Customer Reviews: Read 402 more reviews...
 changed the way i think and eat May 2, 2008
"TOD" is not an easy read, and a takes a bit of time to get into, but it's incredibly absorbing. I learned a ton -- about where our food comes from, how it's made and processed, and how "organic" isn't really all that "organic" or necessarily good for the planet. Reading this book has changed my food choices for the better and really made me think about what I eat and select.
I'll tell you this -- I haven't had McDonald's in 9 months, and will never eat there again, not even in an emergency. (This healthy choice owed to this book, + the documentary "king corn," which features Pollan; and "Super Size Me" and "Fast Food Nation," which I also highly recommend.)
Buy this book, and eat healthy!
 Not much to add... May 2, 2008
I have really nothing to add that wasn't already covered in earlier reviews, except to say that I too am absolutely absorbed by this book, it's informative, interesting, relevant and the writing style is simply captivating. I can't put it down!
What's for dinner, Mr. Pollan? April 30, 2008
1 out of 2 found this review helpful
Pollan's book takes a dry and somewhat elitist look the state of the human diet and more specifically, the American diet. He investigates three meals (I'm not sure where the fourth one from the subtitle came from), fast food, organic, and a hunter/gatherer meal. What he finds is interesting and thought-provoking, much of which supports the findings I wrote about in The Evolution Diet: we are extremely removed from what we were designed to eat.
The author's personal experiences make up the majority of this lengthy book, and his interactions with some of the characters in the food procurement industry is insightful if drawn out. The section on the hunter/gatherer meal was the most appealing (naturally), and despite the glaring flaw of 'preparing a hunter/gatherer meal', it was freer from contradiction than the other sections. Pollan rightly attacks the socialism that has led to a national food industry that pumps unrecognizable processed material into our stomachs, but he fails to notice that Roosevelt's socialism is just as detrimental as Nixon's. As Pollan quotes an interesting farmer Joel Salatin in the book, "You can't regulate integrity".
Pollan doesn't commit to a diet plan for the reader--he admits that the extreme meals (fast and slow) should only be an annual ceremonial meal--but the stories that he conveys will no doubt lead the reader to a healthier lifestyle. For specifics on that healthier lifestyle, please feel free to reference The Evolution Diet, mentioned above.
This is no Dilemma, just a great book of knowledge April 25, 2008
0 out of 1 found this review helpful
The book came on time and in great condition. I am still reading it now (on meal three) and finding out a lot of things that I did not know and other things that I have just turned a blind eye to. If you want to really get your intelligence started in finding out what you are eating and how it has changed from the good ole days...start here.
The problem we love to have April 25, 2008
1 out of 2 found this review helpful
The fact is that we're omnivores. Huge number of vegetables (but not all), fruits (but not all), fish (but not all), and other sources (but not all) will feed us quite nicely. So, once the toxicity question is out of the way, and it's a big one, the dilemma remains: what's for supper? Why? How did it get there? What moral statement does that make? And how much do you really enjoy eating it? Feeding is a biological function, but dining is an art form, or should be. Which are you doing?
Pollan throws himself into these questions' answers. He traces a set of meals from their origin to his pan and palate. It turns out that each trace represents a specific set of human values, societal norms, and decisions that most people rarely realize have been made. His hi-tech foray starts with one of the earliest and most bizarre of genetic engineering feats: the neolithic taming of corn, making the species utterly dependent on agriculture for reproduction. He then follows modern corn from the field to the feedlot, where it fattens a cow ankle-deep in manure, to the ominously closed gates of the slaughterhouse - "food security," or so they say. In other adventures, he converts the animal to meat with his own hands. It happens once at a farm that's gone back to the ideals of organic farming but with different goals, and again as a modern hunter-gatherer.
Each trek ends in a finished meal. His family consumes the modern industrialized McMeal on the road, but he shepherds the others through his kitchen and onto the plates of his friends and family. At every step, he considers the substance of the food, along with the many social ramifications of each part of its preparation. Some episodes amuse, others appall to some extent, as they should. All of them, however, inform and invite the readers to consider their own lives and means of staying alive. Just what are you eating? And why?
-- wiredweird
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