Here’s the label on a box of animal crackers that someone is storing in the work fridge (why the fridge? don’t these have a shelf life of 100 years?):
“Good source of calcium.”
To paraphrase Mark Sisson, adding a nutrient to a junk food doesn’t turn it into a health food.
You know, I think all of us low-carb / Paleo / slow food / traditional nutrition / WAPF types have been a little hard on Michael Pollan. I have a few bones to pick with In Defense of Food, namely an inherent contradiction between his injunction to eat “mostly plants” and his suspicion of corn and other grain products. (Michael, dear, if we are supposed to limit animal products AND limit grains, where are we supposed to get enough calories to fuel our bodies? Swigging down glasses of olive oil?)
But the fact that food manufacturers bother to put labels like “a good source of calcium” on foods that are largely made of sugar suggests that it boosts sales. Which means that people are falling for it. Which means that Pollan’s advice to avoid foods that make health claims is necessary.
And my own experience supports this, too – I have extremely educated friends with decent incomes who tease me about my insistence on spending more money for cream that doesn’t have added thickeners and stabilizers, or think I’m too picky when I avoid commercial salad dressings because they are made with ingredients that can’t be procured for home use. So Pollan’s advice not to eat anything your great-grandmother wouldn’t recognize is also sorely needed.
So go read In Defense of Food. But more to the point, if you’re a regular reader of this blog, you probably already get and agree with 90% of what Pollan says – so give copies of the book to your less enlightened friends. You know, the ones who buy things like Diet Coke Plus.
(Disclosure: I work for a company owned by the same company that owns Penguin Press, the publisher of this book.)
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