Can't Stomach It

Julie Guthman in her cleverly titled essay “Can’t Stomach it” poses some valid thoughts about why we must be hesitant while reading and listening to people such as Marion Nestle and Michael Pollan. Julie introduces us to the problem we face with measuring obesity. Our current system of using BMI to measure obesity has many flaws. First we have no way of telling if people have gained lean mass in the form of muscle instead of fat gain. Secondly, it is difficult to tell whether a couple of people have gained a lot of weight or whether many people have gained a couple of pounds. She warns us that we must pay careful attention to the startling statistics that Pollan and others use to catch our attention. She then turns to talk about the way Pollan and others expose obesity to our society. She comments on the way overweight people are always filmed from the back and with no heads claiming, “headlessnesss invokes mindlessness.” She is somewhat annoyed that Pollan, Nestle, and other writers consider themselves “as super-subjects while relegating others to objects of education, intervention, or just plain scorn”. These writers see themselves as superior to fat people because they are able to resist the temptation to over eat when presented with an overabundance of food. Finally, Julie ends her essay with the complaint that Pollan’s solution to fixing our obesity problem relies solely on individual change and nothing on policy. She is worrisome that her students believe they can change the food industry by spreading the word to individual people instead of focusing on the structural and political aspects our food industry faces.

This essay was very interesting to read. Julie did a very good job pointing out the flaws of Pollan’s and Nestle’s work. I personally love reading about how statistics can be framed to make you believe something when it might actually not be accurate. The BMI is a great case of giving a statistic without all the information in order to create a convincing argument. However, what Julie finds most offensive (that Pollan sees himself as superior to others) I have no problem with. I believe Pollan is a role model to many. He has a great knowledge in the subject matter and presents it to the public in very well worded and fluid way. In many ways he is superior to others in the topic of food. I have no problem giving him my full attention on order to learn from someone who I consider a master of the subject.

1)   Did this essay make you question Pollan at all?

2)   Do you think we should focus more on how to change the structure of our food industry instead of educating individuals of the industry’s problems?