Eating Healthy Options

[Hartmann]

I just finished "In Defense of Food" by Michael Pollan. He basically rips apart the idea of "nutrionism" pointing out that things like omega-3 pills are nowhere close to as good for you as just eating fish. How beta-carotene pills that were touted to prevent cancer actually cause it.

His whole point is that if we eat food we should eat mostly plants and not too much. He cites the French, the Italians, the Japanese and how their diets are completely different from each other but they're still healthier than us.

[impala454]

I don't really understand the perceived benefits of a non-processed vs processed food food, other than maybe the taste. If you take two foods that are nutritionally identical, but one has been "processed" and maybe has a few extra preservatives or something, I don't see how you'd digest it any differently. I recall reading several years ago (and even now) about how nitrates/nitrites/etc in processed meat were seen as some terrible thing and causes of all these problems, but when you research it yourself it's hard to find anything that gives a definitive answer. Certainly no hard evidence to support the claim. Same with every other food fad out there... like how in the 90s eggs were the devil, heart killing, cholesterol monster. Now they're seen more as a health food. Pretty dumb if you ask me. Eating a well rounded diet is a no brainer. You don't need a book to tell you that.