@Antiglobalism

And get off my lawn!

Scott, how on Earth is Cory "advocating against science"?
He's dismissing an entire branch of research, namely nutrition science. Pollan's approach is very journalistic - take a bunch of personal anecdotes (i visited a ranch!), link them together with aphorisms (grandma says eat you greens!), and paradoxically sprinkle with a few scientific studies (omega-3s are good for you!). This isn't a way forward. Normative recommendations for diet should be done through boring, peer reviewed journal papers. Pollan is fun to read, but "common sense" reporting shouldn't trump actual experimentation and research.

Why am I taking dietary advice from a professor of journalism whose books are basically anecdotes strung together with larger aphorisms? And why is Cory advocating against science?

It looks like the system works, but it sadly doesn't. From the linked article:
"Last year around 95,000 people died on the roads in India, ranking India currently second only to China in terms of annual fatalities. Safety experts predict that because China has begun to introduce effective measures to reduce its traffic casualties, India will this year overtake it to occupy first place."

A couple things:
1) Unless your hands are visibly soiled, alcohol hand rubs do a far better job than soap.
2) I've never seen a study showing hand washing helps in non-healthcare/non-school/non-3rd world settings. Does anyone have a paper showing efficacy with industrialized healthy adults? I've always had a suspicion that handwashing in the noise compared to indoor plumbing and other industrialized health amenities.