Michael Pollan Talks Paleo and Primal with The Oprah
I don't watch The Oprah, but I did see the news that the talk show queen and her staff have gone vegan.
The best part of the show was Michael Pollan:
Pollan: When you hear the phrase "health care crisis" or "health care cost crisis," that is a euphemism for the catastrophe that is the American diet. 75 percent of our health care spending is on chronic diseases linked to diet. That's really what's bankrupting us and that has to do with the way we're eating - way too many calories, too much processed foods, tons of refined carbohydrates.
Oprah: And by "refined carbohydrates," what do you mean?
Pollan: White flour - things with white flour in it, and sugar. Soda.
Oprah: It's all those things that are packaged in the boxes and that you just add water.
Pollan: Exactly. It's all that processed food. So our diet has changed more in the last hundred years than in the last 10,000, probably, with the result that it's affecting our health.
Pollan: When you hear the phrase "health care crisis" or "health care cost crisis," that is a euphemism for the catastrophe that is the American diet. 75 percent of our health care spending is on chronic diseases linked to diet. That's really what's bankrupting us and that has to do with the way we're eating - way too many calories, too much processed foods, tons of refined carbohydrates.
Oprah: And by "refined carbohydrates," what do you mean?
Pollan: White flour - things with white flour in it, and sugar. Soda.
Oprah: It's all those things that are packaged in the boxes and that you just add water.
Pollan: Exactly. It's all that processed food. So our diet has changed more in the last hundred years than in the last 10,000, probably, with the result that it's affecting our health.
What do you think is causing the healthcare crisis?