A detailed examination of what to eat, what not
to eat, and how to think about health.
"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."
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In Defense of Food
An Eater's Manifesto
by Michael Pollan
Penguin Press, 2008
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