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

You know that you shouldn't be eating 'food products' instead of proper identifiable food. But you like biscuits and cakes. You don't want to be hectored. This book is smart enough to realise that. Pollan covers a lot of ground but he doesn't patronise or claim to be better than his audience. Amongst the topics covered are:
+ The French Paradox. Why do French people spend so much more money and time on food and yet consistently live healthier and longer lives than Americans?*
+ Why nutritional claims should be ignored on food products (hint, if they're telling you it's low in fat check the sugars etc)
+ Just why it is so hard to work out what difference adding or removing one element from a person's diet has. When you factor in the person lying about their diet in the first place, the very long and extremely detailed forms they have to complete to track food intake, life changes etc it's a wonder any judgement can ever be made.
+ Why switching from eating fat to carbs makes you fatter and unhealthier and why the American government encouraged an entire generation to make that misguided switch.

It makes for very readable reading.

The final section of the book is Pollan's rules of thumb. They're pragmatic, human and easy to remember. Some examples and quotes:

Rule No. 1 - 'Eat food'. (Meaning proper food made from proper ingredients instead of food products made from everything else. Homemade cake instead of 'diet' cake bars.)

'Don't Eat Anything Your Great-Grandmother Wouldn't Recognise As Food' With the additional comment, 'Don't eat anything incapable of rotting is another personal policy you might consider adopting'.

'Avoid Food Products Containing Ingredients That Are A)unfamiliar, B)unpronounceable, C)more than five in number, or that include D)high-fructose corn syrup.'

'You Are What You Eat Eats Too. That is, the diet of the animals we eat has a bearing on the nutritional quality and healthfulness, of the food itself, whether it is meat or milk or eggs.'

'Do All Your Eating At A Table. No, a desk is not a table.' (I love this quote!)

This is not a shock tactics book like Fast Food Nation was but rather a book that seeks a quiet personal revolution based on rational information. It's less likely to make you wave it under someone else's nose and demand they read it to change their life but it will make you more wary of claims like 'fat free' and aware of just how food products are replacing food. After reading this I walked around a supermarket and was surprised at just how many questions I had (Where does it actually come from? What does that ingredient actually do? Why is it in this product in the first place? etc). That rule about only eating things that actually rot kept floating back into my mind as well. It's a very good thought to be having when looking around so many hermetically sealed packages. So, I feel I learnt a few lessons from this book and I feel it is well worth a read even if it is more likely to make you simply say 'Oh' and buy a better choice rather than start a protest. Over time though, that change in your buying patterns will probably make a much bigger difference. 8/10. Recommended.

*They take longer at the table to eat less food of better quality for which they are willing to pay more. Simple really.

I heard Mr Pollan on Radio 4, and was impressed. The book is well worth persevering with, it is crammed with well researched information.

This is not a diet book, it is an anti-diet book. It arms you with all the tools you need to make up your own mind about food.

It is easy to become almost evangelical about this book, but it is a really important piece of work. Nutritionalists should not worry, the world still needs you, but this book makes you wonder about the way that major corporations use this information to boost profits.

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.