The Omnivore's Dilemma, Part 1

After reading Part 1 of Michael Pollen's The Omnivore's Dilemma, I am struck by how different Pollen's writing style is to that of anything we have read so far.  A complete 360 degree turn from Anthony Bourdain or Bich Minh Nguyen,  Pollen lays out his various arguments concerning the U.S. production and consumption industries in a straight forward, almost dry manner.  He refrains from the pithy, sassy, over-the-top commentary that enriched Bourdain's book and instead, thoughtfully backs up his arguments with hard research, statistics, and personal observations.  Although I found some of his criticisms quite appalling and others a little dull, his view on American supermarkets and chronic obesity caught my attention and, in some ways, they resonated with my own experiences and observations.
In his introduction, Pollen says that American supermarkets essentially perpetuate both the modern food industry and the national eating disorder.  It's in the stores and supermarkets, writes Pollen, where the American people are confronted with "the dilemmas of the omnivorousness," relying on sense memory, label scrutiny, and preconceived notions of key words like "heart healthy," "no trans fats," and "range-fed" when making choices about what foods to buy (5).  When thinking about Pollen's proposal, I find that I, too, have fallen into this exact trap.  Should I frequent the local Meijer, for example, and see that my favorite granola-bar brand has produced a new variety, I rely on my sense memory to recall any advertisements I may have seen, I check the label for words like "organic," "reduced fat," and "whole grain," and finally I evaluate my preconceived notions regarding each of these claims.  Only if the granola bar survives my scrutiny and meets my standards will I then buy it.  I now realize that my anxiety over buying a simple granola bar is mirrored with the anxiety of millions of other people and actually provides a marketing outlet for the modern food industry.  It's people like us who are targeted or, at the very least considered to be opportunities, for production and revenue increases.
The other trigger concept that I found interesting appeared in chapter 6 when Pollen introduces chronic obesity as an official epidemic.  Pollen attributes obesity to a variety of obvious factors including the abundance of food, low cost, and less physical exertion among today's generations.  However, he also attributes it ignoring or stomping out the idea of gluttony which I thought was particularly interesting.  Deep cultural taboos against gluttony, writes Pollen, originally prevented Americans from going back for seconds at fast food chains, movie theaters, etc... (105-106).  However, should people be given one, super-sized portion, they are more likely to eat the entire thing and not feel bad about it afterwards.  In a weird way, this struck a chord with me.  Although I consider myself to be a healthy individual and generally happy with my weight, I, like many girls, have played around with diet and exercise techniques.  At one point, during my sophomore year of high school, I laid off sweets for an entire two months.  When I started eating them again, I found that I tried to monitor my sugar intake by justifying to myself that eating one large cookie instead of two small cookies was better.  After all, 1 is less than 2, right?  Although by no means do I have a problem with chronic obesity, I understand Pollen's point and even can sympathize with those suffering from the epidemic.  Be it marketing techniques, heredity, or the elasticity of the human appetite, it's true that Americans are greatly suffering from over-eating.
American supermarkets and chronic obesity are just two of the many topics Pollen addresses in his book The Ominvore's Dilemma.  Although I have only read Part 1, I feel like Pollen presents such an in-depth perspective on a wide array of topics that I have a hard trouble digesting all of them upon a first read.  I'm looking forward to today's discussion to see if our class can dissect some of Pollen's concepts and make them easier to understand on a more basic level.