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Binding: HardcoverDewey Decimal Number: 613.2 EAN: 9781594201455 Edition: 1 ISBN: 1594201455 Label: Penguin Press HC, The Manufacturer: Penguin Press HC, The Number Of Items: 1 Number Of Pages: 256 Publication Date: January 01, 2008 Publisher: Penguin Press HC, The Studio: Penguin Press HC, The Editorial Review: Amazon.com: Amazon Significant Seven, January 2008: Food is the one thing that Americans hate to love and, as it turns out, love to hate. What we want to eat has been ousted by the notion of what we should eat, and it's at this nexus of hunger and hang-up that Michael Pollan poses his most salient question: where is the food in our food? What follows in In Defense of Food is a series of wonderfully clear and thoughtful answers that help us omnivores navigate the nutritional minefield that's come to typify our food culture. Many processed foods vie for a spot in our grocery baskets, claiming to lower cholesterol, weight, glucose levels, you name it. Yet Pollan shows that these convenient "healthy" alternatives to whole foods are appallingly inconvenient: our health has a nation has only deteriorated since we started exiling carbs, fats--even fruits--from our daily meals. His razor-sharp analysis of the American diet (as well as its architects and its detractors) offers an inspiring glimpse of what it would be like if we could (a la Humpty Dumpty) put our food back together again and reconsider what it means to eat well. In a season filled with rallying cries to lose weight and be healthy, Pollan's call to action—"Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants."--is a program I actually want to follow. --Anne Bartholomew Product Description: 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. Average Rating:
 Rating:  - Fresh Perspective on FoodThis is likely the most useful book I have read in a decade. Having grown up in the clean-your-plate-get-dessert era I greatly appreciate Pollan's fresh (pun accepted) perspectives on food and eating. Despite a medical background, I have long been perplexed by food and the many products now available that masquerade as food. If Pollan is right, it's not so complicated after all. This diligently-researched book explains the origins--government, food industry, junk science--and motivations behind ... Read More Rating:  - Over-Written And PreachyPollan starts his book with sage advice: Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants. Any of Pollan's readers will know that what he means by "food" isn't what most of us eat. He means unprocessed locally produced food. He spends a couple of hundred pages beating a dead horse about problems with scientific studies about what we should and shouldn't eat. He makes his point again and again and again. Nutritional studies are faulty. Food is more than the sum of its parts, and research about what we ... Read More Rating: - After Omnivore's DilemmaThis is the answer to "So now what do I do?" that one may ask after reading Omnivore's Dilemma. There is some new material and information, but if you are freshly finished reading OD, you could just give it a skim. It makes a great gift from readers of OD to those who want an action plan but aren't interested in all the juicy details in OD. Rating:  - Best information on nutrition I've read in yearsI'm still not sure what made me buy this book, as I consider myself fairly well educated on food and nutrition; perhaps just the catchy "don't eat anything your great-grandmother wouldn't recognise as food" line. I am glad I did as it not only reinforced and gave reasons for much that I already knew, but opened my eyes to much that I hadn't. I've been growing steadily more interested in food issues ever since a lactose-intolerant colleague made me realise how many food products have milk powder added ... Read More Rating: - Great InfoGreat book, gets the point across and really makes you think. I'm glad I purchased and read it. It has already been passed on to a friend and two others are waiting in line. Everyone wants to know "what should I eat?", but as the author details, should we really have to ask such a basic question... I believe the answer is yes and no due to the craziness which has been created with the "Western Diet". Hopefully food choices will change for the better, but I'm not counting on ... Read More |
