In Defense of Food: An Eater's Manifesto by Michael Pollan Summary and Reviews
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Book Reviews of In Defense of Food: An Eater's Manifesto
Book Review: Leaves out the most damning facts about processed food
Summary: 4 Stars
It's a pretty good book, but doesn't hit hard enough. If it really told the whole story, most readers would really take a step back and reevaluate whether or not supermarket food is okay to eat. He points out that 1982 marked a turning point in the US. Before that, most supermarket food would be considered food. After 1982, food became loaded with adulterants, and really can not be called food. If most food on the shelves toady were subject to the "imitation food" labeling law that was repealed in 1973, most everything today would be labeled "imitation". Certainly anything sold by General Mills, Kraft, Nestle, and the other big processors would be labeled imitation. They do not have any products that could ahve avoided the imitation label. That is why the law was repealed, so that they could start adulerating food, e.g. removing the nutrients, selling them off separately for profit, then adding in synthetic nutrients, which are very cheap to manufacture. Nearly all supermarket food is now imitation. He does point out, that most of our food is made from corn, soy. But he fails to point out that all artificial colors, and most artifical flavors, sweeteners, and preservatives are made from by-prodcuts of petroleum refineries. Here is how artificial colors are made (this applies to all colors with the prefix FD&C: Benzene (a very toxic solvent)is the by-product of refining crude oil into other products such as diesel and gasoline. Sulfuric acid and Nitric acid is added to the benzene to form nitrobenzene. This is then turned into aniline. Aniline is extremely toxic, and is the building block for all artificial colors. And this is not the worst thing that is put in food. I really wish he would have discussed this issue. He does say that 2/3 of all calories in the US come from 4 plants: wheat, corn, soy, and rice. This should really concern us, as at no other time in history have human eaten so much grain and soybeans, and the fact that it is so highly processed makes it that much worse.Book Review: A watered down version of The Omnivore's Dilemma
Summary: 4 Stars
This is a watered down version of Omnivore's Dilemma with the same message (eat locally, eat more plants, etc.). The message is good, and the argument is solid, but this slim volume is not nearly the great achievement that The Omnivore's Dilemma was. Book Review: In Defense of "In Defense of Food"
Summary: 5 Stars
I loved this book!
It takes a different perspective from Pollan's "Omnivore's Dilemna". Here, Pollan is principally concerned about eating from a perspective of personal health/nutrition. Fortunately, the conclusion that he comes to is that someone who is thoughtful about their eating will make many of the same decisions whether their starting point is ecology, environment, personal health (and I'd add to the list labor rights and animal rights, much of the time). Yes, between all these different viewpoints, there are A FEW places where advocates might disagree, but it seems that a thoughtful eater will benefit all of these areas in general.
Book Review: our diets are sorely lacking because of the process Pollan labels "nutritionism."
Summary: 5 Stars
Book Review:
In Defense of Food by Michael Pollan
New flash: When whole foods are broken down into their nutritional components and then reassembled as processed food, the new product is not nearly as beneficial to our health as the original. In the mid-twentieth century, who would have thought it? Weren't we sold on "better living though science?"
Well, as it turns out, our diets are sorely lacking because of the process Pollan labels "nutritionism." This reductionist way of thinking about food assumes that the key to understanding food is through the individual nutrients it contains. Wrong! Whole food is greater than the sum of its parts!
As a holistic chiropractor and a motivational speaker on health and wellness, I'm excited about Pollan's book. He discusses with clarity, supported by extensive research, something I've been advocating for years: a return to the Paleolithic diet of our ancestors 40,000 years ago! Pollan states it succinctly; Eat food, not too much, mostly plants. Furthermore, eat mostly the leaves of the plants, not the seeds. What about meat? Meat is nutritious food, yet when it comes from a highly industrialized food chain, it brings with it extra chemicals and hormones that do not serve us well at all.
If you care at all about the food you ingest, buy this book and get out your highlighter! You'll want to mark passages to refer back to as you become pro-active with your diet!
Michael B. Roth, D.C.
Book Review: Clear, entertaining, science-based
Summary: 5 Stars
Just the kind of information I needed to clear up the murky questions I had about the american diet. A great book for every modern person to read.
AEmeryMD