Since reading In Defense of Food by Michael Pollan and watching Food Inc. I have in many ways adapted new rules for eating. Typically I watch a documentary and I get the message and move on. I read a self-help book and get it, but usually move on. However, with In Defense of Food, something real happened. I made changes in my diet that made sense to me.
In the past I would go to Weight Watchers meetings and assume that any food with the words "free" "low" or "diet" in them meant weight loss and in turn would mean good for me. What has changed for me, is that even if foods can make you lose weight it doesn't mean they are good for you. Let's face it, I could lose weight eating four snickers a day and two apples. I could lose weight eating three slices of cheese pizza and salads. I could lose weight eating two hamburgers and fries a day with diet soda. This doesn't mean it is good for me.
So when I starting thinking about it, I realized that Michael Pollan is right, our country is obsessed with nutrition and eating, yet we are the most obese. I observe what women eat, it's what I do. And I notice really strange habits to stay thin. Only eating one meal a day (usually fast food) or staying away from bread like it is the plague, or avoiding dinner, or not eating all day and then binging at night.
Sometimes I'll have someone offer me microwave popcorn and follow with "it's the fat free kind!" or state that the salad has fat free dressing or mayonnaise or whatever in it. I see a stocking up on "diet food" to feel in control. Force feeding ourselves fat free yogurt filled with high fructose corn syrup and some form of fiber to make it healthful and yet diet friendly.
There has been an absence of real food in the American diet for over 30 years now. If we aren't eating diet fake food, we are eating processed convenience fake food. One or the other. Diet food is gross. It just is. There is nothing good about diet soda, fat free diary, or bread made in a factory. To me, there is no difference between a loaf of sara lee whole wheat bread and wonderbread. Same factory, same chemicals, same injections of fiber or vitamins. same same same. Which is why I find it so weird that so many of us are anti-bread. Bread at the supermarket, is not good and I get avoiding that, but what about real bread?
Bread that is made with flour that isn't processed, or full of the latest super-nutrient? People have been eating and surviving on bread for centuries. People without weight issues or food issues in general.
What about evil salt? did you know that you actually need the minerals in sea salt to survive? The processed salt in most snack foods combined with the other crappy ingredients make it bad.
I know I sound like I am on a high-horse about all of this, and I am not perfect. This weekend I had a halloween party and did not want to spend a lot of time cooking, so I didn't. I made black beans, rice, caramel dipped apples and had more candy to feed a whole town of tricker-treaters. And I ate and enjoyed. But, in general, when someone tells me something is good for me because it has fiber in it, or because it is "low fat", "low calorie" or "high protein" I just zone out. That train has left the station.
I believe in real food, local food, good food. I believe in fat. I believe in homemade bread. I believe in spinach salads with hard boiled eggs and local tomatoes. I only eat meat when I know the origin. I am still fat because I eat too much. And that is what I'm working on--- eating less. Not eating more "diet" food.
Follow me on twitter: @lorriebee
That’s the one thing that drives me nuts about WW. Anything that is fat free or sugar free practically has the light of God shining on it in those meetings. I DO think the culture is changing though. I’m certainly trying to rid my diet of lots of unhealthy manufactured foods but it’s tough, given today’s lifestyles and the “need” for convenience food at times.
Good for you for making the shift!
Amen! I love Pollan and completely agree with your new approach. “In Defence of Food,” is admittedly the only book I have read of his, but it left a huge impact.
Still haven’t seen Food, Inc. At first it was because it wasn’t available where I live, but now I am making other excuses because ignorance is bliss. I KNOW it will alter my views on meat. However, seeing that you are still eating meat but just know where it comes from does makes me feel better. Would you recommend it still, if I DO want to remain a meat-eater afterward?! I think I know the answer, that knowledge is power, but it still freaks me out a bit.
AMEN! I’ve been doing this for a while, learning to make things myself so I know exactly whats in it. I have been slacking on the bread making but I need to get back into it.
I’ll have to check out this book your talking about, thanks for the info!
I have not read the book or seen the movie but I want to. I have been thinking a lot lately about eating more whole foods and cutting out more processed foods, meats, etc. I don’t cook so I want to make it easy on hubby but I also want to make better food choices that will still be fun for him too.
Yes I agree the USA and UK are obsessed with eating healthily and this leads to them constantly thinking about food and trying to find a way of eating what they like but a healthier version. This normally leads to them eating processed foods in excess and getting nowhere.
It is very easy to eat healthy nutritious food, lose weight if needed without constantly thinking about it. There is nothing wrong with bread, fats and treats it’s all about moderation.
I’m reading it right now, and you are absoluty right! It opens your eyes no matter from what contry you are from. I’m definatly trying to make more food. It bothers me that I find it so difficult to know what to eat when it really should not be a problem.
The so called terms, “fat-free”, “diet” are in many instances, a scam due to the obsession that Americans have with a “quick” fix to losing weight. What they are not realizing is that they are depriving their bodies of nutrition, thereby depriving their bodies of health. Eating organically(whenever possible) and locally fresh food is a mission, and one which takes effort, research, and fortitude. These cardboard like, preservative-ridden “fat free” snacks are not a healthy choice. I say..if it takes a year to lose a certain amount of weight while eating healthily (natural foods, organic foods), then you are the true champion. My mother in law loves to pass me these bags of “fat free” soy crap chips thingies and explain proudly…”But THESE are FAT FREE!!” I say…bull. Good for you Lorrie! This is the way to go…ignore those who want to push the fat free fake crap….our bodies need healthy fats, protein, veggies, and organic meat. And that includes bacon (mmmmm…bacon) so THERE! Great to see this post…this is my favorite blog to read..and I know I’m not the only one
:) 
THANK YOU!!!! My wife and I are of the mentality that all the fake artificial crap that is presently in foods is what is keeping America fat. The human body does not know what to do with all those chemicals so in turn it does what it can, that is, it will store them as fat. Eating whole foods, without all those preservatives and over-processed ingredients are the way to go. I’m still on the fence about “organic” mainly because they run the risk of carrying “organic bacteria” that poses health risks to people with immune issues. Oh, and not to mention the ridiculous cost of “organic” food.
I just found your blog today and this was the first entry that I read and I LOVE it! I have been on and off of WW for years, I am currently back on it, but I hate that everyone is obsessed with anything that is low fat, etc. The amount of ingredients/chemicals that are in “low fat” processed foods is ridiculous. How can that be healthy?! The one good thing about WW is that they used to have a core foods plan and it is now called filling foods. You can have as much lean meats and fish, fresh fruits and veggies, a serving of whole grain/whole wheat products/day, low-fat dairy without counting anything. They are still all about low-fat dairy, but that is better than encouraging 100 calorie packs! I still need to read this book and see this movie, but I am going to continue to try to eat whole foods and phase out processed foods.
Your last paragraph can be a good mission statement of an all-natural eating group. Or something.
-meream
I love, love, LOVE your blog -
I look forward to going back and reading even more -
You are awesome - you rock - you inspire -
I added you to my “blogs I follow” -
Keep on with the Keepin’ on -
Shannon
Hey! Your site is very inspiring and I can’t believe how much weight you’ve lost that’s awesome
I just started a blog too, and ordered the Jillian Michaels 30 day shred after reading it on here. Let’s hope it works!
Cass
Thank you so much for this entry!!! I have struggled with weight issues throughout my life but just recently gained way too much weight in a short time period (stress, etc). While I have lost weight healthily before I felt overwhelmed by the amount I had to lose (70 pounds). I knew all about nutrition and exercise but it wasn’t clicking. I recently joined weight watchers, and have lost 14 pounds. However, as a recent student of the importance of “real food” and a diet coke addict. I found myself allowing diet coke and some processed foods after joining weight watchers, because I could still lose weight. The dumbest reasoning, but I did it. I am trying desperately to stop drinking diet coke, but now buy mostly organic and cook almost all the time. I have seen such a significant difference in my health. Thanks again
Brilliant post, and I agree 100%. Except I am struggling with the diet soda thing.
I am so happy for you !Your blog is great and you have stumbled upon the secret that the diet industry is trying to hide from us all. To produce low fat milk literally strips most of the calcium and good stuff from it. Your body doesnt get any nutrition from processed food so it is hungry all the time and then stores food.
We will still beat the phrasewords that the industry are trying to fool us with!
Love it!!! I just found “Real Food” by Nina Planck a few months ago. I know longer worry if I’m cooking healthy, I just worry if I’m making real food for my family. Cooking has become a fun challenge to see if I can make a meal that doesn’t have anything processed in it. I’m just starting “The Omnivor’s Delima” by Michael Pollan. “In Defence of Food” is next on my list!
I heart this post so freakin’ much! Thank you! I can’t wait to see Food Inc.
you go girl. You are absolutely correct.
i am trying to diet, but i am like you I’m eating only the organic foods, but i’m trying to watch the portion size and not eat after 7pm
Great post. It’s funny - we’ve been doing Weight Watchers here at work for the past two months and, I don’t know if it’s because I live in San Francisco, but our leader hasn’t been pushing non-fat anything on us. Not even the WW snacks! She even talked about the books “The End of Overeating” and the book you mentioned in your post. She also implored us not to eat more than one Lean Cuisine/Healthy Choice frozen meal per day (if that’s what we chose to do) due to the sodium content. What’s funny is the advice that our co-workers are giving each other is terrible! I overhead one woman telling another that she noticed a huge weightloss when she stopped eating breakfast. Another one was contemplating whether she should have a diet coke as her mid-morning snack so that she could have a sandwich with cheese on it for lunch. These methods are completely unsustainable! Granted they are losing weight a lot quicker than I am, but I’d rather know that I’m putting good stuff in my body than starving it.
Oh! @Karloz:
“I’m still on the fence about “organic” mainly because they run the risk of carrying “organic bacteria” that poses health risks to people with immune issues.”
Haven’t heard anything about this organic bacteria issues, but would love to hear more about this debate. Can you provide any additional information?
Excelent & wise!!!
Thank you!
I agree completely with your comment.
Weight loss should not be about depriving yourself of completely necessary food groups. All you will do with that strategy is break-down muscle groups, and yo-yo diet for the rest of your life.
It should be realistic reduction, combined with excercise.
Anyone out there trying to lose weight: you’re not alone. Pursue your goal with courage and vigor. Dont buy into the gimmicky nonsense you will find online, look for information-rich sites like this one, without all the commodity advertising for pills, books, videos and gimmicks.
Kind Regards
Captain Australia
I listened to in defense of food on cd at work and it moved me also. Many thanks for the link to the farm website our family is on a mission to support local farmers with high standards and this farm we can visit. It’s in my state. Keep up the great work excellent:)
Thank you for posting this. Where does the concept bread = bad come from? I call myself a bread eater - I live off bread.
But I eat the heavy European whole grain kind - the one where two slices will hold you up for HOURS. It’s like a meal in itself.
P.S. I’ve been a bread eater all my life and I don’t have any weight issues.
I wish your post could be on the front page of CNN. What you said is something everyone needs to hear. I couldn’t figure out why losing weight was so hard for me when it was so easy for others. I realized I would eat too many diet foods (so there’s no point if I’m racking up on calories) or I would eat one bad meal a day. Your correct…It’s the quality of the food we eat and the amount we eat that is important…Not the “title” or the “label” given to the food. : ) Great post!
I just started reading that book and caught on about “nutritionism” immediately. It makes total sense. I can’t wait to read more!
Great post.
Bread is good for you. Just make sure it says ‘100% Whole Grain’ and not ‘A good source of Whole Grain’ or ‘100% Whole Wheat’.
As a Registered Dietitian, I am a firm believer that all foods can be enjoyed in moderation in the context of an overall healthy lifestyle. When we make healthy choices in 4 main areas (nutrition, exercise, stress management, and sleep) we can enjoy all our favorite foods. For more information, see my book, “How To Eat Fried Chicken and Be Thin Too” on Amazon or at strategicbookpublishing.com
I’m still fat, too (but less now) because of my eating habits. One thing that has helped me though, is to snack on popcorn (no butter) It may sound bad with no butter, but I swear it’s not. Keeps me from snacking on other things.
Great job at making changes for you!
Two more book suggestions that have caused me to change my “diet” mentality:
“Intuitive Eating: A Revolutionary Program That Works” by Evelyn Tribole and Elyse Resch
“Health At Every Size: The Surprising Truth About Your Weight” by Linda Bacon
They both take a look at the dieting process and reveal how ineffective it is - amazingly eye-opening!!
Lorrie this is a great post - wouldn’t it be great if we all took just a second to think about how a food gets from point a to point b and what chemical processing and mystery science happens to it along the way. You know what recently got me upset? I just wrote a post about ‘eating salad for breakfast’ on my blog, and one of my clients said ’salad for breakfast? Yeah right!’ to which I said ‘you might ask why.. but maybe you should ask why not?’ Right?
Amen.. preach it sister! I believe too that America is so worried about low-fat, high fiber, protein rich, blah blah that we forgot how to eat. Foods were meant to be eaten in their real form without all the manipulation and additives. It’s no wonder we’re getting more and more overweight and unhealthy!
I just started eating healthy chocolate to supplement my diet.. something my mom saw great results with and I hope it will help my family too! You can find her story on my blog.
I grew up on a farm eating veggies from the garden and animals from the farm and was so much better off that way… too bad it’s so hard to do that these days or I would… they just won’t allow farm animals in town where I live.
My neighbors would be calling the board of health on me… and I’m sure they would be healthier to have around than all the stuff they spray on their yards. Whatever 
Great blog, BUT -
I echo the repeating message about eliminating processed foods in favor of natural foods. This makes total sense and I have had much success improving my health this way. I also applaud Lorrie and the many others who courageously share their stories and struggles in this forum.
About bread, though - isn’t bread a highly processed food? Grains require a lot of handling and cooking before they can be made edible. What’s ‘natural’ about that? I cut bread out of my diet a long time ago and immediately my craving for high carb foods went away. I also eliminated corn, rice, beans, pasta, and all refined sugars for the same reasons. I also do not eat dairy products since I appear to have an allergy. The results were astounding. In 4 months, I dropped 31 pounds - now holding steady. My cholesterol dropped 63 points, and my blood pressure went back to normal. I have a ton of energy, and I sleep like the dead. The best part is that this way of eating does not feel like a sacrifice. I just eat meat, fish, fruits, veggies, and nuts - all I want until I am full - no moderation required. This approach is better know as the ‘caveman diet’ - based on emulating the diet our bodies were designed to eat (by nature over eons of time) so I guess it makes sense that it works so well. Much has been written about paleolithic nutrition and I would encourage anyone who is serious about dropping weight and feeling good to read more.
Again, I think this is a great blog with inspiring stories. I wish everyone the best of luck in their efforts to improve themselves.
Almost forgot - Further Reading about the caveman diet:
note: I have no commercial interest in any of these books, I just think they are very good and they helped me -
check out
The Paleo Diet by Loren Cordain
Neanderthin by Ray Audette
and my favorite -
Cave Dan by Thomas Adam Troy
- this one is actually a novel! - and a hilarious one at that. I downloaded the e-book from http://www.lulu.com (search: Cave Dan)for $4.99. It looks to me like the author wanted to elevate awareness of this cool diet that worked for him, and he chose a short novel as the vehicle. Clever stuff. The hero is this sort of Everyman slob with a lot of health problems until he is forced to change his lifestyle and diet. Lots of great information immersed in 216 pages of ripping satire. I have paid over twenty dollars for diet books that did me no good. For five bucks, I’d recommend this novel to anyone.
Best of luck to all of you -
AtomicHammock
I just stumbled across your blog - and I LOVE this post. I think America is so fat because we eat “diet” food and then justify pigging out later and saying, “But I had “diet” food for lunch!”
Great blog! I look forward to reading more.
P.S. I do love diet coke…but I love homemade bread even MORE!
Hi,
Congratulations on your weight loss.
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Have a good day.
Nancy
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I completely agree with everything you just said, and being a college student it’s often hard to find REAL food. I believe that I would lose weight if I stopped consuming pounds of it, but I really try to be HEALTHY. Just wanted to thank you for the straight forwardness in your writing. Really a breath of fresh air
I wish I could agree with you that America is obsessed with nutrition. If it were, there would be a lot fewer people trying to lose weight. Americans seem to be obsessed with dieting and eating.
Earlier this year, due to the recession, I decided to go back to cooking all of my meals. What I noticed was that I was eating a lot better all of the time and I watched a growing belly become flat as a board and I have to say I was eating a lot of ‘good food.’ No frozen food and no artificial sweetners.
I’ve watched friends eat reams of trash food after ingesting Diet Coke or whatever diet drink of choice. There’s a definite connection between those drinks and people’s appetites.
Americans need to remember that they are fortunate to have solid food choices available. Too many people across the world do not get enough to eat daily.
“Eat to live, don’t live to eat.”
Where are you? Missing you in blogland!
Great post. The weight loss industry is a billion dollar industry but yet we are getting fatter with each passing year. New Flash losing weight takes hard work. But because we are a society of instant gratification we will keep spending our HARD earned money on the quick fixs that makes us fatter. WHY who knows!!!
I am working on giving up diet soft drinks. I went to the dentist and had some kind of test on teeth enamel. I was told by the dentist I have enamel erosion that was probably from drinking a lot of diet soft drinks, due to the acid! She was right, I probably drank 3 or more a day, as part of “eating healthy” (no calories). Other benefits from stopping include saving money, reducing aluminum and plastic. I also realized that junk food and soft drinks go hand in hand, and maybe this will help in that area as well. Herbal tea and potato chips isn’t as enticing as diet Dr. Pepper and chips. Thank you.