The irony of mass-produced food
By making the food considerably less appetizing and nutritious, by using manmade chemicals in nature to augment the growing process, big companies have silently transformed the nature of food in America. This book focuses on the companies' share motivation: money. By betraying the consumer base, they can afford to grow exponentially until they are mega-powerful food companies with their own supply chain and fast food operations.
The irony of nutrition and psychology
Why do we eat? And more importantly, what is the way that our being an omnivore affects our relationship to diet? Well, it is free will, or choice, because the human animal can consume many different types of food and still survive. But, now, instead of adapting to a lack of food, by learning the skills of foraging, this book perceives adaptation another way: adapting to truth about big companies and what they feed the public.
The irony of fast food
In many ways, fast food seems like an obvious choice. A burger and fries has some of the food groups, one should think, but there's a bigger problem. Most of the meat is from cows that spent their lives sick from eating corn, needing antibiotics that reach the consumer. This is especially true on big farms with automated processes, which are typically the kind that source fast food.
The irony of nature and man
One can view this entire endeavor through the ironic conflict between man and nature. By nature's own design, through evolution, the human animal has grown to be at odds with nature in some ways, because our nature betrays us by enticing us to eat what is not healthy. The irony of course is that man's own nature needs to be further informed so that people will behave more properly according not only to their emotional instincts about food, but also according to their scientific knowledge.
The irony of health and happiness
The most important irony in the book is the ironic relationship that Pollan explores between health and happiness. Depending on how one goes about becoming happy, there are likely to be serious ramifications for one's behaviors, especially in the modern day when big companies offer products that are unethical. The consequences for being impulsive in today's habitat is heart disease and obesity, says Pollan.
