The School of Greatness Why Your "Healthy" Foods Are Making You Sick | Michael Pollan
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Apr 17, 2026 
Michael Pollan, bestselling food journalist and author of The Omnivore’s Dilemma, unpacks why ultra-processed foods hide behind a healthy image. He talks about fake healthy products, diet soda and cravings, the gut microbiome’s role in mood and metabolism, how food marketing drives overeating, and why shared meals, real food, and even psychedelics enter the conversation.
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Mental Health Care Still Has Weak Tools
- Pollan says modern psychiatry still lacks strong tools, especially compared with fields like cardiology or oncology.
- He notes SSRIs were approved with only a small advantage over placebo, then became overused despite limited and fading benefits for many people.
Use Shared Meals To Reduce Loneliness
- Fight loneliness by eating with other people instead of defaulting to solitary, distracted meals.
- Pollan says shared meals deepen connection, slow eating, and curb mindless overeating that happens with TV and a bag of chips.
There Is No One Right Way To Eat
- Pollan argues there is no single right diet once you include health, pleasure, ethics, climate, and labor alongside nutrition.
- He reframes eating as a way to express values, whether that means sustainability, animal ethics, or joy at the table.
