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In Defense of Food: An Eater's Manifesto | 
 enlarge | Author: Michael Pollan
Publisher: Penguin Press HC, The
Category: Book
List Price: $21.95
Buy New: $10.93
You Save: $11.02 (50%)
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Avg. Customer Rating:  118 reviews
Sales Rank: 33
Media: Hardcover
Edition: 1
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 256
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.8
Dimensions (in): 8.2 x 5.5 x 1.1
ISBN: 1594201455
Dewey Decimal Number: 613.2
EAN: 9781594201455
ASIN: 1594201455
Publication Date: January 1, 2008
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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Amazon.com
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
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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| Customer Reviews: Read 113 more reviews...
 Good start, bad end May 9, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
The best part of this book is the beginning, where the author explains the history of the western diet. Then he discredits modern nutrition scientists, or nutritionists as he calls them, putting them in the ranks of alchemists. Also he seems to accuse them of being colluded with the capitalist pigs running the modern food industry.
Then, he tries to speak with authority about isoflavones, omega-3, and other hard core nutrition knowledge, as if trying to be a nutritionist himself!
The end was the worst, almost unbearable, seriously suggesting that cultivating your lawn or whatever available land you have is a good way to solve the food problem. He becomes very critical, putting down people who "ONLY" take a couple weeks of vacation per year, unlike the French who know more about life than Americans. This was insensitive because, as self-employed that I am, I have not taken vacation in years...aboriginal people, whom he praises, did not take vacations either. In fact, vacations are a modern invention just like the western diet.
I started reading this book with enthusiasm. I liked how he took a step back to look a the whole picture from a broader perspective and shedding some light on how we have ended up where we are. I like his suggestions of trying to avoid processed food. But the book became gradually disappointing.
That a journalist is now rising as a nutritional authority with best sellers clearly underscores the sad state of confusion and misinformation about food. I was going to recommend it to my wife and some friends, but this book will probably best end up in the recycle bin.
 A winning combination: interesting food history that leads us to a healthy diet May 8, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
What to eat? Food as opposed to nutrients. What is food? What your great great grandmother would recognize as food. But the grandmother would have to be taught the importance of buying organic. She would have to learn how to read some ingredient labels because many unhealthy breads, for example, look great to eat. Also some of these ladies would have to be instructed, even back then (about 100 years), to cut back on diary products and meat. Some might need to eat less of everything. The author in general is all about eatibg good food not ingredients but omega 3 is an exception. Great great grandmother would have to be trained buy more fish and other foods containing plenty of omega 3.
If everybody stared shopping like this slightly modernized lady it would be a real puzzle if the incidence of obesity and all the associated maladies did not decline significantly.
Throw away all your understanding of what is good for you and why May 7, 2008
0 out of 1 found this review helpful
One of the best food books I have ever read. I love the way it challenges every belief we have about what we should and shouldn't eat.
I also think the fact the the way it is presented, not as a definitive solution but rather a suggestion to begin questioning is true genius.
Continuing the food revolution May 7, 2008
This book along with Mr. Pollan's Omnivore's Dilemma lay out the case for changing what and how we eat. While his previous book focused on the environmental, ethical, and cultural coonsequences of industrial agriculture, In Defense of Food focuses on the health consequences. The writing style is very engaging and despite what could be dry subject matter, I finished this in a matter of days. This is one of those rare books that has the potential not only to be informative and interesting, but to change the way you live your life.
eat food, not too much, mostly plants May 5, 2008
0 out of 1 found this review helpful
Mr. Pollan's approach to this thoroughly topic is refreshing. Instead of fixating on the different ideologies out there ( vegetarianism, omnivorism, etc), he takes a stand on how humans (well, specifically Americans) have become so far removed from what they eat, the socio and cultural aspects of eating that now food is a highly capitalized product.
He harps on the amazing fact that its easily to convince someone to eat a "man made food product" which may not even be food than it is to feed someone with actual food.
The government does give out so much conflicting information and we are all aware that when you have a multi-billion dollar industry, the biggest players in this space will not idly sit back and watch someone or people attempt to decimate their profit line.
So you know smoking is bad no deadly to you and our basic freedom rights ensure that Tobacco companies will never go out of business.
He gives you food for thought and speaks in detail about how industrialization has become a bane to our existence and how we can realistically rein it back in.
Here's to real food,
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