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| Author: Michael Pollan
Publisher: Penguin Press HC, The
Category: Book
List Price: $21.95
Buy New: $9.49
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New (75) Used (34) Collectible (5) from $8.95
Avg. Customer Rating:  151 reviews
Sales Rank: 69
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
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Shipping: International shipping available
Condition: BRAND NEW, IN-HOUSE READY TO SHIP!!! NOT A BARGAIN, REMAINDER OR BOOKCLUB BOOK!!! WE ARE A 5 STAR SELLER.
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| Customer Reviews:
 In Defense of Food is brilliant June 16, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
I bought this book after seeing the author's lecture at Google (via YouTube). He was brilliant there and his book reflected that. There were a few sections that seemed to be a little long-winded as the author opined about the nutrition conspiracy. It was worth it to plow through those and get to the real gold nuggets -- practical advice on how to shop and eat. This book's logical, down-to-earth approach was the first truly actionable nutrition advice I've read in my adult years. Having implemented many of the book's lessons, my family is eating healthier and our food bill hasn't risen dramatically. I consider this book a "life changer". Can't recommend it highly enough.
wonderful suggestions June 13, 2008
All of Pollan's books are so easy to read, and so full of information! This newest book offers so many wonderful suggestions on how to eat like the human species was meant to, and not how corporate America wants us to. It is interesting to ponder how many of life's current ills would be solved if we just thought a little more about what we eat and how we eat it.
Well written and informative June 13, 2008
I really enjoyed this book and learned a lot from it. It has definitely increased my appreciation for those that work the land to bring food to my table and has inspired me to contemplate this more as I eat. It has also encouraged me in changing my diet to include more "food" and get rid of the processed junk.
 A new way to look at food June 8, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
In Defense of Food: An Eater's Manifesto, Michael Pollan
Could you stand to lose a few pounds? Perhaps just concerned with eating right for health reasons? Have you ever noticed that it seems just about everyday there is a new 'breakthrough scientific study' that claims to have found the holy grail of nutrition? Perhaps it is a low-fat diet...or low-carb...more antioxidants...maybe we just need more omega-3s? Does it seem like a lot of this information tends to contradict previous findings, which in turn, is contradicted again? I found this book to be an eye-opening look into why this has been occurring for over the last century. The author examines the origins of 'Nutritionism'...the phenomenon of applying science and technology to essentially replace our ancestor's food chain with The Western Diet.
Beginning in the early 19th century, scientists discovered the basic building blocks of food: Carbohydrates, Protein and Fat. A little while longer they discovered a few basic nutrients (vitamins) and proclaimed they had solved animal and human nutrition. Soon after, the first baby formula was created (consisting of cow's milk, flour and potassium bicarbonate). Nutritionism was on its way. Unfortunately, doctors began to notice that babies fed exclusively on this diet did not fare especially well...undeterred, the food scientists forged ahead, looking for the magic formula for human nutrition. The author continues to explore the Age of Nutritionism, from the advent of processed grains to the low-fat phenomenon of the late 50s-present to the low-carb craze of the turn of this century. He highlights that current scientists, in some respects, are just like the early ones. There are just far too many things that we just do not know about how the human body utilizes food.
Out of The Age of Nutritionism was born The Western Diet. Highly processed foods, shelf stable and able to be transported around the globe. A plethora of foods sources were distilled into about 4 monoculture grains (corn, soy, wheat, rice) and 3 protein sources (beef, pork and chicken). These staples were then bred for maximum production at low cost (a worthy goal when there are poor, starving people), however this came at a cost of nutritive value and flavor. The author then describes the after affects of the adoption of The Western Diet. After industrialization, native peoples quickly began to contract 'western' diseases (hypertension, diabetes, cancer, etc.) when previously they had very low rates. Pollan describes a study of modern aboriginals who had a wide range of maladies simply disappear after returning to a bush diet for several weeks; foraging for plants, grubs and wild game.
As you may know, the U.S. has very high rates of obesity, hypertension, cancer, and heart disease. Much of the increases in life expectancy have come from preventing infant mortality, not actually extending life spans. In the near future, we may actually see a decrease in life expectancy. Much of this, Pollan argues, is due to our diet. Food scientists can break food down into parts, but it has a harder time putting it back together. And even if they could, do we really know the optimal configuration? Perhaps someday we will...but until then?
What can we do? Must we return to a hunter/gatherer existence to save ourselves? Fortunately, no. The author suggests only simple, basic guidelines: Eat Food, Not Too Much, Mostly Plants. Out of these basic guidelines, there are some sub-bullets I would like to highlight.
Don't eat anything your great-grandmother wouldn't recognize as food
Avoid food products that make health claims
Shop the peripheries of the supermarket, avoid the center aisles
Eat well-grown food from healthy soils
Don't look for the magic bullet in traditional diets
Eat meals, at a table
Cook...and plant a garden
I highly recommend this book. It has really affected the way I think about food. I have always subconsciously been in the nutritionist frame of mind...the body is a machine and food is its fuel. This book sheds light on a counter-claim; that food is actually a relationship between many things, both living and not. I invite you to investigate this yourself.
I would caution that while our diets constitute one portion of our health, it is not the only determinant. Our ancestors also had much different activity levels than we in modern societies do today. I am a strong believer in the power of exercise, which is not in the scope of this book; but in my view, cannot be left out of any discussion of health. I also am an optimist in regards to science. While our scientists may not currently hold the keys to the universe...does that mean we should not implore them to keep looking?
http://tragedy-of-the-commons.blogspot.com/
Good follow-up to The Omnivore's Dilemma June 8, 2008
In The Omnivore's Dilemma, Michael Pollan does a tour of sorts through what passes as our diet through four meals and the ways he goes after them. In Defense of Food, its follow-up, he collects the information gleaned from both Omnivore's Dilemma and other sources, and breaks them down into useable forms of knowledge. As it turns out, his ideal diet comes closest to Polyface Farm than anything else.
We get no real dissection of what "organic" really means (for that, read TOD) but what is today defined as food is mercilessly taken apart and exposed for what it is: pieces and parts made to hide the fact that the corn you're eating (directly or indirectly) is lacking in any real nutritive value. As a response, Pollan defines three simple rules (Eat Food, Not Too Much, and Mostly Plants) and twelve followup rules to make the three basic rules followable.
Having done a lot of reading on the subjects Michael Pollan writes about, it's amazing how much his thesis is reflected in what's becoming the knowledge of the "dietary" sciences. Vitamins, once the key to health, are now handmaidens to bioflavenoids, phytonutrients, and other items which we may not know about. In addition, where we eat, how we eat and with whom is also seen to have an effect. Meanwhile "nutritionism" keeps being shown as sadly limited in its powers due to limits set by its attempt to become a science.
Little here is unavailable to the reader who knows where to look, but the synthesis is very much worth the price. Buy it.
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