A Carefully Constructed Argument

Throughout In Defense of Food Pollan constantly reminds the reader the Western diet is taking an immense toll on all those who eat by it. But what exactly is the Western Diet? Pollan defines the Western diet as a diet consisting mostly of processed foods and large amounts of red meat. And why should society reject the diet it has become accustom to over the past twenty years? According to Pollan the answer is quite obvious. People are fatter and less healthy than ever. However, more often than not the effectiveness of an argument is not based on what the stand point is, but rather how it is presented.
Pollan takes full advantage of this in providing numerous researches and statistics in his proposal to rid society of the Western diet. From the beginning he bombards the reader with study after study proving how processed food (the backbone of the Western diet according to Pollan) is detrimental to the health of an individual despite the health claims on the packages. This approach gives Pollan a definite advantage in persuading the read. It first gives him credibility as a writer because who can dispute the hundreds of studies and countless hours of research? This approach also gives him another somewhat unusual advantage. Ones gets bored with the excess of information, so what do most people do when they get bored reading? Skim. One starts to skim over the material and take Pollan at his word instead of questioning possibly skewed statistics. After all the information Pollan provides, the reader can be nothing other than convinced that there is a problem with the Western diet. By doing so, the reader is ready to agree with Pollan’s next argument which is the real reason he is writing, changing the Western diet.
Pollan also presents his argument in a way that offends as few people as possible. While this might seem like an obvious strategy, it is much more difficult to do with a controversial topic such as an entire population’s lifestyle. This is most obvious in his discussion about the Western diet. From his description of the Western diet it is fairly apparent that this terrible eating style is actually American diet. However, if Pollan directly insulted America there is no doubt that people would get offended and his argument would be lost. In another attempt to not offend anyone he never directly blames the nutritional scientists for the rise of processed foods (though it is quite obvious that he is opposed to what they do). Instead he provides a background of the scientific community and nurtitionism and explains how they believe they are making food healthier for consumers. Then Pollan immediately provides examples on how what they are doing is actually making people less healthy. This strategy makes Pollan seem like sensible person instead of an attack dog, which would not only offend the scientist but would also rub many readers the wrong way.
In Defense of Food is a great example of effective rhetorical strategy. Pollan is able to gain credibility and make the reader see things from his standpoint with the use of extensive statistics, and is able to talk about a very controversial topic without really offending anyone. Though his argument seemed drawn out at times, it could not be more affective at persuading the reader to change his/her eating habits.