Book Review: In Defense of Food

Prior to reading In Defense of Food I was already a huge fan of Michael Pollan.  I had previously read his book The Omnivores Dilemma (which I also highly recommend) and Food, Inc. is one of my favorite food related documentaries.


I do realize that I may be preaching to the choir in regards to those of you that are into organic, sustainable and clean eating as much as I am...you are probably already very aware of who Michael Pollan is and have already read In Defense of Food.  For those of you that are not familiar with Michael Pollan and his work, I HIGHLY recommend starting off with watching Food, Inc. and reading In Defense of Food...it will literally change your life.

So if you can't already tell, this is a positive review of the book :)  Pollan is able to encompass the whole theme of the book into seven very insightful and inspiring words: Eat Food. Not Too Much. Mostly Plants.  Can it really be that simple?  Yes it can, and Pollan explains how in his "Eater's Manifesto".

Michael Pollan begins by explaining how we went From Foods to Nutrients by the way of Nutritionism, defined as "the widely shared but unexpected assumption...that the key to understanding food is indeed the nutrient.  Put another way: Foods are essentially the sum of their nutrient parts."  This is such an interesting concept that is so obviously relevant walking through your average grocery store.  Everything is labeled by their nutrition content instead of actually being labeled what it is. Think "fat free", "no trans fat", "good source of calcium", "added omega-3", "probiotic", etc...you get the point.  I think Pollan explains the paradox of nutritionalism perfectly when he writes "What the Soviet Union was to the ideology of Marxism, the Low-Fat Campaign is to the ideology of nutritionism".  He goes on to write "The problem with nutrient-by-nutrient nutrition science," points out Marion Nestle, a New York University nutritionist, "is that it takes the nutrient out of the context of the food, the food out of the context of the diet, and the diet out of the context of the lifestyle." 


Pollan then goes on to share the history of how food became a science.  He writes, "Harvey Levenstein, who has written two illuminating histories of American food culture, suggests that the sheer abundance of food in America has bred "a vague indifference to food, manifested in a tendency to eat and run, rather than to dine and savor" and that "More patients [are] suffering from "an unhealthy obsession with healthy eating".  This last statement really stuck out to me.  At first read, it sounded like an oxymoron, but the more I thought about it, the more truthful I found the statement to be.  As a society we are so wrapped up in the new trend and it is constantly shoved in our faces to follow a certain diet or eat certain foods because we are told it has this and that benefit, when in all reality the healthiest way to eat is consciously - being aware of what we are putting into our body on all levels.  Pollan echoes this same sentiment when he writes, "So this is what putting science, and scientism, in charge of the American diet has gotten us: anxiety and confusion about even the most basic questions of food and health, and a steadily diminishing ability to enjoy one of the great pleasures of life without guilt or neurosis"

So, what steps can we take in our daily lives to be more conscious about what we eat and be legitimately healthier?  Michael Pollan discusses this topic thoroughly and outlines a myriad of principle in which we can all apply to our lives.  The biggest piece of advice he gives is to "just eat food", which sounds (and should be) so simple, but as he explains is anything but simple given the way our food system (industry) is set-up.  Below are just a few of the proposals Pollan makes for what we can do to weed through the confusion that is our food system:

•  "Don't eat anything your Great Grandmother wouldn't recognize as food" 
• "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"
• "Avoid  food products that make health claims"
• "Eat mostly plants, especially leaves"
  
  • "Thomas Jefferson probably had the right idea when he recommended using meat more as a flavor principle than as a main course, treating it is a "condiment for the vegetables"
  • "A 2006 report issued by the United Nations stated that the world's livestock generate more greenhouse gases than the entire transportation industry.

• "Get out of the supermarket whenever possible"
• Remember that "You are what what you eat eats too"
• "Eat meals"
•  "Don't get your fuel from the same place your car does"
• "Eat Slowly"   

Like I said, above are just a few of the "rules of thumb" outlined in In Defense of Food, there are many principles and Pollan goes into much more detail about each of them...these are just the ones that stood out to me.  What are the ones you like the most?

The author ends his book with an insightful statement that I think we can all agree on: "The cook in the kitchen preparing a meal from plants and animals at the end of this shortest of food chains has a great many things to worry about, but "health" is simply not one of them, because it is a given."  Well said Michael Pollan, well said!

Overall, I thoroughly enjoyed this book and would recommend it to everyone no matter where you are on your sustainable food journey.  This blog post was difficult for me to write because I felt like I could just go on and on discussing everything I loved, but I had to stop because in the end I want you to read it and make conclusions for yourself.  If you have read it, what are some of your favorite parts?  If you haven't read it I would love to hear your comments once you do.  Enjoy!