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In Defense of Food: An Eater's Manifesto By Michael Pollan ( Penguin Press HC, The )
Release Date: 2008-01-01
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Product Description
What to eat, what not to eat, and how to think about health: a manifesto for our times "Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants." These simple words go to the heart of Michael Pollan's In Defense of Food, the well-considered answers he provides to the questions posed in the bestselling The Omnivore's Dilemma. Humans used to know how to eat well, Pollan argues. But the balanced dietary lessons that were once passed down through generations have been confused, complicated, and distorted by food industry marketers, nutritional scientists, and journalists-all of whom have much to gain from our dietary confusion. As a result, we face today a complex culinary landscape dense with bad advice and foods that are not "real." These "edible foodlike substances" are often packaged with labels bearing health claims that are typically false or misleading. Indeed, real food is fast disappearing from the marketplace, to be replaced by "nutrients," and plain old eating by an obsession with nutrition that is, paradoxically, ruining our health, not to mention our meals. Michael Pollan's sensible and decidedly counterintuitive advice is: "Don't eat anything that your great-great grandmother would not recognize as food." Writing In Defense of Food, and affirming the joy of eating, Pollan suggests that if we would pay more for better, well-grown food, but buy less of it, we'll benefit ourselves, our communities, and the environment at large. Taking a clear-eyed look at what science does and does not know about the links between diet and health, he proposes a new way to think about the question of what to eat that is informed by ecology and tradition rather than by the prevailing nutrient-by-nutrient approach. In Defense of Food reminds us that, despite the daunting dietary landscape Americans confront in the modern supermarket, the solutions to the current omnivore's dilemma can be found all around us. In looking toward traditional diets the world over, as well as the foods our families-and regions-historically enjoyed, we can recover a more balanced, reasonable, and pleasurable approach to food. Michael Pollan's bracing and eloquent manifesto shows us how we might start making thoughtful food choices that will enrich our lives and enlarge our sense of what it means to be healthy.
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Amazon.com Review
Amazon Significant Seven, January 2008: Food is the one thing that Americans hate to love and, as it turns out, love to hate. What we want to eat has been ousted by the notion of what we should eat, and it's at this nexus of hunger and hang-up that Michael Pollan poses his most salient question: where is the food in our food? What follows in In Defense of Food is a series of wonderfully clear and thoughtful answers that help us omnivores navigate the nutritional minefield that's come to typify our food culture. Many processed foods vie for a spot in our grocery baskets, claiming to lower cholesterol, weight, glucose levels, you name it. Yet Pollan shows that these convenient "healthy" alternatives to whole foods are appallingly inconvenient: our health has a nation has only deteriorated since we started exiling carbs, fats--even fruits--from our daily meals. His razor-sharp analysis of the American diet (as well as its architects and its detractors) offers an inspiring glimpse of what it would be like if we could (a la Humpty Dumpty) put our food back together again and reconsider what it means to eat well. In a season filled with rallying cries to lose weight and be healthy, Pollan's call to action—"Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants."--is a program I actually want to follow. --Anne Bartholomew
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 Skip the CD's, read the book ( jldion )
This is a great book, though I expect most who will read it have already read Pollan's earlier books, and therefore will have already absorbed most of this information. I look forward to some fresh insights, or a new direction in his next book, as he has pretty much beaten the whole foods, anti-corn-and-soy dogma to death.
This review is not actually about the book, but about the Audio Book. Do yourself a favor and DO NOT listen to it if you ever want to read another book by Michael Pollan. The reader, Scott Brick, is really awful. He takes "preachy" to a new level and does a great disservice to Pollan's research and writing. As a non-stop listener to public radio, I am familiar with the sound of Pollan's voice, and of his collegial, didactic tone. I spent the whole time I listened to this book gritting my teeth and wishing Pollan had read it himself (perhaps he's too busy peddling himself on public radio?) instead of shunting it off to Scott Brick. Brick sounds like a second-rate local theater actor with aspirations toward Shakespeare, turning (soft) journalism into high drama. His tone is antagonistic at best, and just overall condescending to the listener. If you'll excuse the pun, he will leave a bad taste in your mouth -- Brick is the corn syrup of audio book readers.
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 Good but not worth it if you have Omnivore's Dilema ( lawstudenthelper )
Let me say that on its own this is a very good book. Pollan does a great job of talking about how much of the "science" behind the nutrition claims of journalists and doctors is basically bunk and often may do more harm than good. He then goes onto explain what parts of the Western Diet (processed foods, industrial foods, corn syrup, hydrogenated corn) may be causing so many of the Chronic diseases) and some basic rules to live by for eating food.
That said, there is not much in this book that I did not already learn from Omnivore's Dilemma. The book read more like another chapter to Omnivore's dilemma than a stand alone book. So hence the three stars since I think its just okay if you have read Omnivore's, however if you haven't i would say this is more like 4.5 stars
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 You'll read it in a day but remember it for a long time ( jhovanny )
This book is excellent, mostly because of the references you'll find to other books. Very good research into a subject that matters to us all. A good starting point into the problems and rewards of eating well.
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In Defense of Food
What a fun book to read. The author is brilliant and a riot. Very informative and inspiring. I would recomend this book to everyone wanting to take back ownership of their health and well being.
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The Truth to Health Is In Real Food: This should be required reading in ALL schools
"Most of what we're consuming today is not food, and how we're consuming it--in the car, in front of the TV, and increasing alone--is not really eating."
It is the American paradox that the more we worry about nutrition, the less healthy we seem to become. Pollan explains why this has happened and what we can do about it. Understanding the context of health is vital to understanding how to achieve it in our current circumstances.
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