Determinism, Free Will, and Health Outcomes

Last updated on July 21, 2013

This has been in my “to-blog” file ever since I went on sabbatical in Belgium in 2009-2010 and read In Defense of Food.

Some food for thought from Michael Pollan:

“[I]t’s only natural to search for the causes of one’s misfortune and, perhaps, to link one’s illness to one’s behavior. One of the more pernicious aspects of nutritionism is that it encourages us to blame our health problems on lifestyle choices, implying that the individual bears ultimate responsibility for whatever illnesses befall him. It’s worth keeping in mind that a far more powerful predictor of heart disease than either diet or exercise is social class.”