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

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Binding: Hardcover
Dewey Decimal Number: 613.2
EAN: 9781594201455
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
Sales Rank: 186
Studio: Penguin Press HC, The

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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.

Amazon.com Review:
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

Customer Reviews

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Rating:

- a useful reminder to us all
Everyone will find this book worth reading. If nothing else, it will remind you to keep some degree of necessary skepticism when presented with the next nutrition claims and fads. His arguement is simple: stop worrying about "nutrients" and just enjoy a diet rich in a variety of real, whole foods. If we can do this while exercising good judgement and portion control, we will live happier, healthier lives. The only dilemna I see to this advice is that it is actually difficult to find/afford to buy whole foods in today's supermarkets. Not everyone has access to buying organics (not that he recommends this as our only option), and produce is really so much more expensive than the processed "foodlike substances" that fill most of the aisles in the grocery store...

Rating:

- Paradigm Shift!
Loved it. Changed how I eat - completely! Not about which fats or carbs you should or shouldn't eat. Fantastic. READ THIS BOOK! then grow your own veggies!

Rating:

- A Must Read: And here is why
Healing the Rift: Merging Science and Spirituality

Michael Pollan chronicles the dogma and misconceptions concerning food and food nutrition. With tens of thousands of books published each year on cooking, diet, food, and nutrition, few really give readers the information they need about healthy eating.

Like a trial lawyer systematically building his case to a jury, Pollan walks us through why our Western diet is killing us prematurely and what to do about it.

Although Pollan summarizes his book with: "eat food, not too much, mostly plants" this page turner will first convince you to abandon the Western diet and then pave the way for understanding what and how to eat.

This is a perfect follow up to his The Omivore's Dilemma.

Rating:

- Well Written and Thought Provoking
I'll never feel the same way about food ever again. This isn't an "eat this, don't eat that" kind of book -it's much better! I had no idea that the food industry is so political and that nutritional science is, well, not so scientific.

This is an easy read without being dumbed-down. I like the casual and sometimes comedic voice of Michael Pollan and I have been inspired to change the way I eat. In fact, I already have!

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