In Defense of Food: An Eater's Manifesto | Michael Pollan

In Defense of Food: An Eater's Manifesto | Michael Pollan | Love it!

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In Defense of Food...

	In Defense of Food: An Eater's Manifesto Michael Pollan Penguin Press HC, The, 2008 - 256 pages average customer review:based on 127 reviews view larger image
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highly recommended

What to eat, what not to eat, and how to think about health: a manifesto for our times "Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants." These simple words go to the heart of Michael Pollan's In Defense of Food, the well-considered answers he provides to the questions posed in the bestselling The Omnivore's Dilemma. Humans used to know how to eat well, Pollan argues. But the balanced dietary lessons that were once passed down through generations have been confused, complicated, and distorted by food industry marketers, nutritional scientists, and journalists-all of whom have much to gain from our dietary confusion. As a result, we face today a complex culinary landscape dense with bad advice and foods that are not "real." These "edible foodlike substances" are often packaged with labels bearing health claims that are typically false or misleading. Indeed, real food is fast disappearing from the marketplace, to be replaced by "nutrients," and plain old eating by an obsession with nutrition that is, paradoxically, ruining our health, not to mention our meals. Michael Pollan's sensible and decidedly counterintuitive advice is: "Don't eat anything that your great-great grandmother would not recognize as food." Writing In Defense of Food, and affirming the joy of eating, Pollan suggests that if we would pay more for better, well-grown food, but buy less of it, we'll benefit ourselves, our communities, and the environment at large. Taking a clear-eyed look at what science does and does not know about the links between diet and health, he proposes a new way to think about the question of what to eat that is informed by ecology and tradition rather than by the prevailing nutrient-by-nutrient approach. In Defense of Food reminds us that, despite the daunting dietary landscape Americans confront in the modern supermarket, the solutions to the current omnivore's dilemma can be found all around us. In looking toward traditional diets the world over, as well as the foods our families-and regions-historically enjoyed, we can recover a more balanced, reasonable, and pleasurable approach to food. Michael Pollan's bracing and eloquent manifesto shows us how we might start making thoughtful food choices that will enrich our lives and enlarge our sense of what it means to be healthy.

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Is there food in our food?

In The Omnivore's Dilemma Pollan discussed where food comes from, and in this companion book he continues with what we should eat: "Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants." Pollan points out that we humans used to know how to eat properly, but don't anymore. He also says that in order to improve our health we must go back to traditional foods and ways of eating. This would involve avoiding processed foods and not eating anything your grandmother wouldn't recognize as food. Pollan also suggests quality over quantity of food and eating real foods rather than artificial nutrients. He says, which I agree with, that it is better to spend more money on lesser amounts of quality real food. He explains that if we would spend more for better, well-grown food, but buy less of it, we would benefit ourselves, our communities, and the environment. He suggests planting a garden. He also brings up the well-known suggestions that when you shop it is best to avoid the center aisles that are filled with processed foods, and avoid foods with high-fructose corn syrup. In fact, he says to avoid any food product that makes health claims, which he interprets as signaling it is probably not really food.

The book scrutinizes what he sees that science purports to know about diet and health, and comes up with his own view of what we should eat. Pollan criticizes the typical steak dinner, the entire Western diet, and what he describes as the nutrient-by-nutrient approach to creating food. He says that during the last half-century real food has started to disappear and has been replaced by processed foods designed to include certain popular nutrients. Pollan calls this the age of nutritionism. The book criticizes manufacturers of processed foods and nutritional scientists who he blames for an unhealthy preoccupation with nutrition and diet. He also joins others in questioning the idea that dietary fat leads to diseases. The book gives the history of "nutritionism" in this country and illuminates the relationship between government and the food industry. This book is a fascinating read! Also recommend THE 3:00 PM SECRET: Live Slim and Strong, Live Your Dreams

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Love it!

After reading the Omnivore's Dilemma last year, I was left thoroughly horrified with everything that American culture eats. I stopped eating and drinking MANY things, out of disgust with its production. Over time, I had to give in, eat horrible, processed, corn syruppy food again, simply because it is so difficult to find alternatives. But In Defense of Food renewed my enthusiasm to eat more naturally, more healthfully. It was an excellent follow-up to Omnivore's Dilemma, but even by itself, In Defense of Food is enlightening and encouraging--there is a TON of crazy, scientifically formulated and processed "food" out there, but it is also possible to avoid that stuff, and in doing so, perhaps avoid some of the western illnesses that have become all too common.

I HIGHLY reccommend it.

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Gave me a lot to think about

I am not a health nut and I tend to avoid books written by those who are. However, we all want to live longer and eat well. This book made a lot of sense to me. It seemed well balanced and not "over the top". Here are a couple of things that I got from it:

* People can live well eating a wide variety of foods as long as they are "real" foods, not over-processed commercial products with the shelf-life of gravel
* Fats are not bad. We need some fats in order to live, some are just better that others
* Our modern diet is comprised of too much seeds and grains and not enough leaves
* There is not a "magic" ingredient or nutrient that will make us healthy
* Don't buy food in the grocery store that your grandmother would not recognize
* When it come to foods the Whole is truly greater than the sum on it's Parts

I have started to think differently about the way that I eat. I even sent a copy to my ex-wife since she has been trying to convince me of many of these truths for year, darn it!

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READ THIS BOOK

THIS BOOK IS ONE OF THE BEST I HAVE READ IN A LONG TIME. IT CHALLENES THE WAY YOU LOOK AT EATING, NUTRITION, AND DIET. IF THE AUTHOR, OR SOMEONE WHO KNOWS HIM READS THIS, I WOULD LOVE TO SEE HIM WRITE ABOUT WATER: SHORTAGES, BOTTLED WATER, MUNICIPAL SUPPLIES, AND HAVE HIME SEND SOME CHEAP TAP WATER AND EXPENSIVE BOTTLED WATERS TO THE LAB.

A very good "defense of food"

This is a very good book (quick, easy to ready, footnoted if you want the sources, etc.) that does a few things very well. First, it explains the harms of nutrition science ("nutritionism"), which historically has broken down our food into nutrients, declared which nutrients were best, processed foods to give us those nutrients, and then consistently re-tooled the supposedly expert formulas when the science was shown to be wrong. Instead of eating food now, many of us most of the time are eating "food-like substances." Second, it explains what we *do* know about the industrialization of food, and what we do know is not good. Third, it provides us tips to get us back to eating food rather than food-like substances. Pollan concludes that food is much more than nutrition; that food, properly understood, is natural, not a product of industry; and that food is about more than fuel, it is about relationships. I give this book a 4 instead of a 5 only because of Pollan's occassional evolutionary references; for some reason, he views the benefits of natural food over industrialized food, including its relational benefits, as a product of evolution rather than the product of a God who knows what is best for us and provided that for us. All in all, though, this book really is an excellent "defense of food." And I love the tagline: "Eat Food. Not Too Much. Mostly Plants."

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