In Defense of Food is a book written by Michael Pollan. He is a journalist who has very strong feelings about food in the USA (which,by the way, parallel mine in many ways). This is an awesome book.
Michael Pollan was a key contributor to Food, Inc. He is shown frequently in the film discussing his views on where his research has led him. You may recognize his name, as he is also the author of various other works, including Fast Food Nation.
In ...Defense... he outlines the history of food in the United States, and gives plausible and comprehensible explanation to the rise of processed foods and how they came to replace the real foods they imitate. In fact, he explains what led up to the exact moment when it became okay for a processed food manufacturer to label a box of factory generated food-like substance as "a good source of [insert nutrient here]". He explains the history of the development of these food-like substances that many Americans live on and eat for 3, 4 and 5 meals a day.
So where does the need to defend food come from? Is he defending the current American diet composed mainly of processed foods and empty calories (now referred to as the Western diet)? No. The food that needs defending is real food. Good, wholesome food that our great-grandparents ate. Not this stuff that lines supermarket shelves posing as food. Not the stuff that's built in factories from nutrients and substances extracted from food. But the kind of foods that don't need labels that promise they bring healthful benefits.
Our nation worldwide is the most obsessed with this idea of nutrition. Somewhere down the line we were told that food is a vehicle to deliver specific nutrients, and if we can isolate the most necessary nutrients and eliminate the "bad" ones we can engineer the perfect foods. Oh, and by the way, we can load them with refined and synthetic sugars, fat-like substances to replace the natural fats that have been removed, and flavor enhancing chemicals that will stimulate our taste buds the way no natural food can. Sounds good? Just read the ingredient list on a box of most of the items you see in the middle aisles of the grocery store.
In the book, Mr. Pollan delves into the long term effects of altering what naturally exists in the food chain. Enter the new age of adults who are significantly overfed yet malnourished, a phenomenon that has never before existed in the history of humankind. Enter the age when chronic diseases (aka Western diseases) are the new norm for adults (hypertension, heart disease, type 2 diabetes, cancer and obesity).
He also makes many poignant references to the importance of culture on food and our eating habits. This is also something we have grossly gotten away from. What happened to the experience of dinner at home with the family? Home cooked food enjoyed around the table along with conversation and bonding with loved ones. Not only about the food, but family dinner was where children learned lessons about healthy eating, sharing with others, social skills, manners, gluttony and the use of please and thank you.
This book is worth reading. If you go to www.michaelpollan.com/indefense.php you can click on the link to read the 16-page introduction to his book. Learn more behind his simple manifesto for a healthier life: "Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants." You won't be sorry.
Michael Pollan was a key contributor to Food, Inc. He is shown frequently in the film discussing his views on where his research has led him. You may recognize his name, as he is also the author of various other works, including Fast Food Nation.
In ...Defense... he outlines the history of food in the United States, and gives plausible and comprehensible explanation to the rise of processed foods and how they came to replace the real foods they imitate. In fact, he explains what led up to the exact moment when it became okay for a processed food manufacturer to label a box of factory generated food-like substance as "a good source of [insert nutrient here]". He explains the history of the development of these food-like substances that many Americans live on and eat for 3, 4 and 5 meals a day.
So where does the need to defend food come from? Is he defending the current American diet composed mainly of processed foods and empty calories (now referred to as the Western diet)? No. The food that needs defending is real food. Good, wholesome food that our great-grandparents ate. Not this stuff that lines supermarket shelves posing as food. Not the stuff that's built in factories from nutrients and substances extracted from food. But the kind of foods that don't need labels that promise they bring healthful benefits.
Our nation worldwide is the most obsessed with this idea of nutrition. Somewhere down the line we were told that food is a vehicle to deliver specific nutrients, and if we can isolate the most necessary nutrients and eliminate the "bad" ones we can engineer the perfect foods. Oh, and by the way, we can load them with refined and synthetic sugars, fat-like substances to replace the natural fats that have been removed, and flavor enhancing chemicals that will stimulate our taste buds the way no natural food can. Sounds good? Just read the ingredient list on a box of most of the items you see in the middle aisles of the grocery store.
In the book, Mr. Pollan delves into the long term effects of altering what naturally exists in the food chain. Enter the new age of adults who are significantly overfed yet malnourished, a phenomenon that has never before existed in the history of humankind. Enter the age when chronic diseases (aka Western diseases) are the new norm for adults (hypertension, heart disease, type 2 diabetes, cancer and obesity).
He also makes many poignant references to the importance of culture on food and our eating habits. This is also something we have grossly gotten away from. What happened to the experience of dinner at home with the family? Home cooked food enjoyed around the table along with conversation and bonding with loved ones. Not only about the food, but family dinner was where children learned lessons about healthy eating, sharing with others, social skills, manners, gluttony and the use of please and thank you.
This book is worth reading. If you go to www.michaelpollan.com/indefense.php you can click on the link to read the 16-page introduction to his book. Learn more behind his simple manifesto for a healthier life: "Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants." You won't be sorry.
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