Nutritionism*

Nutritionism is a term first coined by Gyorgy Scrinis (an Australian researcher in the areas of the sociology of food, science, technology, and ecology), and later popularized by Michael Pollan in his book, In Defense of Food.

The term suggests that the nutrients in a food are more important and determine the value of a food more than the food itself. Knowing the chemical makeup of a food is certainly important for understanding which foods are healthier than others (e.g. fiber = good, trans fats = bad, etc.). However, that knowledge (which is unfortunately driven by industry more than science) has taken on such a degree of significance in America that it has led Pollan and others to consider "nutritionism" an ideology rather than a science.

The food industry (e.g. low-fat, sugar-free junk food), the government (e.g. RDA's of various nutrients, the food pyramid), and journalism (e.g. media headlines of health studies revealing the newest secret ingredient to weight loss), are all responsible for nutritionism's pervasiveness in American's daily dietary habits and, ironically, for our lack of understanding of how to eat healthily. "Indeed, no people on earth worry more about the health consequences of their food choices than we Americans do—and no people suffer from as many diet-related health problems. We are becoming a nation of orthorexics: people with an unhealthy obsession with healthy eating."

One of the most troubling aspects of nutritionism is that it "supplies the ultimate justification for processing food by implying that with a judicious application of food science, fake foods can be made even more nutritious than the real thing." Hence, vitamin-fortified Coca-Cola and mineral-fortified chocolate cereals. "When the emphasis is on quantifying the nutrients contained in foods [i.e., getting adequate grams of fiber and protein], any qualitative distinction between whole foods and processed foods is apt to disappear."

As suggested by Scrinis, the simplest way to avoid the influence of nutritionism is to consider the only food groups to be whole foods and processed foods. Making the bulk of your diet the former (and to imbue it with as much variety as possible) rather than the latter will not only lead to healthier eating, but also to happier eating. Paying attention to what you eat is important, but so is enjoying what you eat: instead of counting calories or grams (which can be stressful and confusing), count the different foods you eat each day, and make sure they're mostly vegetables and fruits rather than processed food products (even if meatless).

* Source: Michael Pollan, In Defense of Food