Juice The Blog » Blog Archive » Biodiversity, Capitalism, and the Western Diet

Posted by brad on September 7th, 2009

I want to put some thoughts on the table, because Rob’s post about the seed vault got me all riled up.

It’s really upsetting to think that we’re losing so much biodiversity for the sake of things that we pride ourselves in: globalization, efficiency, and modernization.

Sometimes I feel like it would be easy to blame capitalism for the loss, but I don’t see how any other large, modern society could function any better. The problem (I believe, although I’ve heard some dissenting opinions) is that the most prevalent production methods will be those that are the most cost effective. Factory farming and monocropping will provide the cheapest and most abundant food sources, until disaster strikes and they are no longer economically (or ecologically) feasible.

I read two Michael Pollan books this summer which were definitely life-altering and highly recommended: The Botany of Desire and In Defense of Food. The former touches on the importance of biodiversity, while the latter discusses the absurdity and dangers of a Western diet (did you know that there are now cases of obese children who are ALSO malnourished?!?).

Nothing is more important to a living being than the food it eats (with the possible exception of sex). This makes your dinner plate a sort of mirror that reflects the nature of your lifestyle. When you eat highly processed foods and chemically altered food derivatives, you accomplish two things:

First, you affirm that your lifestyle is synthetic.

Second, you voluntairily increase your chances of suffering from diabetes, high blood pressure, heart disease, and obesity (also, absurdly, malnourishment). When this happens, Mother Nature is literally punishing you. This is part of the “natural selection” process. Poor diet reflects an inability to sustain one’s self in one’s environment, which results in health complications. Organisms unfit for their environment can either adapt to the environment, change environments, or die. The environment here is your “foodscape”, like a landscape composed of all of the foods that you consume. Remember that individuals do not evolve, populations do — you are stuck with your genes. Therefore you, the individual, can not adapt to the environment. You have two more choices.

Tags: biodiversity, capitalism, CHOICE, diabetes, food, foodscape, heart disease, high blood pressure, In Defense of Food, Michael Pollan, obesity, The Botany of Desire, western diet

This entry was posted on Monday, September 7th, 2009 at 9:57 pm and is filed under Lots of Pulp. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.

8 Responses to “Biodiversity, Capitalism, and the Western Diet”

September 9th, 2009 at 10:23 am
colin says:

Brad,

I think your last paragraph is a little unfounded and sensational.

I really don’t like hate against processed foods. Isn’t that sort of a generalization? I can understand not liking foods that are processed TO INCLUDE high fructose X and Y or unhealthy this or that … but, anything chemically altered is not bad for you. Use Kashi as an example. Processed to death. Bad for you?

I agree with most of your post up until the last paragraph. Too sensational.
September 9th, 2009 at 12:04 pm
brad says:

Thanks for the leveling opinion, sometimes I get really passionate.

One of the biggest problems with processed foods is that nutrition is so complex that it’s impossible (literally) to tease out which nutrients might be good/bad for you, and in which amounts. Food scientists are doing the equivalent of creating a 16-bit Mona Lisa. It’s easier to make, but it will never have the same effect.

Look at the war on fat, and the rise and fall of hydrogenated oils. Hydrogenation is a process which, among other things, allows vegetable oils to be solid at room temperature. During the 1960s, when it was decided that animal fats are bad for you and should be replaced as frequently as possible, margarine was marketed as butter’s healthy alternative. But as it turns out, hydrogenated oils contain much higher levels of trans fats, the fats that we now know lead to dramatically increased risk of heart disease. So, what was once considered healthy by food scientists, we now know leads to quicker death.

You can just as easily research the stories of enriched flour vs whole grain flour, or high fructose corn syrup vs natural sugars.

Food and metabolism are infinitely complex, and depend on billions of molecular and atomic interactions. The only foods and diets that we know for certain can sustain us and keep us healthy are the ones that we’ve been eating and co-evolving with for the past 200,000 years. Why try to reinvent the wheel? Especially with our abysmal track record.
September 9th, 2009 at 12:07 pm
brad says:

Note on Kashi: I checked the website. The wheat cereal looks pretty good (organic whole grain wheat, evaporated cain juice, natural flavors). Some of their other products are more complicated, and contain soy protein, corn meal, and corn flour. I have political reasons for not wanting to eat something like this (monocropping and industrial agriculture), but that’s not to say that they’re necessarily unhealthy for you. They’re just products of a mindset I disagree with.

Like all things, it’s probably best to find a happy medium and get on with your life. I’m not trying to be religious about this or anything, just to demonstrate a point. I’ve been eating more naturally lately, and it’s been awesome. I want to start a garden, but I’m moving to the UK and will be unable to do so. I’m considering a potted plant though.
September 9th, 2009 at 12:37 pm
brad says:

Also, I may be passionate, but I am not unfounded.

All I’m really claiming is that when you eat foods that your body has not evolved to process, you have health complications. That’s basic biology and logic. If you drink an eighth cup of bleach, you’ll vomit a lot. If you eat white flour before it’s enriched, you’ll develop pellagra, neurological problems, and other vitamin B deficiencies. If you eat whole grain flour, you can live a healthy life, because humans have been eating whole grain flour for millennia.
September 9th, 2009 at 6:28 pm
colin says:

Thanks for your response Brad.

I see more parts of your argument now. I guess when I imagine nutrition, I picture it as being MORE simple than it is made out to be. I picture the chemistry behind it being crazy complicated, of course, but the components or ingredients that need to go into that chemistry as simple.

I guess I hadn’t thought of those ingredients as being more than calories, proteins and some vitamin C. Now I will try to think of it as somewhat more of a complex system.

Love the 16-bit Mona Lisa line too. You come up with that?

You have swayed me some
September 13th, 2009 at 12:25 am
brad says:

Thanks Colin, I did come up with the Mona Lisa line. No hard feelings.
September 16th, 2009 at 11:27 pm
BLin says:

Brad,

Sorry for the late comment, I’ve been a little behind.

Love the post.

@colin
you gotta read In Defense of Food. it’ll change your life.
September 16th, 2009 at 11:38 pm
BLin says:

btw, i keep this on my fridge.