M.D. responded after reading our story of 2/1/07, "
The NY Times & Pollan Lie!" by saying:
"A main message I took from Pollan is a critism [sic]
of people (perhaps just Americans) that we are often look for an easy way or a quick fix without being that involved in our own life choices....and as a speicies tend to be glutonous [sic]
if given the opportunity.
I don't know whether people are meant to be flexitarians or vegetarians, but to me the fascinating part is that people are able to adapt to an environment, make a niche (even if it's a marginalized one) and further their genetics. Inuits, Greenlanders and other northerners would have a difficult time - i would say impossible time - furthering their genetics if they insited [sic]
on vegetarianism in that environment. However, their health and wellness may suffer from that geography and they may not have the longevity of say, people on Papua New Guinea or another people eating more vegetarian."
This is our response.
Conservation of Labor and Pollan's Obligation
Pollan and others are quick to point out the gluttony of some humans, and believe these examples to be some sort of proof for their questionable theories. Pollan explains that this gluttony is due to the American - indeed, the human or animal - need to simplify life's everyday choices; gluttony however has little to do with simplification.
It is true that all animals attempt to conserve their labor. This basic economy of thought allows a person to conserve their energy for more important decisions: a person can invest a significant amount of time into deciding their basic diet and then, every day afterwards, reap the benefit of time savings by being able to make quick or instantaneous decisions on what to eat.
And with this basic instinct to conserve thought comes the ability of a person or creature to trust those with more learning: a person can decide to trust Pollan to undertake for them the significant investment of time and energy in deciding a diet. Why then, does Pollan blame a person's gluttony on their laziness while simultaneously enabling their laziness by providing the easy-fix of his dietary guidelines?
The source of gluttony is not laziness any more than the source of Pollan's hypocrisy is his inability to understand that providing quick-fixes encourages laziness. Humans, as a species, are some of the most efficient (least gluttonous) creatures on the planet: gluttony, like any other psychological disease that causes an animal to be inefficient with their resources, is caused by either a lack of information (i.e., how not to be gluttonous) or by psychosis - which may be caused by any number of complex factors, including upbringing by or society with other gluttons.
People rely on other people to help them make decisions and think. They do not err when they do so: Pollan errs when he betrays that trust by not fully investigating facts, by reporting with bias and by undertaking illogical analysis.
Gluttony vs. Resource Hoarding
What exactly is "gluttony?" While Pollan in his books wades through the metaphysics and physiology of satiety and hunger, an ecological examination of resource hoarding demonstrates that many species hoard resources (in times of plenty). All animals are conscious and recognize that you must store food for times of famine. Humans also hoard: in our nation's granaries there is enough food to last more than a year without a future harvest. Humans do not hoard by eating and storing fat, humans hoard by building baskets, wells, silos and other structures to store food. Indeed, few animals store food in the form of fat: you can even watch a squirrel in the park store food rather than eat it. Ants build storage facilities rivaling our own technical skill.
Does our species act unconsciously in storing food, as Pollan and others might suggest? Is gluttony a psychological disease? If it is, it is a remarkable epidemic. No, most likely gluttony is a result of a lack of information - a lack of information that is, in large part, due to the efforts of Pollan and others who diffuse falsehoods based either in the crudest forms of pre-Aristotelian reason or pre-Platonic logic. Pollan, and others, rob the common person of their ability to decide what food is and when they've had enough of it. Pollan even undermines a person's understanding of gluttony!
Americans - and all animals - overeat due to a lack of information, either on resource availability or on how much they ought to eat. Overeating is not necessarily gluttonous: gluttony is a theological sin against the poor by over consuming so that others go without.
Because of the conservation of thought and labor, a human relies on smarter humans to do their thinking for them. Unfortunately, the trust they place in Pollan is unwarranted.
Vegetarianism is Best for Herbivores, Carnivores and Omnivores
Don't be fooled. Humans are herbivores. Many people have observed with wonder the Inuit and other omnivorous peoples of the far North and far South without taking the time to learn what they eat...or without understanding how the lack of nutrition to be found in meat brings them to eat the way they do.
Meat contains little nutrients. Even the iron in meat, trapped in the hemoglobin, is difficult or impossible to ingest. To make it worse, the digestion of meat directly yields uric acid, a toxin which the human body (unlike dogs, cats and other carnivores) is unable to purify or eliminate. The disastrous effects on the human digestive system aside (toxemia is a disease that is typically caused by eating meat and other high-protein foods), meat is a nutrient-void poison.
To adapt to the harsh climate of the far North or South, people imitate carnivores. To live, the people must eat the whole animal fresh and raw, something which is difficult to do in America. They eat all the organs, marrow and fat - sources of the vitamins and minerals you need to live - fresh and raw (cooking destroys the scanty nutrients). With relish they eat the partially digested vegetable matter in the deceased herbivore's stomach. They eat the bones for the fiber necessary to digest the food (the human stomach cannot ingest very well without fiber). Even the herbivorous monkeys and people of the tropics resort to imitating carnivores when foods run low: when they are brought to eat other animals, they eat whole insects live and uncooked. And yet, despite all the imitation, humans (and other herbivores) cannot fool either their toxemic digestive system or their uric acid-poisoned blood.
So these omnivorous peoples eagerly look forward to the berries, twigs, tree bark, lichens, mosses, seaweed, fungi (a staple food in some artic climates) and other delicious vegetables and fruits that grow in their harsh environment. When at all possible, they trade for the produce of warmer climates (such as beans and rice). It is only by necessity that these herbivorous people eat meat at all...and it is because of their meat-inclusive diet that they do not live as long as vegetarians.
Studies on rabbits fed meat and studies on dogs fed vegetarian diets have demonstrated that herbivores are not the only ones who benefit from a vegetarian diet and suffer from a diet that includes too much protein. Even carnivores suffer from uric acid and other poisons in their gut! Even carnivores are benefited by a vegetarian diet, and live longer, stronger, healthier lives than carnivores eating a meat-based diet. The best diets for animals are those based on grains.
When lions or other carnivores hunt, they eat the organs first, gnaw the bones for marrow and fiber, and leave the meat for scavengers who can afford to eat the nutrient-poor food because they have a more varied diet than the carnivores. Even the carnivores don't prefer the meat that Americans choose to eat!
Humans are Herbivores and Should Eat Meat Carefully
In order to eat meat in a relatively healthy way, it is crucial to actually follow the example of the artic and Antarctic cultures. Eat your cow, chicken, fish, or whichever animal you've "caught" immediately upon its death. You must eat their organs first. You must eat it raw or nearly so. Unless you are raising enough animals to feed yourself this way, there is no possible way for an American to healthily follow a meat-eating diet.
Meat is an inefficient food. Not only is it an inefficient use of land, water and other resources in production, but it is difficult for humans - and other creatures - to digest. Why eat the chicken when it lays eggs? Why eat the cow when she will produce milk? Why eat the camel when you rely upon her for your water ration for the day? Humans traditionally eat meat only in times of stress, when it is a choice between immediate survival and death. Modern meat-eating habits devolved from these times of famine and is not only an irresponsible use of resources, but an unhealthy food choice.
Why do people, especially Americans who do not lack in resources, still eat meat? For one, it is addictive. During its digestion in your gut, it produces all kinds of nasty neural toxins that are highly addictive: muscle relaxants, caffeine, neural toxins... For another, meat is socially accepted and encouraged. The marketing strategy of meat producers has always been to either confound or confuse facts to say that meat is necessary for the diet, or, when that fails, to demonstrate (much like cigarette makers) that meat is the food of the well-to-do, the care-free good life. One meat seller even goes by the name of "Goodtimes!"
The Ancient Roman Army was fed on whole wheat as it conquered the world, the Spartans gained their strength and endurance from whole wheat. The mighty Gauls and Germans ate whole grain oats; the great Chinese and Japanese civilizations thrive upon whole grain rice, millet and wheat. Grains are the staff of life, and those peoples who cling to them find their strength and years never fail. Look for those proud Iroquois hunters, and you will find them in their cornfields, look for the Huns and Mongols in their fields of rye. Seek blood-thirsty Dave Thomas and Dr. Atkins in their graves, dead from diet related illnesses. Humans are the only monkey to suffer widely from cancer: humans are the only monkey to eat meat widely.
Pollan's Crime
The reason why people eat unhealthy is only for a lack of information. While every person is able to find the information required to make a good dietary decision, we rely on journalists like Pollan to bring us the Truth.
Pollan betrays this trust.