Michael Pollan’s View of the Nutritional Effects of Western Food as Illustrated in His Writing, Escape From The Western Diet

In today’s era, healthy meals can be hard to locate. What foods are very good for us? Is Organic Meals really worth getting? In his essay ‘’Escape from the western diet’’ Pollan argues about the nutrition of the western diet, that it is not healthier and can cause many illnesses like cancer and diabetes.

Pollan goes into his argument by speaking about diverse theories of nutritionism including the neolipid theory, which states that a deviancy of omega 3 fatty acids can cause chronic diseases. This theory is essential to back up his argument at the starting, due to the fact it talks about nutrition and the science of it, rather than the foods as a entire. In the end of his write-up and as a complete he utilizes ethos. He makes use of a quote at the finish to give the reader three guidelines on nutrition: ‘’eat food, not also considerably. Largely plants ‘’ (Pollan 428). Pollan starts his argument by developing credibility by making use of scientific facts and theories to aid help is claim. By the middle and finish, his credibility weakens by not obtaining sufficient factual proof to support his claim.

Pollan is writing to an audience that could use his piece of writing for study or as a reference material. The audience could be anybody that is affected by this situation. His principal

purpose is to inform westerners or Americans that the conventional western diet program is filled with preservatives and fatty substances that are not wholesome, and he encourages alter for every person to consume a healthier life style. In his piece, Pollan uses a wide selection of persuasive techniques. The 1st approach he makes use of would be ethos. In his piece he says that’’ Folks eating a western diet regime are more prone to chronic diseases that seldom strike folks consuming far more conventional diets’’ (Pollan 421). I believe this quote was effective because it talked about how he utilised his private opinion and constructed trust from the reader. An additional quote he uses to construct trust with the reader is ‘’scientists can argue all they want about the biological mechanisms behind this phenomenon, but whichever it is, the resolution to the problem would seem to remain very significantly the exact same: Stop consuming a western diet’’ (Pollan 421). These are some examples the author makes use of to describe the rhetorical strategy.

The second strategy Pollan utilizes is Logos to get the reader some data and factual proof to aid back up his claim. One particular instance he gives is, ‘’ Traditionally individuals have allocated a far greater proportion of their income to food- as they still do in many of the countries where individuals consume greater than we do and as a consequence are healthier than we are?’’ (Pollan 426). Another instance of logos he utilizes would be the scientific theories that he mentions in the starting of the article. The 1st example from the write-up would be when he mentions about the neolipid hypothesis ‘’ The neolipid hypothesis cannot be reconciled with the carbohydrate hypothesis, and the theory that a deficiency of omega 3 fatty acids is chiefly to blame for chronic illnesses is at odds with the theory that refined carbohydrates has pushed critical micronutrients out of the modern day diet program, the scientists who blame our health difficulties on deficiencies of these micronutrients are not the exact same scientists who see sugar soaked diet regime leading to metabolic syndrome and from there to diabetes, heart disease, and cancer’’(Pollan 421) . This was an important quote due to the fact it describes how a lack of specific omega 3s or proteins could outcome in critical illnesses. Yet another quote he uses to describe logos would be ‘’Food consists of not just in piles of chemical substances it also comprises a set of social and ecological relationships, reaching back to the land and outward to other people’’ (Pollan 425). This quote is important due to the fact it explains how now a day’s meals is processed with unhealthy chemical compounds and preservatives, and if you want to alter your diet make positive to remain away from these processed foods.

In this Write-up Pollan employed two Rhetorical Strategies to get his claim and point across to the reader. Nevertheless, 1 was a tiny much more efficient in getting his point across compared to the other a single. In this report he utilizes Logos very first to bring the reader in and tell them true scientific facts and information how the meals in today’s culture is not what it utilized to be. More and a lot more preservatives are added to foods each day that we consume on a every day basis. We discovered from this report that a lack of omega 3s and preservatives can trigger many chronic ailments. He then utilised Ethos as a way to get his individual opinion about the matter out and how the western diet program can be not healthful for you. I believe he was a lot more efficient making use of the Logos method to get his point across, since numerous people who would read this would rather hear the details about this problem. Why are these foods not healthier? I think if the reader does not hear the details about the concern, they could want to hold on consuming that way and believe that it’s great for them. The end of the article showed that he wasn’t strong with convincing the reader by utilizing ethos. Several readers may not feel he is trustworthy adequate to talk about this problem.

These are some examples and textual evidence on how the author Michael Pollan convinced the reader that the western diet is not so wholesome for you soon after all. His argument started very strong in the starting of the piece but weakened with a lack of factual details.