Le French Have Got Something Right

I've always thought that I belong more on a European lifestyle, specifically French.  That a majority of our food is processed, we eat so damn fast and we're obsessed more with nutrients than taste has always bugged me.  In the category of food I think Americans have it backwards, it's nice to know that someone agrees.  In fact, Pollan's conclusions are hilarious.  He remarks, "Oddly, America got really fat on its new low-fat diet — indeed, many date the current obesity and diabetes epidemic to the late 1970s, when Americans began binging on carbohydrates, ostensibly as a way to avoid the evils of fat" (Pollan 5).  In America's attempt at becoming healthy, it created far more health issues than it solved.  On the other side of the spectrum, you can look at French culture, which makes no attempt at being healthy.  French people have ended up far more healthy than American's without even trying.  Though I don't have a scientific background to back up my claims, I attribute this fact to the way that French people eat. (If I follow Pollan's argument correctly, maybe not having a scientific background is in fact better in this realm, science could be the real reason for our health problems) In eating slowly and socializing while eating, the French avoid shoveling food down their throats as fast as possible.  Forget separating out nutrients, just eat slowly, according to your level of hunger and eat the raw materials not the processed foods.  It seems what Pollan argues is that we need to make food simple again.  If we stick to the basics and strive to make eating pleasurable, we will end up being healthier than if we keep turning to science.  Dupuis article was far less interesting to read.  He looks at American's actual health and their obsession with reading about health.  A somewhat humorous question that he poses at the beginning of the essay is, "Why do middle-class Americans love to read advice about how to eat while mostly ignoring it?" (Dupuis 34)  He looks into where Americans turn to for food advice and ties that into our issues with health.  Like I said, he isn't as interesting of a writer as Pollan and I enjoyed Pollan's ideas more.