Posted by admin | Posted in Diet nutrition | Posted on 27-04-2011
- ISBN13: 9781594201455
- Condition: New
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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.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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Sale Price: $5.00
Total Costumer Reviews:(389)
To get to the chase read the last 50 pages of the book. The research put into the book is evident and I am sure the book was somewhat difficult to piece together. For those looking for the life altering book simply read the last 50 pages. Side note….
The authors failure to recognize prayer as an importance before meals was a huge turn off to me as a Christian. Prayer not only recognizes that God has provided the provisions to eat but also shows respect to the one who MADE the food. The author did recognze the lack/ chaging of the times of families sitting down together for an evening meal but this portion of the book could have easily added how Chrisitians, as well as other faiths, pause to voice their thanks for their meals.
When I reach for the next book on the same subject I will have to skip this author’s other books. Simply not entertaining enough for my tastes.
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I always enjoy books that make vegetables appetizing. It’s great to be reminded to eat good food. Unfortunately, this book was sprinkled throughout with doses of evolution. I thought the claim that our ancestors spontaneously produced vitamin C in their bodies was a real stretch. I could do without the made-up stuff.
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The book is amazing, but hello Amazon & Mr. Bezos…how is the digital version more expensive than the paperback??
Its amazing how monopolists act like monopolists.
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Nutritionists often change their minds, as new evidence comes in. Thus, per Pollan, we should stop paying attention to them. Doctors and nuclear scientists also sometimes change their minds – should we also disdain their thoughts?
It’s true that Americans’ health has deteriorated in some ways over recent decades – eg. the alarming growth of obesity. Pollan suggests this also damns nutritionists. Forget about eating TOO MUCH – eg. the larger portions and enticements for super-sizing, reduced physical exertion in our daily lives, and ignoring the universal advice of nutritionists (avoid animal fats, eat a balanced meal, etc.). Pollan also wants to associate (blame?) increasing heart disease on nutritionists – but what about the fact that it is decreasing?
“In Defense of Food” cannot be defended – too much hair-splitting and absurd logic. I cannot be convinced that nutritionists and the marketers that use them do not/can not improve food – eg. niacin added to bread, iodine in salt, etc. We simply don’t know enough to do so as well as in animals because the required scientific testing is often not possible or frowned upon.
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The book arrived in a timely manner and was in good shape but a total waste of time to read. It was entirely too wordy and didn’t say much. Words were like filler in food products. I don’t recommend it for anyone to read.
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