"THE SWAMP"
An intimate collection of portraits within a shared living space.
Food Research
The following is a collection of photographs inspired by the book "In Defense of Food" by Michael Pollan. The images communicate themes such as the over-abundance of "food-like substances" (products of food science, not real food), and the negative effects derived from the age of "nutritionism."
What is "nutritionism?"
"Nutritionism" is the idea that only the scientifically-identified nutrient content of food determines its value. How often do you find yourself examining various figures on a nutrition label when deciding whether or not to buy something, or to eat it? Most of us today would say very often, but what about 40 years ago? While food and nutrition have been studied for centuries, modern nutritional science is incredibly young (and highly flawed); While there have been tremendous strides in terms of our knowledge in preventing chronic disease, the rise of seeing food only "as the sum of its parts" has vastly complicated things in terms of our understanding of what we should eat. The mass confusion caused by this hyper-focus on nutrients has largely been to benefit the food industry, nutritionists, and journalists: not eaters. Perhaps this is why rates of obesity and heart disease in the United States are among the highest in the world. A piece of the solution may be a simple approach; the purpose of food far extends just bodily health. When assessing the value of food, try not to succumb to the overwhelming world of nutrients and the ever-changing landscape of our scientific understanding of them. Instead consider how a food tastes, or how you can enjoy it as a social, familial, or cultural experience. It's still important to have real food in your diet, though. It's just more simple than what "expert help" and food industry marketing may lead you to believe.
What is an edible food-like substance?
There is a very real distinction between real food (whole & unprocessed) and products of food science. Food-like substances are highly processed and disguised imitations of real food, that are extremely ubiquitous in modern grocery stores. A good rule of thumb: "Don't eat anything your great grandmother wouldn't recognize as food."
In the specific case of McDonald's and most other fast food restaurants, preservatives are one of many issues; There are so many preservatives packed into a McDonald's "meal," that your body quite literally doesn't have enough time to break down all of the food molecules before it completely passes through your digestive system.
"We have barely begun to understand the relationships among foods in a cuisine. But we do understand some of the simplest relationships, like the zero-sum relationship: that if you eat a lot of meat you’re probably not eating a lot of vegetables. This simple fact may explain why populations that eat diets high in meat have higher rates of coronary heart disease and cancer than those that don’t."
It can in fact sometimes be more expensive and time consuming to maintain a diet that mostly consists of whole, unprocessed foods. Ultimately it comes down to a matter of priorities; perhaps real food is worth making sacrifices.
"If you’re concerned about your health, you should probably avoid products that make health claims. Why? Because a health claim on a food product is a strong indication it’s not really food, and food is what you want to eat."
Monochrome
