Americans love their myths and their food, so it makes sense that some of our most active myth-making occurs in the realm of eating and nutrition.
Michael Pollan, author of “The Omnivoreís Dilemma,” (Penguin 2006) provides this excellent NY Sunday Times magazine piece in which he reviews the food and nutrition myths that have been developed and dispelled over just the past two decades in America. It’s a fascinating story, particularly how Americans’ willingness to accept the latest food or nutrition fad co-exists with a huge fast-food industry that is largely based on high-calorie processed food of dubious nutritional value.
Pollan is spot on in his observation that most Americans know just enough about nutrition to be dangerous, which is also the case with medical matters generally. Few people can accurately recount how many calories they consume in a day, and even fewer still can tell you how many calories they need to consume to lose weight or maintain their optimum weight (do you know what 200 calories looks like?). Similarly, few of those overweight folks torturing themselves on the treadmills or stationary bicycles at the local gym have a clue of how long they would need to exercise to work off the excess calories that they have consumed. Despite their tenacity, most of those overweight exercisers almost always overestimate the amount of calories expended during exercise.
As my wise father used to say: “What would you rather do? Eat one less helping of mashed potatoes? Or go ride the stationary bicycle for an hour?”
By the way, the following are a couple of terrific resources on nutrition that approach the subject from very different, but quite insightful, perspectives — Junkfood Science by nutritionist Sandy Szwarc, who exposes many food myths that are based on studies of questionable merit, and Art De Vany’s blog, where he frequently explores the physiological impact of diet, obesity and exercise.