Chocolate Science – In Defense of Food #3
Last night at dinner, my little girl (who recently turned two years old!), decided she would rather have a little “snack” from her Easter basket instead of eating dinner (yeah, I bought her candy for Easter – don’t judge). She started yelling “I NEED YOU CANDY!!” over and over again. I thought about this as I read chapters 4-6 today, since they mentioned a candy company paying for a university position to study the health properties of chocolate. Do you think that the university will soon release a study finding lots of terrific health properties in chocolate? It seems as though the answer might be yes. Evidently, a lot of studies funded by a various sections of the food industry have found health benefits for the product peddled by their funding source (I guess it’s fairly easy to find a link when specifically looking for it).
This section mostly discusses the “lipid hypothesis”, which basically states that chronic disease is often caused by eating a high fat diet. Doctors put their patients on low-fat diets, people switch to low-fat versions of their favorite products (including cookies, ice cream, etc. – dieting without deprivation!) in order to lose weight, and consumers, thinking these products are healthier for them, eat larger quantities of foods labeled “low-fat”. This way of eating has not made us healthier, and has made some of us fatter.
How much scientific evidence is there for the lipid hypothesis? As it turns out, not much. Trans fats, on the other hand, are the devil, and always were, even when we were being led to believe that eating them in place of saturated fats could save our lives. Fascinating.
This section also talks about how food engineers tinker with ingredients to make foods appear healthier (according to various standards), and how the processed food industry is particularly happy about this because it helps justify the consumption of more processed foods.
I always wondered about those commercials for “pork, the other white meat”- how can the same animal that we get bacon from be just as healthy for us as fish or chicken? There is even a website dedicated to this campaign. You may have guessed that pigs have been genetically and otherwise engineered to produce leaner meat in order for this label to make any sense. So even though processed foods seem to be the best potential money-maker (you can’t easily add omega 3 to a carrot, but you can add it to pancake mix) “natural” food sources are tinkered with as well.
One natural whole food that has earned an enthusiastic marketing campaign is the pomegranate, which Pollan refers to as “a fruit formerly more trouble to eat than it was worth.” I mention this here to say that I have been a fan of these tasty treats since I was a kid – my dad brought them home from someone who had a tree when we were kids. They stain your fingernails (and everything else), but they are definitely worth the trouble. So, I’m bragging a bit to say that I ate them before the food industry told me to. 
Scroll down for other posts about In Defense of Food:
Other posts about In Defense of Food:
Review
Post 1: In Defense of Food, by Michael Pollan
Post 2: Breakfast Cereal is not a Food?
Post 3: Chocolate Science
Post 4: “Hourly Yogurt Enemas?!”
Post 5: Hunting and Gathering
Post 6: Look Mom – No Cavities!
Post 7: Mainlining Glucose or “I’m Not an Addict!”
Post 8: Food is Religious and Political
Post 9: Whole Milk Sounds Almost Sinful
Post 10: I Don’t Like the Salad, Mommy
Post 11: Let’s Plant a Garden
Culture Studies, Health, Nutrition
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chocolate, Food, In Defense of Food, Michael Pollan, Nutrition, science
[...] Food: Review Post 1: In Defense of Food, by Michael Pollan Post 2: Breakfast Cereal is not a Food? Post 3: Chocolate Science Post 4: “Hourly Yogurt Enemas?!” Post 5: Hunting and Gathering Post 6: Look Mom – No [...]
[...] of Food: Post 1: In Defense of Food, by Michael Pollan Post 2: Breakfast Cereal is not a Food? Post 3: Chocolate Science Post 4: “Hourly Yogurt Enemas?!” Post 5: Hunting and Gathering Post 6: Look Mom – No [...]
[...] of Food: Post 1: In Defense of Food, by Michael Pollan Post 2: Breakfast Cereal is not a Food? Post 3: Chocolate Science Post 4: “Hourly Yogurt Enemas?!” Post 5: Hunting and Gathering Post 6: Look Mom – No [...]
[...] of Food: Post 1: In Defense of Food, by Michael Pollan Post 2: Breakfast Cereal is not a Food? Post 3: Chocolate Science Post 4: “Hourly Yogurt Enemas?!” Post 5: Hunting and Gathering Post 6: Look Mom – No [...]
[...] of Food: Post 1: In Defense of Food, by Michael Pollan Post 2: Breakfast Cereal is not a Food? Post 3: Chocolate Science Post 4: “Hourly Yogurt Enemas?!” Post 5: Hunting and Gathering Post 6: Look Mom – No [...]
Chocolate has antioxidants so it must be good! Of course then there’s also the load of sugar that comes with it. I’ve been very slowly weaning myself off sugar and now find most candy bars to be much too sweet. If I eat chocolate, I try to stick to dark chocolate. I remember as a kid I used to dislike the “Hershey’s Special Dark” chocolate in Halloween candy. Now I find even those to be sweeter than necessary.