Wherever in the world people gave up their traditional way of eating and adopted the Western diet, there soon followed a predictable series of western disease, including obesity, cardiovascular diseases, and cancer.
— Michael Pollan, In Defense of Food
The drastic divergence of human diets from what pre-industrial humans were likely to have eaten appears to be one of the major reasons for the rise in obesity and chronic disease.
According to Michael Pollan 
- Farming with chemicals in huge monocultures
- Narrowing of the biological diversity through heavy reliance on staple crops: wheat, corn, and soy.
- Excessive processing and refining of foods
- Superabundance of sugar and fat
Humans are flexible eaters adapted to survive on many different diets, but the Western diet does not seem to be one of them.
—Michael Pollan, In Defense of Food
