Ways to Live a Healthy Life

            Probably one of the most influential documentary movie in my life was “Supersize Me” done by Morgan Spurlock. He made a challenge to eat nothing but McDonald’s as his only meal for thirty days. There were many disturbing things in this movie, especially the results that Spurlock found. At the end of the thirty days, Spurlock had gained a significant amount of weight, and had a lot of health concerns to go with it. We in America recognize that fast food chains are not healthy for us, yet we continue to eat meals like that anyway. Both Pollan and Dupuis try to give a reason for this happening and a cure for how to handle it.

            In the article by Dupuis, he talks about the food dietary value in America and how they have changed throughout the ages. One of the first faux dietary pioneers was John Smith who was the same person that wrote the book of Mormon. Smith gave “recommendations for a healthy living” which included not having “tea, coffee, and alcohol.” These things were later changed into new dietary restrictions. People like Benjamin Rush and Sylvester Graham introduced new ideas that were trying to allow people to have a healthy life. Dupuis talks about how people earlier in history are claiming that there was divine right involved in the dietary restrictions, but there was no physical proof. Now in days, there are doctors that tell us about things that also cannot be seen like nutrients and vitamins. Dupuis argues that there is still a false science in food and we really cannot know what to eat. Dupuis tells us that it is better to just eat what we want and not think about it because there is no real solution.

            Pollan has a bit more suggestions about what to do in the face of this dietary problem. Polland explains that there are a couple things to keep in mind when buying food to eat. One thing is to “eat food” that is not the “industrial foods” that we all think of. By doing this, we can make sure to know what we are eating and wont be eating more than “five” ingredients in total. Also, taking the time to cook our meals ourselves as well as check where each ingredient comes from will help to limit the bad ingredients from being eaten. Another thing Pollan suggests is that we should “eat less.” People in France live a healthy lifestyle and it is mainly about the portion size there. They do not go back for seconds and limit how much they eat at a time. This will help to give moderate portions and lead us back onto a healthy style of living.