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Michael Pollan: Food Rules For a Healthy People And Planet

Low Fat: Made Us Much Fatter

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It's Easy: Eat Real Food

In America we got very fat on the low fat campaign which dates back to about 1980. Since then, the average American woman has put on 19 lbs and the average American man 17 lbs, says author Michael Pollan.

This is partly through eating low fat food -- and as a direct result, a lot more sugar. We now eat 300- 500 more calories per day.

Michael Pollan explains the absurdity:

"We got fat when we started demonizing fat. When you demonize one nutrient you tend to give a free pass to it's doppelganger nutrient. By demonizing fat we essentially gave a free pass to sugar and refined carbohydrates of all kinds."

This is just one of the absurdities he brings into focus in this lecture, given in the UK on the heels of his bestselling book Food Rules in 2009.

--Bibi Farber

Michael Pollan is author of In Defense of Food, The Omnivores Dilemma, Food Rules and more. See www.michaelpollan.com

This video was produced by www.theRSA.org