamin C, why not just have a good old orange?
Copyright 2008 EarthSky Communications, Inc.
