Dissecting a rat

My favorite philosopher, Alan Watts, once wrote that the moment you begin dissecting a rat it ceases to be a rat. For a rat is not an approximately X ounce creature with Y organs and skin of Z density. It is more then it's parts and it is more then what we understand enough to test, measure and calculate. So goes the carrot, the broccoli, the beef, the salmon and the shiitaki. And, of course, the homo sapiens. We readily admit our lack of understanding of certain complex human processes (how exactly does memory work?) but we are quicker to claim victory over digestion and nutrition. In truth, of course, you cannot put the beneficial elements of a carrot into a pill and digest the healthfulness of a carrot. For like the rat, a carrot is more then X percent water, Y percent vitamins like A and Z percent antioxidents like betacarotine. As time consuming and frustrating as it is to us wealthy Americans in such modern times, you just can't get the same benefits with a pill -- never. Sometimes it's because a pill gives you so much of a good thing it becomes a bad thing (it's hard to overdose on vitamines or antioxidents on carrots because you can only eat so many). Other times it is because we fail to appreciate how everything comes together. Yes, we need vitamin A, but is it also the presence of the fiber or something else (perhaps something we have yet to even discover) that allows us to absorb it properly? As Michael Pollan says in In Defense of Food, this is not a concern to the carrot eater. If there is one thing that is assured, it is that we will continue to realize our failure to appreciate the full complexity of food and digestion and as we continue to correct and alter our news stories, our supplements, our multi-vitamins (do we buy the ones with or without iron now?) we have to wonder -- why not just eat a freaking carrot? That's what the rat was doing before you started dissecting it.