Read by Scott Brick
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.
This book is divided into three interesting parts. "In The Age of
Nutritionalism," we get a history lesson on how our diet has changed roughly
since the post world war two era. It illustrates how well intentioned
scientists & politicians tried to create a culture that put far more emphasis
on consuming nutrients{vitamin C, Protein, etc}, than on whole foods{ Orange
juice, meat, etc}. The second part, The Western Diet & The Diseases of
Civilization," reveals how our modern diet has led to huge increases in
obesity, tooth decay, cancer, & heart disease. The last part "Getting Over
Nutritionalism," gives advice on how to move from this negative diet.
The author believes that we should focus more on the portions of food that we
consume rather than obsessing over fat & carb content.
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