Omnivore's Dilemma Chapter 16

One of the most interesting yet obvious elements pointed out in chapter sixteen is when Pollan writes about America’s National Eating Disorder. In this section he says, “America has never had a stable national cuisine; each immigrant population has brought its own food-ways to the American table, but none has ever been powerful enough to hold the national diet very steady.” (pg. 299) This quote points out something I feel to be obvious but puts the truth in a clear perspective. One of the major problems America faces in our food industry and eating habits is there is no consistency. Foods are like fads in the American culture and this is both a negative and positive issue. When foods eaten for healthy diets become the new fad people become obsessed and are on a health kick, which is an example of food fads in America being a good thing but just as easily as it can be something very contradictory. When diets like eating Mexican or Greek food catch on this puts our society in a downward spiral in terms of negative food habits. It takes very little for these fads to be set in motion. The problem is this issue cannot be easily controlled therefore; the American diet is faced with a tremendous struggle when trying to maintain healthy eating.