He has recently submitted an opinion article to the Washington Post called "How a National Food Policy Save Millions of Lives" (http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/how-a-national-food-policy-could-save-millions-of-american-lives/2014/11/07/89c55e16-637f-11e4-836c-83bc4f26eb67_story.html) - this article has actually turned into an initiative/campaign to encourage the government to develop a national food policy. We don't have a national food policy. We have an agricultural policy. Other countries have a food policy. Food system in a country should keep people well fed and healthy. These objectives need to align with agricultural policies. Right now agricultural policies focus on production of large quantities of cheap, nutrient-poor, and quality-poor food.
The government has been subsidizing a fast food diet with their current policies. We are not regulating agricultural companies to handle the air pollution and waste they produce.
The government is underwriting type 2 diabetes by subsidizing current agricultural industries but at the same time spending an absurd amount of money trying to treat type 2 diabetes. Type 2 diabetes costs the government $245 billion a year to treat! That is equal to 1/4 of our nation's annual deficit. It takes 7yrs off life and markedly reduces quality of life.
Corn and coy being grown that has replaced local crops- these are the building blocks for the fast food diet- sweetener for HFCS, feeding for livestock. Soy makes up the oil our food is fried in. 10% of our calories are from soy oil which is not healthy and another percentage come from sweeteners.
Pollan thinks the ACA will pressure the government to change these food/ agricultural policies. Insurance companies are now stuck with treating the chronic diseases because they can't kick people off for pre-existing conditions. They will start to realize that for every case you can prevent, that is a lot of money for insurance to save. If they know what is good for them, they will align themselves with this agenda to make food more healthy.
Now regarding processed foods with added vitamins. These food companies are creating a nutritional facade around processed food products. It is fundamentally deceptive to put a health claim on a bottle of soda due to having some vitamins in it. We have to look at what we are telling consumers about our food. The rules around health claims need to be re-examined. Fresh produce, there are no claims. He says to have a more healthy diet, don't buy foods that carry health claims. Quietest food is the food you want to eat. Vitamins have become a gimmick for selling processed food. They are terribly abused. See the history of the book Vitamania. Vitamins are now unfortunately being used to undermine our health.
They discussed consumer habits- now expenditure for eating out is roughly more or equal to that at home. The way to take back control of your diet is to bring it back home. Obesity epidemic is propagated by the collapse of eating at home. Family meal is conducive to all kinds of health phenomena. Lowers drug use, better relationship with parents, better performance in school. Answer is to get everyone in the kitchen and rediscover the pleasure of cooking food.
About the new dietary guidelines being issued this year- (http://www.health.gov/dietaryguidelines/dga2015/comments/Default2.aspx) lobbyists from meat industry are up in arms about efforts to reduce greenhouse gasses. Pollan asks this question- How can you have a healthy diet on an unhealthy planet? Healthy environment and our personal health are linked. The new dietary guidelines send a clear message to reduce meat consumption and increase consumption of plants and whole grains. Pollan makes the point that there are ways to raise meat sustainably and we should not overlook this and assume its all conventionally being produced. Also the guidelines have said there should be no more than 10% of calories from added sugar, which is progress. However the guidelines have very little on the microbiome, the role of the microbes in the gut and what implications they have for healthy diet. Pollan believes that eating fermented foods may help our microbiome and mentions that sugar and saturated fats can compromise the integrity of epithelial layer of large intestine.
Pollan says: Eat food. Not too much. Mostly Plants. He says flexitarians are just as healthy as vegetarians. Of course if you ethically do not eat meat that is a reason not to.
More on greenhouse gasses: Nitrous oxide from fertilizer used to feed meats produces lots of greenhouse gasses. Studies show that reducing meat consumption will lower carbon footprint significantly. Conventional fruits and veggies grown with nitrogen fertilizer and till often which produces carbon emissions. If fertilizer is used, that decreases the carbon. 1/3 of carbon in atmosphere right now was produced by tilling and we should be able to put much of it back. He feels like modern agriculture started global warming. especially when you remove trees for agriculture. We were apparently much more healthy as hunter gatherers and our statures were better and healthier then. Pollan says that we may see organic agriculture can out produce conventional agriculture. We may see an increase in food production with a shift to organic production.
Regarding genetically modified food- the question is not good over evil. The question is- is it safe? is it a good idea? We have a scientific, environmental and economic arguments. Diversifying and localizing agriculture is a better solution than modifying our plant seeds. The company has bought up a very large stake in the world's food supply. They argue on the basis of food safety. Critics of GM are now trying to fear monger back. We should be fighting on the ground of transparency and who controls our food supply. People should be demanding to know whether they are eating GM food or not.
Moving in the right direction: Now nearly 9,000 farmers markets exist nationwide. Schools have been dominated by "big food" but now school districts are having farm to school programs. There are some positive developments. Food industry experts are nervous about consumers who are moving away from what has been largely allowed to happen over the last few years. Added by myself- Pressure on large food companies like Chipotle, to become GMO free: http://organicconnectmag.com/project/chipotle-commits-going-non-gmo/ And panera's move to remove artifical ingredients from its foods- http://www.usatoday.com/story/money/2015/05/04/panera-panera-bread-fast-food-restaurants-dining-artificial-additives/26696823/. These are small steps in the right direction.
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