In Defence of Food: The Myth of Nutrition and the Pleasures of Eating: An Eater's Manifesto [Paperback]

 

 

Create your own review

What can I say about this book, it is simply superb. What Pollan has done in this book is to bring together all the common sense that been learned about food over the last few thousand years and asks if what we've been doing to foods in the last few decades has really been beneficial.

The book begins by looking at modern food (i.e. processed food) and investigated how this `improved' food has impacted upon the health of the last few generations. The results show just how the food we are eating really is affecting our health despite all the miraculous health claims the packaging may have been making. But Pollan goes on to look at the even bigger picture of how this same food may be affecting more than just health, but behaviour of people and just how the "ready in 20 mins" food may effect the family unit too. He goes on to expose some of the lies that the food industries are making with their health claims and just how the inclusion, or exclusion, of certain vitamins, oils etc can actually be having adverse effects upon our health.

I must admit you begin to feel a little hopeless at this point, however this is where the real brilliance begins.

In the final third of the book Pollan explains how we can reclaim the power over our diets and health. He does this, not in some complicated diet, i.e. GI, Atkins, Calorie counting or any of the other ridiculous `weight loss' diets (personal opinion), but by simple easy to follow guidelines (i.e. if a food has more than 5 ingredients, most of which you can't pronounce, then don't by it, or even simpler, buy food that your Great Gran would recognise (that's the yogurt in a tube out then)). Pollan describes how to enjoy food and urges you to spend more than 20mins preparing and eating food in front of the TV, but rather to make food an intrinsic part of your life and your families' life for the benefit of all.

To those of you, like me, who are already love food and are keen to improve the health of your diet, but not at the cost of your enjoyment of food, then this book will guide you to a sensible and life affirming view of food. To those who are already trapped in the ready meal hell (or even worse the weight loss food hell), and are looking to escape, this book is a brilliant place to start, but be warned your belly, body and health are going to thank you for it.

Mr Pollan I thank you for this book.

The devils here are "nutritionism" and "reductive science." I would prefer the terms "big agriculture" and "over processed, refined and denatured" foods. And if the word "science" is insisted upon, it should be "science" sponsored by big agriculture and food processing companies. Terminology aside, the point that Michael Pollan is making is that the problem with the American diet that has led to an astonishing increase in obesity and attendant chronic diseases of plenty such as type two diabetes, is that we are eating foods that have been produced unnaturally in monocultures, foods that have been stripped of many of their nutrients, foods that are alien to any kind of established or traditional cuisine.

Pollan demonizes reductive science because that has been the tool of the corporate interests. However reduction in science is a method breaks things down into individual parts, a method that is handy for some kinds of problems. When we cannot break down the problem effectively, as in the case with food, reductive science is less capable and we must give greater weight to historical science. We must look at entire cuisines and the social situations in which food is eaten to understand our nutritional relationship to what we eat and how. Sometimes it is the case the whole IS greater than the sum of the parts. In the case of even a single food, such as an orange or an apple or leaf of spinach, it is not currently possible to identify reductively just what it is about the food that makes it healthy for us to eat. Indeed, as Pollan argues, there may well be synergistic effects from a single food to an entire cuisine that are essential to good eating.

Pollan writes: "In recent years a less reductive method of doing nutritional science has emerged, based on the idea of studying whole dietary patterns instead of individual foods or nutrients." (p. 179) He adds, "How a culture eats may have just as much of a bearing on health as what a culture eats." (p. 182)

It is also the case that we eat too much. We eat by portion size or until our plate is clean when we should be paying attention to how much we have eaten and how full we feel. We are not able to do that very well because we eat too fast and eat amid a host of distractions like the TV, or the traffic as we are driving in our vehicles, and we have no traditional guidance as to how much to eat. Guiding us are the great corporations that produce the food and want us to consume vast quantities of their products. Furthermore, eating has gotten too easy. I did a little study of some of the foods eaten by the Native Americans in the area around Sacramento and found that just processing foods like acorns, Digger pine nuts, black walnuts, etc. required hours per meal. Pollan asks, "How often would you eat French fries if you had to peel, wash, cut and fry them yourself--and then clean up the mess?" (p. 186) Fast food is a huge part of the problem which is why there is a healthy movement that started in Italy called "slow food." Pollan even refers to some studies which show that "the widespread availability of cheap convenience foods could explain most of the twelve-pound increase in the weight of the average American since the early 1960s." (pp. 186-187)

The sad truth is that big agriculture and the food processing corporations have addicted Americans to the easy macronutrients in their "foods" and we are in denial. Pollan notes, "The snack food and beverage industry has surely been the great beneficiary of the new social taboo against smoking..." (p. 191) We have traded one addiction for another.

When we look at traditional diets the world over from China to the Mediterranean, we can see that they suffer from heart attacks, obesity, etc. must less often than we do. I think a more active lifestyle is a major factor here, but the total of ensemble of what, how, and when they eat in traditional ways is the other major factor. Pollan concludes that "the human animal is well adapted to a great many different diets. The Western diet, however, is not one of them." (p. 11)

There is a lot of other interesting information and insights in this excellent book about how and why we got to this sorry state of affairs vis-à-vis food. This is the third of Pollan's books on food that I have read, and although perhaps the least of the three, it is nonetheless an outstanding piece of work that ought to be widely read. The other books are The Botany of Desire: A Plant's-Eye View of the World (2001) and The Omnivore's Dilemma: The Natural History of Four Meals (2006). See my reviews at Amazon.

Everything I read in this books makes complete sense. Pollan's 'manifesto' is not a diet in the traditional sense (thank goodness - we don't need any more of those). It has reinforced my belief that we don't need to look to scientists to tell us what to eat and that there is so much more to eating a healthy balanced diet than nutrients and calories. Even doing some of what he suggests, some of the time would make an enormous difference to our health. Don't hesitate, buy this book right now!

Share your thoughts with other customers: Create your own review

› See all 22 customer reviews on Amazon.co.uk

 

4.0 out of 5 stars In Defence of Food by Michael Pollan
A "must to read" for anyone interested in cooking and eating good, healthy food. This book was recommended to me by an excellent vegan chef and reminds me of simple, flavoursome... Read more

Published 2 months ago by PN-Leeds

5.0 out of 5 stars Will make you think about what goes into your mouth!
Great book, very interesting. Puts to bed some of the myths about what is actually healthy and what isn't. Has encouraged me to change a few of my foood choices and eating habits.

Published 5 months ago by Katie

4.0 out of 5 stars Problems with the Western Diet
The author says, "Eat food, not too much and mostly plants" and offers a quick shortcut to healthy eating, suggesting that you shouldn't eat anything that your great grandmother... Read more

Published 6 months ago by Baraniecki Mark Stuart

5.0 out of 5 stars If you read one book about nutrition, read this!
One of my favourite books about food - it is clear, engaging and also quite short.

The author outlines the problems with the Western diet, and with nutritional... Read more

Published 12 months ago by MCWBodyProgressCentre

5.0 out of 5 stars Will change your life
This isn't like other health or diet books because it isn't clinging to any one school of thought regarding nutrition. Read more

Published 12 months ago by sara.kuhlman

5.0 out of 5 stars Common sense-at last!
This is solid sensible stuff, I can't reccomend it enough.It does seem to me after reading it that I am lucky to eat high quality, fresh food every day. Read more

Published 16 months ago by Marie Tuttle

5.0 out of 5 stars Very good
A very readable walk through a method of assessing modern food, and how to be on guard for 'food products' merely masquerading as food. Read more

Published 17 months ago by E. McLachlan

5.0 out of 5 stars A must whether you are interested in dieting or not
The most introspective book around on the subject of what we eat, why we eat the food that we are advised, guided or even forced to eat some foods and the consequences of that on... Read more

Published 19 months ago by A. Solomou

5.0 out of 5 stars The food, the whole food, and nothing but the food;except less of it.
Michael Pollan's hard-hitting, witty and possibly life-saving look at food - specifically the shambolic disgrace that is the 'Western Diet', sets its premise out right at the... Read more

Published 20 months ago by Lady Fancifull

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent thought provoking book
This book is an excellent common sense approach to food and in fact a celebration of food. Some of the sciency bits take a bit of chewing over but once he gets to the food... Read more

Published 20 months ago by Fificus

Search Customer Reviews
Only search this product's reviews

› See all 22 customer reviews on Amazon.co.uk

Search Listmania!