Tag: Nutritionism

While Michael Pollan is a celebrated figure in the modern food movement, not everyone agrees with his prescriptive approach to eating. His simplified rules have drawn criticism for oversimplifying complex food systems and for being impractical for many people.

Published in 2008, Michael Pollan's book *In Defense of Food* tackles the perplexing paradox of modern eating. It explains how an overreliance on nutritional science has made us less healthy, and proposes a return to traditional, whole foods as the solution.

In his renowned work *In Defense of Food*, Michael Pollan critiques the modern Western diet, asserting that much of what we consume isn't real food at all. So, what is meant by Pollan's recommendation to eat food? It is a call to return to simple, unprocessed ingredients that our ancestors would recognize, rejecting the highly engineered, 'edible food-like substances' that dominate supermarket shelves.

Michael Pollan's famous seven-word mantra—"Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants."—has become a defining principle for millions seeking to navigate the modern food landscape. It offers a refreshingly simple antidote to the overwhelming and often contradictory dietary advice flooding our culture.

In 2008, journalist Michael Pollan’s influential book, *In Defense of Food*, introduced a wide audience to the term nutritionism, an ideology that reduces the value of food to its constituent nutrients. This perspective has profoundly influenced modern dietary habits and the food industry, shifting focus from whole, unprocessed foods to isolated nutritional components.

Michael Pollan's famous seven-word dictum, "Eat food, not too much, mostly plants," has profoundly influenced the modern food conversation and provides a simple, yet comprehensive definition of what he considers 'real food'. His work critiques the industrial food system and the diet industry, arguing that they have replaced traditional wisdom and common sense with a confusing, nutrient-focused ideology he calls 'nutritionism'.

In the early 2000s, the term 'nutritionism' emerged as a powerful critique of modern food ideology, but its coining is often misattributed. It was the Australian academic Gyorgy Scrinis who first coined the term, with American journalist Michael Pollan later popularizing it in his widely-read works.