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M's review

In Defense of Food: An Eater's Manifesto
by Michael Pollan

M's review
rating:
bookshelves: food
recommended for: foodies

This was a harder read for me than The Omnivore's Dilemma. It is full of useful and interesting info, but it wasn't written in the same style of writing. It isn't about his journey meeting or visiting people to learn about this stuff, it's just a ton of facts, studies, and more packed in efficiently. I had a much harder time reading it as a result.

At the same time, I do recommend it as interesting food for thought on the way we think about food, what we are told about food, what food really is, and who decides what is best for us to eat.

The first part of the book explains the history of the science of nutritionism and where the food pyramid originated. This is an interesting history discussion, reminding me somewhat of The Gospel of Food by Barry Glassner in style (Which he cites as a source.) Part two of the book was the hardest for me, as it was the most technical, but it is interesting as he discusses the problems with nutritionism reductionist science and uses several exa...more This was a harder read for me than The Omnivore's Dilemma. It is full of useful and interesting info, but it wasn't written in the same style of writing. It isn't about his journey meeting or visiting people to learn about this stuff, it's just a ton of facts, studies, and more packed in efficiently. I had a much harder time reading it as a result.

At the same time, I do recommend it as interesting food for thought on the way we think about food, what we are told about food, what food really is, and who decides what is best for us to eat.

The first part of the book explains the history of the science of nutritionism and where the food pyramid originated. This is an interesting history discussion, reminding me somewhat of The Gospel of Food by Barry Glassner in style (Which he cites as a source.) Part two of the book was the hardest for me, as it was the most technical, but it is interesting as he discusses the problems with nutritionism reductionist science and uses several examples including omega 3's, the lipid hypothesis, the idea of orthorexia, and more. Part three is where the most interesting stuff is though and I found myself really wanting to skip ahead to it and thought it way to short when I did get there. It discusses in detail his 7 word, 3 phrase basic guideline: Eat Food, Not too much, Mostly Plants.

He does fall into the reductionist nutritionism trap that he refutes quite often. He recognizes this at one point, but not all the time. For example, he decides to accept the study saying a glass of wine a day is good for you, and it must be the alcohol in the wine that has the effect. Could it be the fermentation? Or something else? Maybe that's just a matter of personal indulgence, but it is one of the things that bugged me.

He also praises the farmer's market (which are great), without pointing out that many of them are full of people selling stuff right from the supermarket and you have to be careful to know if they are really a farm, or a seller for farmers, or just someone selling food at the market. Or that most CSA's have a very long waiting list. And what about the pick your own farms? Those aren't mentioned. Perhaps he's trying to get more people to go to the farmer's market but I suspect that most people interested in reading such a book have been to a farmer's market and may not know if they've been taken.

His guidelines are good ideas overall. Of course, for the don't buy anything your great grandma wouldn't recognize as food, I have to go farther back than my great grandparents b/c they were big into vitamins and supplements and only died 10 years ago.

I am left wondering if I should increase our food budget, (as American's spend only 10% on average on food, as compared to French & Italian at 15% and Spanish at 17%. I am also feeling inspired to be more diligent about going to farmers markets and pick your own farms. I have been thinking about many of his guidelines for the past couple days, wondering how he would apply them to this or that situation and then deciding it's up to me, not the author to decide how to implement things in my life.

I did learn more about the slow food movement. He is a bit of a stickler on some of the food manners. Eat only at the table, and snacking is not kosher. Ummm...do you remember what it's like to have small kids with very small stomachs? Nevertheless, I have decided to make a concerted effort to plan and serve breakfast, lunch & dinner at regular times in our house as much as possible, at the table and not allow myself to do other things while eating, but to focus on eating and enjoying my family. After a day and a half, it's been very positive. How will it go in the future? I don't know. But I'm trying to listen more to my internal food cues and let my kids listen to theirs.

Why do you eat? Merely to provide yourself with nutrition for other activities? I hope not. Food is more than that. ...less

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comments (showing 1-1 of 1)

message 1: by Emily

03/18/2008 11:05AM

Michael Pollan came to our town on a book tour, and I caught a little bit of him speaking. I was very impressed with him & his ideas and thinking about food.