@enhydra lutris

I haven’t read Cooked yet, but Pollan did many talks on it and I’ve listened to some of those on YouTube; great stuff and an extension of eat food. One diet idea he talks about is, eat anything you want — as long as you cook it yourself. Another of those easier said than done good ideas. Made me think a lot about how do try to more cooking, when already so pressed for time.
He’s on a roll against the processed food industry.

Initially it was just the famous Seven Word Diet: "Eat food, not too much, mostly plants.". Then I stumbled across a quote attributed to him, possibly contained in that first book:

The Masai subsist on cattle blood and meat and milk and little else. Native Americans subsist on beans and maize. And the Inuit in Greenland subsist on whale blubber and a little bit of lichen. The irony is, the one diet we have invented for ourselves -- the Western diet -- is the one that makes us sick

I can't help but wonder if he has an equally pithy passage in Cooked.

@detroitmechworks

How to Change Your Mind, as he talks about the recent resurgence of legal and scientifically sanctioned clinical research into the use and efficacy of psilocybin and LSD for helping people who are struggling with PTSD, among many other problems. It’s obviously in early stages still, but it’s fairly astounding as well as, for me, very encouraging. That minds are opening enough to even rethink this question, after the door was slammed shut in the early 70s. There is an effort currently to implement a clinical trial at the VHA for veterans with PTSD, which is looking like it will move forward.

Eating food (real food) is one of those pieces of good advice that is simple, but definitely not easy! However it’s a good guiding principle to try to follow where and when we can.

Good to see you here again dmw, thanks!

I don't even like to Vape my Pot.

However, AMEN to the Eat Food Message. If anything the PTB love to mock food stamp recipients for eating fresh food. In food deserts, they even have worked out subsidies with fast food restaurants to provide "Proper" nutrition, when the sugar and corn syrup flow freely.

Yes, I munch on the occasional advertised product. I am not impervious to propaganda and advertising, and trying to resist it is to try to stand against the tide. However, I hope to swim on the surface, and not drown in it as so many of my fellow Americans.

@dkmich

And congrats on the positive changes you’ve made. That’s awesome!

I got involved with a 30-day organic food only, no gluten, no sugar, no dairy, and no GMO detoxification diet back in December. On her doctor's advice, my niece changed her diet to this. She lost about 30 lbs, and it cured her Hashimotos. I did it because I wanted to learn more about good food and healthy eating.

I no longer follow it to a tee, but I still use what it taught me. My modified version is eating clean, healthy, and counting and recording all of my calories. I also bought a treadmill, and I walk three miles every day. In 18 months, I've lost 30 lbs. Thyroid medication I am not allergic to has also been a big help.

Food is such a big subject. For a person like me who grew up a picky eater, food has always been a challenge. Pizza and fried, burnt bologna or pepperoni sandwiches made with Italian bread have always been two of my favorites. I do miss them all.

@Anja Geitz

Those connections are significant and important, and how it all fits together is exactly what I would have wanted to expand on and explore in a lot more detail, if I’d set out to write an essay on this topic. Which actually has been on my to-do list for awhile now. But doing this topic justice is huge, and I’d probably never feel I had something good enough.

Thank you for adding this dimension to the discussion. I think you might enjoy How to Change Your Mind. It’s the most interesting book I’ve read in a long time, and it’s given me a renewed sense of hope. Pollan steadfastly refuses to believe that transformation is out of reach, both for individuals and for our society. He is what I call a Change Agent.

Changing minds is the key to changing the world, and he is a true leader in this effort.

I think you've hit on something. I have over the years done my share of reading on healing the body through nutrition and food. But not since suffering from a series of digestive issues, have I made a commitment to a strict protocol to address it.

As someone afflicted with bouts of anxiety and depression, I have also been very interested in the mind, body, and spirit approach to lessening the highs and lows of those afflictions. What scientist's call neuro-plasticity, Buddhists, and other practioners of meditation and chanting, call "mastering the mind".

I think they not only tie into each other, but I also think the influence these have for larger societal issues are definitely worth discussing.

A big and heartfelt thank you!

@Timmethy2.0

At least I thought so way back when I saw it. I liked the part where the ancient, dust-covered VW bug still starts right up. And how everything we thought was bad is now good for you. That’s a message we all love to hear.

Unfortunately, it’s a fantasy. It’s very clear by now that a diet of processed foods, consisting of mostly junk calories and often toxic additives like trans fats — which are “plasticized oils” (think about that) is not good for us.

That they make this kind of “food” so easy and quick and tasty and relatively cheap, and push it on us through ads 24/7, is just one more way they are quietly killing us, for profits.

I struggle with following this advice myself. I go through phases when I do pretty well, but then I fall back into bad habits.

I think recent reversals have cholesteral being good for you now.

[video:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3iG6Hrh4v08]

@Mark from Queens

Very cool that you are also a fan and familiar with his work and story. I didn’t know that about his family and growing up with such a role model. That’s a great bit of background.

If there is interest, there’s certainly a lot more to talk about on all this. I’d like to see that happen too. Thanks again!

Thanks for taking up his suggestion, CS. Will check out this interesting piece when I can.

Pressed for time, as usual, but just wanted to stop by. Loved Pollan's enchanting "Cooked" series. Would like to see it again in fact.

Remember him talking about growing up on LI and his father not giving a shit what the neighbors thought when he turned his front yard into a productive garden. That kind of rebellious, common sense contrarianism seems to have stuck with him. Very interesting dude.

There's so much more to say about our awful, monopolized corporate food system (as well as how they've decimated small farms and satanic Monsanto wants to control it all) and the horrendous American diet. It's a pet peeve of mine. Not to mention the pervasive franchise food garbage that litters the land and the way we've taken to eating for sport, which has led to fewer and fewer people actually cooking anymore. Hope we'll have another chance to discuss all that too.