The Michael Pollan quote is actually:

"Don’t eat anything your great-great-grandmother wouldn’t recognize as food. (Sorry, but at this point Moms are as confused as the rest of us, which is why we have to go back a couple of generations, to a time before the advent of modern food products.) There are a great many foodlike items in the supermarket your ancestors wouldn’t recognize as food (Go-Gurt? Breakfast-cereal bars? Nondairy creamer?); stay away from these."

All those foods that you mentioned, a 19th century mom would recognize as food. Just not her kind of food.

From here: http://michaelpollan.com/articles-archive/unhappy-meals/ (and his books of course)

> All those foods that you mentioned, a 19th century mom would recognize as food.

Doubtful. I mean, the vegetables aren't cooked. That can't be healthy!

(Before anyone downvotes me: Look up how we used to cook vegetables. 'Boiled to a mush' just about sums it up. That's neither tasty nor healthy.)

My grandmother fed me homemade butter biscuits and sausage with eggs any time I visited. The southeast is full of terror and deliciousness.

There's nothing wrong with eating that kind of food, in reasonable proportions.

I think that one of the weaknesses of Pollan's saying is how it can be interpreted by people who haven't read his other stuff. Taken literally, someone much younger than Pollan might think that Pollan advocates for broccoli to be boiled and smothered in Velveeta.

What would be wrong with steamed/blanched broccoli smothered in Velveeta? That's perfectly healthy.

Maybe what a grandmother would recognize as food.