Food - Michael Pollan on BBC Radio 4

[alex3619]

Lol, I will pass on banana skins too. Yet potato skins and most fruit skins (apples, pears, plums, etc) have lots of antioxidants and other beneficial plant compounds. The fruit/vegetable has them there because the outside needs the most protection. The inside is typically less nutritious, even if tastier.

I do think we need to pay attention to cravings, though sometimes the body gets it wrong. For example sometimes a craving for something sweet is really a craving for protein.

 

[MeSci]

In my case organ meats, especially liver, contain lots of iron, induce high levels of puric acid, and are high arachidonate and therefore can be inflammatory. All three could be bad for me. Yet liver can provide a good nutrient range for many.

Do you mean uric acid, @alex3619?

 

[alex3619]

Do you mean uric acid, @alex3619?

Lol, I was waiting for someone to call me on that. Doh. It contains high levels of purines, which induce high levels of uric acid. Doh. I just mushed the terms together. Nice catch. I only realized this when coming back and rereading my message, then I moved forward and ... tada! ... you beat me to the issue.

Uric acid is a problematic organic acid, as it can lead to crystal formation and induce gout. However its also an antioxidant. So its not entirely clear it should be a problem in ME, but my uric acid levels are very high although I do not have gout.

 

[JAM]

I googled pollan paleo and discovered he's anti paleo. Even considers it obsessive. Lol. Obsessive. Really ? What does he think man ate before grains ? Why do you suppose these ready to eat foods and people are found on this planet ? Lol.

Sure I'd love to eat all the homemade processed foods he recommends but they cause me to get inflammation. Which is exactly what Paleo supporters are saying.

He appears to be interested in telling people what they want to hear. Me too. But it just doesn't work that way. I was paleo for 5-6 years, then went back to eating gf processed foods and my body was hurting all the time.

No thanks. Tc .. x

Where did you see him suggesting processed foods? I have read all of his books and many of his articles and have never seen him recommend processed foods.

 

[JAM]

Also, he doesn't recommend any diet, nor is he a health expert. He is a journalist who writes (among other things) about the food system.

 

[xchocoholic]

Where did you see him suggesting processed foods? I have read all of his books and many of his articles and have never seen him recommend processed foods.

Motherjones dot com.

 

[JAM]

That is a huge site, do you have a link?

 

[xchocoholic]

That is a huge site, do you have a link?

No. Sorry. I found it when I was googling pollan paleo. I can't remember all the sites I looked at tho. I started out googling pollan diet. Tc .. x

 

[JAM]

This one? http://www.motherjones.com/environment/2014/01/michael-pollan-paleo-diet-inquiring-minds

 

[xchocoholic]

No. This is harder than I thought. Lol.

"Michael Pollan explains what's wrong with the Paleo diet".

You might want to read dr wahls rebuttal too. She pretty much summed up what I've seen too. That's on her site.

Tc .. x

 

[JAM]

That is what I linked to. He said nothing about processed food in that article. Granted, technically, cooking is a form of processing, but it isn't what we commonly think of as processing food.

His argument in that interview wasn't that the diet is "wrong", but that the claim of what was eaten in that period is inaccurate.

 

[xchocoholic]

Bread is processed. Whole foods aren't.

 

[JAM]

Yeah, like I said, technically you are right, but the sourdough bread I make with milled whole grains is minimally processed. He isn't talking about the stuff you get at the grocery store. Have you read any of his books?