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Whole Foods: Readers miss my point

Posted at 05:26 PM on Tuesday, Sep. 01, 2009

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Here's why a blog comes in handy: it collects reader feedback.

And boy, did you have a lot to say after last week's column about the Whole Foods boycott. If you haven't seen it yet, check out my blog before reading the rest of today's column.

Some of you seemed to think I was challenging the First Amendment rights of Whole Foods chief executive officer John Mackey, supporting the boycott, and disagreeing with his notion of being responsible for our own health.

None of the above are true.

First, it would be silly for a columnist to say that Mackey doesn't have a right to share his opinion. If I can do it, why can't he?

Second, my feelings about the boycott were pretty clear last week. "To eat in line with their ideals," I wrote, "boycotters would have to ask everyone who feeds them -- from farmers to restaurant owners -- what they think of health-care reform. That's just impractical."

Think about it. Who has the time to do all that research? And even if you did, what are the chances you'd find enough farmers, chefs, ranchers, dairies, bakers, fishermen and shopkeepers who agree with you on health-care reform?

This brings me to my third point -- the one some readers really misunderstood last week: Some of Mackey's ideas about taking responsibility for your own health are just as impractical as the boycott.

To see why, let's take a look at the researchers he recommends on his blog: T. Colin Campbell, Dean Ornish, Caldwell B. Esselstyn Jr., John McDougall, Joel Fuhrman and Neal Barnard. Given that Whole Foods sells a wide variety of products, you'd expect all of these authors to tout a moderate diet.

No such luck. In "Prevent and Reverse Heart Disease," Esselstyn has a chapter titled, "Moderation Kills."

His wife, Ann Crile Esselstyn, also shares her advice. "If you have heart disease -- or if you never want to develop it -- it is critical to grasp these absolute rules," she writes. "1. Do not eat meat. 2. Do not eat chicken, even white meat. 3. Do not eat fish. 4. Do not eat any dairy products. That means no skim milk, no nonfat yogurt, no sherbet, and no cheese at all ..."

Fuhrman is more lenient. Eating certain types of fish once a week and the skinless, white meat of poultry once or twice a week is OK, he writes in "Disease-Proof Your Child: Feeding Kids Right." But he also lists butter and cheese among "the five most dangerous things to feed your child."

And Ornish, who doesn't ban any foods, still prefers a plant-based diet. His book, "The Spectrum," divides food into five categories. Group 1 is the most healthful, while Group 5 is the least healthful. To my surprise, skinless chicken breast is part of Group 4.

Based on these books, Mackey's version of a responsible diet raises a lot of questions. Could the majority of Americans make such drastic changes in their diets, even with the specter of heart disease scaring them? How do we ensure that the poor have enough access to fruits, vegetables and unprocessed foods? And why is he, the head of a major supermarket chain, encouraging customers to buy less meat and dairy products -- including the ones sold in his stores?

It's no secret that we have to eat a lot more fruits, vegetables, and unprocessed food to stay healthy. That's why I eat at least one vegan meal a day, ban sodas from the home and choose whole fruit instead of fruit juice.

But my longtime readers also know this: I write stories about whole grains, legumes and the raw food movement, but I also love tales of Volga German sausage, Ethiopian chicken stew and other foods from our Valley's ethnic heritage.