In Defense of Food: An Eater's Manifesto by Michael Pollan Summary and Reviews
|
List Price: Our Price: $11.92 You Save: $10.03 (46%) Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days Buy Used: from $11.50 (click here) Category: Book See more book details and other editions |
|---|
Book Reviews of In Defense of Food: An Eater's Manifesto
Book Review: A book everyone needs to read
Summary: 5 Stars
I am not a book reviewer but I feel so strongly about the importance of this slim volume that I want to encourage everyone to read what Michael Pollan has to say. I first heard the author interviewed about the book on NPR and put my name on a (long) waiting list for a copy from my local library. After I read it, I Insisted that my partner read it and then I decided to purchase my own copy to share with as many friends as possible. I think he clearly states just what has gone wrong with our food system in the Western world and what we can do to reverse that process, one eater at a time. We already belong to a CSA here in South Florida but have used the book's prescription to widen our healthy eating habits to include grass fed meat and other protein and have eliminated high fructose corn syrup and other abominations from our diet. I think it's a must read for everyone.Book Review: A very good "defense of food"
Summary: 4 Stars
This is a very good book (quick, easy to ready, footnoted if you want the sources, etc.) that does a few things very well. First, it explains the harms of nutrition science ("nutritionism"), which historically has broken down our food into nutrients, declared which nutrients were best, processed foods to give us those nutrients, and then consistently re-tooled the supposedly expert formulas when the science was shown to be wrong. Instead of eating food now, many of us most of the time are eating "food-like substances." Second, it explains what we *do* know about the industrialization of food, and what we do know is not good. Third, it provides us tips to get us back to eating food rather than food-like substances. Pollan concludes that food is much more than nutrition; that food, properly understood, is natural, not a product of industry; and that food is about more than fuel, it is about relationships. I give this book a 4 instead of a 5 only because of Pollan's occassional evolutionary references; for some reason, he views the benefits of natural food over industrialized food, including its relational benefits, as a product of evolution rather than the product of a God who knows what is best for us and provided that for us. All in all, though, this book really is an excellent "defense of food." And I love the tagline: "Eat Food. Not Too Much. Mostly Plants." Book Review: Gave me a lot to think about
Summary: 5 Stars
I am not a health nut and I tend to avoid books written by those who are. However, we all want to live longer and eat well. This book made a lot of sense to me. It seemed well balanced and not "over the top". Here are a couple of things that I got from it:
* People can live well eating a wide variety of foods as long as they are "real" foods, not over-processed commercial products with the shelf-life of gravel
* Fats are not bad. We need some fats in order to live, some are just better that others
* Our modern diet is comprised of too much seeds and grains and not enough leaves
* There is not a "magic" ingredient or nutrient that will make us healthy
* Don't buy food in the grocery store that your grandmother would not recognize
* When it come to foods the Whole is truly greater than the sum on it's Parts
I have started to think differently about the way that I eat. I even sent a copy to my ex-wife since she has been trying to convince me of many of these truths for year, darn it!
Book Review: Is there food in our food?
Summary: 5 Stars
In The Omnivore's Dilemma Pollan discussed where food comes from, and in this companion book he continues with what we should eat: "Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants." Pollan points out that we humans used to know how to eat properly, but don't anymore. He also says that in order to improve our health we must go back to traditional foods and ways of eating. This would involve avoiding processed foods and not eating anything your grandmother wouldn't recognize as food. Pollan also suggests quality over quantity of food and eating real foods rather than artificial nutrients. He says, which I agree with, that it is better to spend more money on lesser amounts of quality real food. He explains that if we would spend more for better, well-grown food, but buy less of it, we would benefit ourselves, our communities, and the environment. He suggests planting a garden. He also brings up the well-known suggestions that when you shop it is best to avoid the center aisles that are filled with processed foods, and avoid foods with high-fructose corn syrup. In fact, he says to avoid any food product that makes health claims, which he interprets as signaling it is probably not really food.
The book scrutinizes what he sees that science purports to know about diet and health, and comes up with his own view of what we should eat. Pollan criticizes the typical steak dinner, the entire Western diet, and what he describes as the nutrient-by-nutrient approach to creating food. He says that during the last half-century real food has started to disappear and has been replaced by processed foods designed to include certain popular nutrients. Pollan calls this the age of nutritionism. The book criticizes manufacturers of processed foods and nutritional scientists who he blames for an unhealthy preoccupation with nutrition and diet. He also joins others in questioning the idea that dietary fat leads to diseases. The book gives the history of "nutritionism" in this country and illuminates the relationship between government and the food industry. This book is a fascinating read! Also recommend THE 3:00 PM SECRET: Live Slim and Strong, Live Your Dreams
Book Review: Love it!
Summary: 5 Stars
After reading the Omnivore's Dilemma last year, I was left thoroughly horrified with everything that American culture eats. I stopped eating and drinking MANY things, out of disgust with its production. Over time, I had to give in, eat horrible, processed, corn syruppy food again, simply because it is so difficult to find alternatives. But In Defense of Food renewed my enthusiasm to eat more naturally, more healthfully. It was an excellent follow-up to Omnivore's Dilemma, but even by itself, In Defense of Food is enlightening and encouraging--there is a TON of crazy, scientifically formulated and processed "food" out there, but it is also possible to avoid that stuff, and in doing so, perhaps avoid some of the western illnesses that have become all too common.
I HIGHLY reccommend it.