To the Editor:
As a big fan of Michael Pollan, I was delighted to read “Big Food vs. Big Insurance.”
I am 65, look 50, and weigh 10 pounds more than when I graduated from high school, where I lettered in two sports. I work out three or four times a week, recently added two weekly yoga classes, take stairs whenever possible and have no major health issues.
My “diet” is to eat as much as I need, and no more. If my weight is up a little any morning, I just eat less that day.
My wife and I usually split the massive entrees at restaurants, we eat very little meat, and our snacks are fruits and nuts. And yes, I indulge—with a little delicious dark chocolate and low-fat ice cream every day.
I don’t eat junk food or buy the soft drinks and other reconstituted muck that American agribusiness currently substitutes for real food.
When Americans demand that restaurants and agribusiness put our health first, I will no longer be unusual.
James G. Goodale
Houston, Sept. 10, 2009
To the Editor:
Michael Pollan’s essay on the role of the food industry in contributing to obesity and associated chronic diseases may have some merit, but only because too many consumers make poor dietary choices, meal after meal, day after day.
Are we really going to blame the food industry for providing foods we enjoy but overindulge in? When did personal responsibility go out the window?
Most of us like a good hamburger with all the “fixings,” maybe even fries and a shake with it. But is the provider to blame when we consume them day after day, and couple this with other food choices that are high in calories and fat, with little or no exercise to offset these poor dietary choices?
The old saying that there are no good foods or bad foods, only good or bad diets, is still relevant.
Rather than play the blame game, we should direct our efforts at better educating consumers on the importance of balancing caloric intake with energy output.
Taxing or blaming the food industry may add more money to the government coffers, and make some feel better, but it has no public benefit.
James Stanley
Jasper, Ga., Sept. 10, 2009
Keith Burgess-Jackson, J.D., Ph.D. 