Michael Pollan: "Don't Buy Any Food You've Ever Seen Advertised"

[Why Syzygy]

Michael Pollan: "Don't Buy Any Food You've Ever Seen Advertised"
By Amy Goodman, Democracy Now!
Posted on May 15, 2009, Printed on May 15, 2009
http://www.alternet.org/story/140029/

Amy Goodman: (...) Well, my next guest is one of the leading writers and thinkers in this country on food. Michael Pollan is a professor of science and environmental journalism at University of California, Berkeley, author of several books about food, including The Botany of Desire, The Omnivore’s Dilemma and his latest, In Defense of Food: An Eater’s Manifesto, which just came out in paperback. ... Let’s start with the latest news over the last month, swine flu. How is that connected to industrialized agriculture?

Michael Pollan: Well, we don’t know for sure yet. We’re still kind of investigating. But the best knowledge we have is that this outbreak came from a very large industrial pork operation, pork confinement operation, where, you know, tens of thousands of pigs live in filth and close contact. And this was in Mexico. (...)

Goodman: Explain how these animal operations work.

Pollan: Well, a pig confinement operation is a pretty hellish place. They are, you know, tens of thousands of animals, kept jammed together. The animals are so close together that they have to snip their tails off, because the animals are so neurotic—I mean, pigs are very intelligent; they’re smarter than dogs—that they will nip at each other’s tails. They’ve been weaned so early that they have this sucking desire, and so they take it out on the tails of the animal right in front of them. So they snip the tails off, not to stop the procedure, but to make it so painful that animals will avoid having their tails bitten, just to make them raw and painful. (...)

Pollan: (...) The other thing is that it’s very interesting that Monsanto should be arguing that it has the key to improving productivity. If indeed what we need to do is improve productivity, don’t look at genetically modified crops. They have never succeeded in raising productivity. That’s not what they do. If you look at the—the Union of Concerned Scientists just issued a report looking at the twenty-year history of these crops, and what they have found is that basically the real gains in yield for American crops, for world crops, has been through conventional breeding. Genetic modification has—with one tiny exception, Bt corn used in years of very high infestation of European corn borers—has not increased productivity at all. That’s not what they’re good at. What they’re good at is creating products that allow farmers to expand their monocultures, because it takes less management. So, if indeed we need to go where Monsanto says, there are better technologies than theirs.

Goodman: What about companies boasting that they use real sugar, like that’s a health claim.

Pollan: (...) So—and on the high-fructose corn syrup thing, now that you’ve got Snapple and soon-to-be Coca-Cola making a virtue of the fact that they contain real sugar, no high-fructose corn syrup, what that is is an implicit health claim for sugar. And that is an incredible achievement on the part of industry, to convince us that getting off of high-fructose corn syrup has made their products healthier. It has done no such thing. Biologically, there’s no difference between high-fructose corn syrup and sugar.

Goodman: Well, explain why you were going after high-fructose corn syrup.

Pollan: Well, my argument about high-fructose corn syrup and why you should avoid it is it is a marker of a highly processed food. I’m just trying to help people, when they’re going through the supermarket—the main thing you want to avoid is processing, you know, extreme processing. And high-fructose corn syrup—I mean, think about it. Do you know anyone who cooks with high-fructose corn syrup? It’s not a home—it’s not an ingredient you’ll find in a home pantry. It’s a tool of food science.

My problem with it is its ubiquity through the food system. You have high-fructose corn syrup showing up where sugar has never been—in bread, in pickles, in mayonnaise, in relish, in all these products—that they basically have found that if you sweeten anything, we will buy more of it. High-fructose corn syrup is a very convenient, cheap ingredient, because we subsidize the corn from which it’s made. (...)

So, I’ve had to update my rules. And with all this new marketing based on these ideas, my new suggestion is, if you want to avoid all this, simply don’t buy any food you’ve ever seen advertised. Ninety-four percent of ad budgets for food go to processed food. I mean, the broccoli growers don’t have money for ad budgets. So the real food is not being advertised. And that’s really all you need to know.

Much more (4 pages)

http://www.alternet.org/environment/140029/michael_pollan%3A_%22don%27t_buy_any_food_you%27ve_ever_seen_advertised%22/?page=entire

Print version:
http://www.alternet.org/module/printversion/140029

[dixiegrrrrl]

1. Pollan has also said to avoid foods which contain more than 5 ingredients.

My grocery bill is extremely low, since I cannot eat gluten and will not eat HFC products
Almost all grocery items contain one or the other and often both.

[kestrel91316]

22. I eat stuff all the time that has more than 5 ingredients. BUT.......

they are ingredients that I have purchased, chopped, mixed, cooked, baked together, etc so that probably isn't what he meant. I think he means avoid factory processed foods, which is good advice.

[Warpy]

30. Processed foods really aren't good for you

because all that processing robs flavor that has to be replaced by salt and sugar to fool your tastebuds.

That's if they're not full of MSG and worse.

Eating them all the time also tends to pervert your sense of taste so that unprocessed foods taste like cardboard. The transition from processed to unprocessed is a tough one. The good news is that the transition back to processed is also a tough one. After you've been away from them, all you can taste is salt, sugar, and chemicals.

The best habit to get into is shopping the walls of the supermarket where the fruits, vegetables, meats and dairy products are and skipping the processed stuff in the middle, with the exception of baking products.

Yes, you'll spend more time in the kitchen. However, when you get good at it, you'll start to enjoy it.

[unpossibles]

2. great interview

I don't think there's anything wrong with the occasional processed food, but we tend to way over-do it. I prefer to buy as many basic ingredients as I can, and when I do buy something "processed" I go for short ingredient lists that I can actually understand.

It's pretty cheap to eat this way too, despite the threads which will likely pop up claiming that eating healthy is economically impossible. My grocery bills are usually low, unless I am buying a fancy cheese or fake meat (and frankly, while time consuming, seitan is not hard to make, and far cheaper to make than to buy), and I don't eat much of either of those things.

[Why Syzygy]

36. It really is.

Another bite:

The CDC, Centers for Disease Control, estimates that of the $2 trillion we’re spending on healthcare in this country, $1.5 trillion is for the treatment of preventable chronic disease. Now, that’s not all food, because you have smoking in there, too, and alcoholism. But the bulk of it is food. Food is implicated in heart disease, which we spend, you know, billions and billions on. It’s implicated in type 2 diabetes. It’s implicated in about 40 percent of cancers. It’s implicated in stroke, all sorts of cardiovascular problems.

And, you know, in a sense, the healthcare crisis is a euphemism for the food crisis, I mean, that they are identical. And I do think that President Obama recognizes this. And I think that you will see programs to address this, because that is how you could—you know, a better School Lunch Program would be a down payment on the healthcare reform, because you would reduce long-term the costs of the system. Treating a case of type 2 diabetes costs the City of New York, every new case, $500,000. It is bankrupting the system. And it’s preventable.

Goodman: How is it treated?

Pollan: Well, type 2 diabetes is, once you contract it, it’s $13,000 a year in additional medical costs. It takes something like ten years off of your life span. It means an 80 percent chance of heart disease in your life, a possibility of amputation and blindness, you know, being tethered to machines and drugs your whole life. It’s a very serious sentence, and it’s entirely preventable with a change in lifestyle.

[stray cat]

3. Anyone who takes that advice literally in the US will probably starve

[CTD]

13. Really?!

Aside from name-brand OJ, I don't think we have a single national brand product in our pantry or fridge. There's a lot of Trader Joe's stuff, fresh foods of all sorts, and some items from the local independent organic market.

Having two young kids at home, we realize that what they eat *becomes* them as they continue to grow. Therefore we are really careful as to limiting their exposure to non-food foods. We know that they'll get a certain amount of junk foods elsewhere so we make sure that what's in our house is almost exclusively "real" food.

[pschoeb]

27. Trader Joe has ads, therefore you can't eat anything from them

Also many local organic markets have ads as well, mine does, so that would mean I couldn't eat anything from there. That is if we took his advise literally.

[CTD]

41. Food advertised on TV store that advertises somewhere

It's quite clear that he means any national brand that might get it's own TV or print ad.

[RufusTFirefly]

4. One reason I don't clip coupons

I want to save money as much as the next guy, but why do I want to save money on something I shouldn't be buying in the first place?

[ensho]

10. me too - most of the coupons are for things I don't eat

so I don't bother

[nichomachus]

16. Ditto

I have people telling me they saved billions by clipping coupons. They have coupon organizers. So, I went through the Sunday paper -- not one coupon was for anything I would want to eat. It was all processed food.

[Warpy]

I don't even bother to look at them

because my cat's on some of the cheapest kibble out there (her favorite, actually) and that's about all I'd use from the usual run of processed foods and scented toiletries they give coupons for.

[unblock]

5. he says sugar was never used in bread?

i thought most breads always had sugar, honey, and/or malt as a sweetener.

[trotsky]

6. Uh, yeah, that jumped out at me too.

Sugar is what helps it develop a nice brown crust. Eh, a few little facts never get in the way of a good crusade.

[kestrel91316]

26. Sugar is not necessary for bread with a nice crust, lol. Try

baking some.

[trotsky]

35. For a nice crust, no.

But it's tough to get the nice brown tinge to it without at least some sweetener. Sugar caramelizes. Flour burns.

[kestrel91316]

38. I dunno, I'm perfectly happy with my homemade bread even when it doesn't

look or taste or feel like store stuff, lol.

[BonnieJW]

45. I baked our bread for 25 years and I always used

honey in it. It helped the yeast and gave a wonderful moistness and flavor. It was only 2T in four loaves, but it made a difference.

[Luminous Animal]

8. Nope.

Most Europeans find our bread unpalatable because it is so sweet.

[Why Syzygy]

9. Homemade requires only a small amount of honey to activate the yeast. nt

[unblock]

11. so it's the quantity not the presence of sugar that has changed?

that i'll certainly believe.

[Luminous Animal]

14. I've never used sugar.

The natural sugars in the flour are enough to activate the yeast.

[RufusTFirefly]

34. Bingo! Just feed the yeast a little flour first. That is all the sugar it needs. n/t

[juno jones]

17. Some loaves do.

Classic French is just flour, salt, yeast and water, maybe a dash of oil.

Edit to add: Good, lord, this was 5 ingredients. If I had added fresh rosemary it would be verboten, I tell you!

His hard and fast rules are great for processed, packaged stuff, not so good for REAL food.

[unblock]

37. yeah, what about curries that have a dozen spices!

[juno jones]

43. Yeah, he'd have a hard time explaining away ayuervedic food.

May I recommend 'The Healing Cuisine' and Indian Ayuervedic cookbook by Harish Johari. The recipes are vegetarian, but they work just as well with added meat if desired.

The author goes into the healthful benefits of Indian spices. Many are anti-helmitics. Some help with circulation and cooling in warm temperates. Some balance different types of metabolisms.

And yeah, the masala spice recipes can be 8-12 ingredients in themselves, but each has a purpose and a flavor to add.

[kestrel91316]

25. Depends on the recipe. Some of the breads I bake have sugar or

honey, some don't. All that's essential is flour, water, yeast, and salt.

[Warpy]

33. Most people use sugar to proof yeast

and to increase the Maillard reaction to give a browner crust, but both are completely unnecessary.

The no knead bread recipe at the New York Times uses flour, water, yeast and salt and is the lazy baker's delight. You're not going to find bread with a better crust unless you're close to a French or Italian bakery that uses wood fired ovens on site.

[LeftyMom]

46. A little sugar aids in proofing yeast.

Most good breads don't use any as a sweetener, but a little sugar to get the yeast going is totally acceptable.

[ensho]

7. I've followed that rule for decades - any food advertised on TV - don't buy

I always distrusted mass produced food.

not everything! but most constant adv. by the same brand.

[cosmik debris]

12. That would eliminate fresh fruit, fresh meat, oatmeal

and a lot of other things that are really good for you.

That's the trouble with gross over-simplifications. They are always wrong.

[Why Syzygy]

15. But you insist on using them repeatedly.

Having your usual cheery day as always I see :hi:

[cosmik debris]

19. I didn't write that article, nor did I post it.

And anyone who says to give up fresh food that is advertised is grossly over-simplifying the problem.

I eat a lot of fresh fruits and vegetables and I count on the advertisers to let me know where the best prices are.

The "Chicken Little" that you quoted in the OP has gone off the deep end. You can't link nutrition to advertising no matter how hard you try.

[patriotvoice]

39. "I count on the advertisers to let me know where the best prices are."

Price advertising is different than product advertising, and I'm assuming product advertising was meant by the broad stroke of the "avoid any food that's advertised" statement.

Having said that, I think it's fair advice that anyone capable of affording advertising is charging enough over cost to be suspicious. More so the more expensive the advertising is. On the other hand, I think it's fair advice that anyone who can't afford advertising, or chooses not to advertise, is suspicious.

So, ultimately, no correlation.

[nichomachus]

18. How so? I don't see a lot of ads for fresh fruit, fresh meat, oatmeal

I don't think he's talking about the supermarket circulars. He's talking about tv and magazine adverstising.

[cosmik debris]

20. A quote from the OP

"And with all this new marketing based on these ideas, my new suggestion is, if you want to avoid all this, simply don’t buy any food you’ve ever seen advertised."

I see nutritious food advertised all the time. So I'm sure as hell not going to take the advice of this quack.

[nichomachus]

21. All due respect, but I'll take Michael Pollan's advice over yours any day

And, unlike you, he backs his comments up with -- get this -- research.

And -- he signs his real name

[cosmik debris]

24. So you are going to give up fresh fruits and vegetables?

That sounds rather like cutting off your nose to spite your face. But that's OK with me if that's what you want.

[Why Syzygy]

28. Using the term

"quack" ("woo") should signal this poster is coming from his emotional limbic brain and therefore incapable of applying reason to an idea that triggers his reactions.

[cosmik debris]

31. I just quoted your OP

If you don't want it quoted, you shouldn't post it.

[kestrel91316]

23. Can I make an exception for The Incredible Edible Egg, and

Real California Cheese? Please?

And avocados?

[jtrockville]

40. Got milk?

I think there are probably quite a few exceptions, but don't exceptions prove the rule?

[kestrel91316]

42. And Zacky Farms chicken........

[HamdenRice]

29. It was another interesting way of looking at it. I don't think I eat anything that's advertised

at least not advertised in my advertising market. Vegetables, grains, beans, meat, pasta, bread, oils, a few canned things that are almost never advertised -- that's about it.

[DU GrovelBot]

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[guava]

52. ROFL!!!!

[Why Syzygy]

44. Circa 1911

CHARLES SAN FORD PORTER, M. D.
THIRD EDITION
BURNETT P. O., CALIFORNIA
(City of Long Beach)

1911

And these people always lay stress on the
statement that they have been very careful of
their stomachs!

Most of these prepared cereal foods are
steamed or boiled into a mush, with various
ingredients like salt, glucose, molasses, or
malt, added. Then they are usually either
made into a dough and baked, and ground up
into crumbs, or rolled into flakes and parched.
After being sealed up more or less tightly in
pasteboard boxes, they are ready for sale.
When finally the retail dealer gets such foods,
they may lie on the grocery shelves for
months before being sold. Every country
store is stacked to the ceiling with prepara-
tions of this kind, for which an artificial de-
mand was created by enormous advertising,
but when the, advertising stops, so does the
demand.

The manufacturers of many of these pro-
ducts, who have become rich by buying cheap
cereals, or grains that have already been used
in making malt liquors, and selling them for
ten times their cost, employ high-salaried ad-
vertisement writers, who dilate on the clean-
liness and thoroughness with which the goods
arc handled and cooked, but I do not believe
that stuff prepared in this manner can be of
much service in the human stomach, and even
animals refuse it unless they are very hungry.

T do not include in this class foods like
Germea, which is not cooked, nor sterilized by
any chemical method, nor the rolled prepara-
tions of wheat, oats, a'nd rye. The latter are
steamed for some time, and while still wet are
run between rollers and pressed into thin
flakes. After drying the product is ready for
marketing. Such rolled grains do not pretend
to be more than partly cooked and are sup-
posed to be thoroughly recooked before serv-
ing. Grain prepared in this manner does not
lose its vitality, or blood-making power.
Some grocers raise the objection that such
foods do not keep for long periods, like the
ready-to-eat, sterilized brands, as they are apt
to be attacked by weevils and other insects.
This, in my opinion, is a pretty good test of
the food quality of an article. Insects, with
their magnified sense of sight, smell, and
taste, are better judges of the food value of an
article than hitman beings. As an example, I
have known ants to find an opened package of
Germea on a pantry shelf, and when dis-
covered, the wise little animals had a line
many yards long between the cereal and their
nest. Each ant returning to the nest carried
a little particle of the food, doubtless for the
nourishment of 'the home" colony. An in-
structive feature of the incident was the fact
that the ants, to get at the preferred article,
had to climb over several opened packages of
other foods, each of which was guaranteed by
the manufacturer to be all ready to eat.

http://www.archive.org/stream/milkdietasremedy00portiala/milkdietasremedy00portiala_djvu.txt

[LeftyMom]

47. There's a big billboard for tofu a couple of blocks from my house.

I'm keeping my goddamned tofu.

[Why Syzygy]

49. .

http://www.cornucopia.org/soysurvey/

[mizz pibb]

48. The 5 ingredients thing is a little silly; I use probably at least 5 spices

in many of my creations. But unprocessed food? Oh yeah...

[Why Syzygy]

50. You're not doing

anyone or any cause a bit of good with your habitual disruption and TS'ing. Why don't you find another playground?
Every time you show up, you provide nothing more than a nuisance.

[Name removed]

51. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[cosmik debris]

53. You changed your name but not your M.O.

Come back some time when you can't stay so long.

[knitter4democracy]

54. I think he could've said that better.

Michigan pays a lot of money to advertise produce grown here. Someone who somehow believes in some crazy conspiracy-theory-like interpretation of how he said that could take it too far.

It's much safer and better to say, "Eat locally from smaller producers, and try to figure out where your food is from." If it's from that kind of feedlot monstrosity, don't eat it. If it's got a huge ingredient list a mile long with words you can't pronounce easily, don't eat it. If you don't recognize the ingredients, don't eat it.

[Why Syzygy]

55. That's true ..

I understand it to mean national commercial advertising like, for example, hamburger helper types. It was made simple for me a long time ago by just explaining that the closer to a natural occurring food product, the better. Real eggs are better than those boxed eggs, is another example.

[knitter4democracy]

56. I know, but bumper sticker-like slogans often backfire.

Not everyone understands that what you said is what he's getting at.

[Why Syzygy]

57. Or at least

pretending not to. It seems to me any reasonable adult could figure it out. I could be sadly mistaken.