In Defense of Food: An Eater’s Manifesto, written by Michael Pollan and narrated by Scott Brick, is a stretch of a read/listen for me. I tend to shy away from most food-related books. I’m pretty sure Upton Sinclair’s The Jungle started it for me. It’s not that I don’t want to know about my food. Well…maybe there’s some truth to that.
In Defense of Food seemed like an “easy” way to start looking closer at what I eat. In it, Pollan discusses the “pandemic [created] without any virus or microbe” – our deteriorating health and sociality as a direct result of industrialized and processed foods. Pollan absolutely challenged some of my beliefs as he turned the science of nutrition and heart disease on its head, in my mind at least. That’s a good thing. I enjoy being challenged.
Pollan educated me on “feeding” versus “eating,” eating algorithms, orthorexia, and a lot of nutrition and food history, which I enjoyed. He chastised me, knowing I keep Go-Gurt in my fridge for my kiddos. He reminded me that it’s not really food. Sheesh. But, you know, I read some nutrition-related articles this week that made me pause and think hard about what I keep in my kitchen, what I want my children to eat, and how I should know what’s actually in my food. Listening to In Defense of Food was a big part of that moment.
I was particularly fascinated by the idea of “nutritionism,” in which we as a culture now talk more about nutrition elements – such as calcium, protein, vitamin D, etc. – as opposed to actual food because scientists can’t really study whole foods as they are; there are just too many nutrients to study and know which one is making the difference. Pollan argues that it’s impossible to really study one nutrient outside of the food just as it is illogical to study one food outside of the entire diet and culture.
I really enjoyed this audio book. The narrator, Scott Brick, was easy to listen to over the five discs. I absolutely recommend this book to others, and I will likely take a look – or listen – to Pollan’s other works, as well, as a result of this one book.
Have you read In Defense of Food: An Eater’s Manifesto? What did you think about it? Did it change the way you eat?
Chris
March 12, 2013 5:11 amI’ve been a follower of “healthy foods” for a while, and if you read Mike Adam’s blog (naturalnews), then this book is really a summary of all the bad stuff that’s been going on with foods for years.
I got this book because I wanted to give it to friends as an introduction as to why they should really look at what they are buying and eating, specifically if they have young children. What I like about this book is that it introduces concepts in a simple manner, and it doesn’t make the book heavy to read.
Of course, many will say that Pollan doesn’t back up his writing with scientific literature, but the other reality is that many of the so called scientific studies are also backed by the big food lobby so when a study comes out saying that organic food is not better than normal food, one needs to look and see who sponsored the study.
Nonetheless, if people read this book and they still believe that the food out there might not be dangerous to their health, just in the news we saw that there are plenty of ingredients banned in other countries, but they are still being used in the USA. And yea, don’t think that the FDA is going to protect you from that.
http://articles.chicagotribune.com/2013-01-21/news/ct-met-banned-food-practices-20130121_1_safety-of-food-additives-bvo-ingredient
And here is a nice pictorial showing how foods in the usa differ in ingredients in other countries:
http://www.100daysofrealfood.com/2013/02/11/food-companies-exploit-americans-with-ingredients-banned-in-other-countries/