Reflection on "Can't Stomach it"

The essay by the name of "Can't Stomach it" by Julie Guthman starts off by talking about obesity, the focus of the essay. We learn that obesity causes many problems such as worker productivity and many things are done in order to help these problems like snack taxes, stronger food labeling laws and even state-mandated student weighings at public schools.  Guthman then describes how the "tendency to dignify obsessions that equate thinness and beauty, is hugely profitable". Obesity is seen as an infectious disease. By referencing herself to popular books supporting the cause of anti-obesity such as "The Omnivore's dilemma" by Pollan and "Harvest for Hope" by Goodall, she comes to the conclusion that these author "extol the virtues of organic and local while arguing for a commonsense, ecumenical approach to diet choices".  The main message of her essay is to attack arguments by these authors.  She replies to Pollan's claim that "people eat corn because it's there" by saying that it makes people seen as they are dupes. Even the movie SuperSize me hints that people are ashame of their bodies and eating habits by not showing their heads in the documentary.


I think this essay had some fairly good points but the writer exagerrated on various occasions.  I found it interesting since I've been mostly reading Omnivore's Dilemma, I've only seen one side. The writer mentions that Pollan fails to urge his readers to write to their congressional representative or comment to the FDA about food additives for example, but instead brags about the meal that he hunt and cooked himself. She says that Pollan puts thin people as the people who clearly have seen the light that everyone else is blinded to.  Thin people are seen as superior.  I agree that Pollan does not really puts solutions on the table but I don't think we should think that writers like him classify "thin people as superior".  A lot of people in our society just don't have the wealth to buy "real food" and our economic system sadly supports processed food since they are so cheap.


Questions:

Is trying to portray fat people as people ashamed of their bodies and eating habits in the media, going a bit too far in order to fix our obesity problem?

How economically dependent are we on the "obesity market"? How would fixing obesity affect the economy?

Omnivore's Dilemma: The Processing Plant (chapter 5)

This chapter revolves around the processing of corn which makes this vegetable (or derivative of corn) part of almost every processed food around us.  Pollen describes the whole transformation which is comprised of many steps and takes place in what is know as a "wet mill". The corn is first subdivided into kernels.  Its skin will be processed into vitamins and nutritional elements while the tiny germ will be crushed for its oil.  The biggest section of the kernel, the endosperm, will have its rich complex carbohydrates extracted from it, the most important contributor to processed food. The idea is that these long carbohydrates are very polyvalent because chemist have learned to break them down into more than a hundred different organic compounds such as acids, sugars, starch and alcohols. The most valuable product derived from corn is definitely high-fructose corn syrop, accounting for 530 million bushels every year.  With those essential building blocks coming from corn (and soybean), a food scientist can basically create almost any processed food he can think of.

Processed food has truly become a supply-driven business. In order to stay in business, companies will either have to figure out how to make us spend more money for the same pound of food we will buy, or make us eat more.  This really bothers me because these companies are solely looking for profit instead of the good of the population. These food contain so much fat and sugar that it is sickening everyone. No wonder three out of five American is now considered overweight. It's true that processed food still have advantages like adding shelf-life and more practical packaging than whole food but I really do not agree that we should depend that extensively on fast food and processed food. I just think that overall these companies are modifying the way we eat in order to put money in their pockets which is destructive to our health. So what can we do about it? If we go back to the root of the problem, we will see that again, everything comes from the cheap price of corn. It is the subsidies on corn created by the government which is problematic. So then, what would be the effects of modifying those subsidies? Would it alleviate the problem or instead collapse our economic system?