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In Defense of Food
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"Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants." These simple words go to the heart of food journalist Pollan's thesis. Humans used to know how to eat well, he argues, but the balanced dietary lessons that were once passed down through generations have been confused and distorted by food industry marketers,
… More »"Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants." These simple words go to the heart of food journalist Pollan's thesis. Humans used to know how to eat well, he argues, but the balanced dietary lessons that were once passed down through generations have been confused and distorted by food industry marketers, nutritional scientists, and journalists. As a result, we face today a complex culinary landscape dense with bad advice and foods that are not "real." Indeed, plain old eating is being replaced by an obsession with nutrition that is, paradoxically, ruining our health, not to mention our meals. Pollan's advice is: "Don't eat anything that your great-great grandmother would not recognize as food." Looking at what science does and does not know about diet and health, he proposes a new way to think about what to eat, informed by ecology and tradition rather than by the nutrient-by-nutrient approach.--From publisher description.
« LessNutritionism defined
Nutritionism comes to market
Food science's golden age
The melting of the lipid hypothesis
Eat right, get fatter
Beyond the pleasure principle
The proof is in the low-fat pudding
Bad science
Nutritionism's children
THE WESTERN DIET AND THE DISEASES OF CIVILIZATION. The Aborigine in all of us
The elephant in the room
The industrialization of eating: From whole foods to refined
From complexity to simplicity
From quality to quantity
From leaves to seeds
From food culture to food science
GETTING OVER NUTRITIONISM. Escape from the Western diet
Eat food: food defined
Mostly plants: what to eat
Not too much: how to eat
Kirkus Reviews
An anemic follow-up to The Omnivore's Dilemma examines food in a nutritional rather than an environmental context. As Pollan (Science and Environmental Journalism/Univ. of California, Berkeley) acknowledges on the first page, his thesis is simple. "Eat food," he writes. "Not too much. Mostly plants." Of course it's not as easy as all that. Like many modern nutritionists, Pollan is critical of what he calls the Western diet, which has been responsible for widespread obesity, heart disease, diabetes and cancer. To blame for this, Pollan argues, is the fact that in the last century in particular, Western societies have replaced natural, whole foods with processed food products increasingly loaded with sugars, fats and sodium. We have rationalized these decisions not only by blaming cultural changes, efficiency and convenience, but also by pitting the damages against one another in a health war. Blaming fats, for example, takes the pressure off of carbohydrates, and vice versa. But hope is not lost, says the author. With a newfound emphasis on locally grown agriculture and organic farming, Pollan claims that it is more possible than ever to avoid the problems of the Western diet without sacrificing quality of life. The author backs his theories with a variety of research, including a particularly compelling study from 1982 that sent Westernized Aborigines in Western Australia back to their natural diet in the outback, and found a drastic reduction in every typically Western health problem. While his research is sound and well-organized, the academic, secondary source & #8211;reliant text lacks the punch of the author's usual hands-on approach. Solid advice for healthy eating, but lacks Pollan's arrestingly original journalistic flair. Copyright ©Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
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Summaries
Real food -- the kind of food your great-grandmother would recognize as food - is being undermined by science on one side and the food industry on the other, both of whom want us focus on nutrients, good and bad, rather than actual plants, animals and fungi.
According to author Michael Pollan, the rise of "nutritionism" has vastly complicated the lives of American eaters without doing anything for our health, except possibly to make it worse. Nutritionism arose to deal with a genuine problem -- the fact that the modern American diet is responsible for an epidemic of chronic diseases, from obesity and type II diabetes to heart disease and many cancers -- but it has obscured the real roots of that problem and stood in the way of a solution.
In 200 pages, Pollan outlines the challenge and offers a straightforward manifesto -- "Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants." -- as well as practical advice on how to accomplish these deceptively simple goals.
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What the author says makes sense to me and I agree completely...it's just I found this book boring to read. Was it his style? My frame of mind? Eh,who knows. Might try again later..
an interesting book, lots of common sense information. the book club at Woodcroft discussed this book and it was a great book club! the librarian running it did a great job organizing it and had other materials ready to check out.
A fantastic, informative book that provides a critical look at our modern food culture. Pollan explores the Western World's self-destructive eating patterns that have laden the first world with preventable illness & disease. He promotes healthful, sustainable eating and provides a wealth of suggestions as to how to achieve the best diet possible (shop the perimeter of the supermarket, don't eat anything that comes in a box) without resorting to bullying the reader into a fad of vegetarianism or vegan lifestyle. Pollan's rules are simple: Eat food. Mostly Plants. Not too much! Everyone eats, and therefore everyone should read this book.
A very informative read that attempts to get us back to a relationship with the food we eat and where it comes from. Michael Pollan tells a very entertaining story about our relationship with plans. In this one he really focuses on corn. It's a tale of how the industrial food industry is wreaking habit on our bodies, environment, animals, and communities.
"Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants."
Michael Pollan has literally written the book on how our relationship with food and eating should be. His mantra of "Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants" expresses with beautiful simplicity how we should be feeding ourselves. This is an outstanding book detailing how food in its natural (as opposed to overly processed or chemically composed) form is something to be enjoyed.
Excellent book! One of the best ever written about food! Must read everyone especially who has children, grandchildren. Explains in simple language why the food we buy in stores are making us sick and why food industry's interest is only profit not your health and well being.
Great book about how the Western diet causes obesity and poor health, and what to do about it. Recommended.
A must read - support local farmers.
This book has been highly recommended by my coworkers.
Excellent information about eatring habits and food we should eat.