"In Defense of Food"

is a great little book by Michael Pollan. The subtitle is "An Eater's Manifesto". On the cover is a head of lettuce with a yellow plastic tape around it with this 7-word advice for eating well:
Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants.

Brilliant! The main point Pollan makes is that in this era of "nutritionism", we have lost connection with "food". Instead of eating food we are counting calories and eating protein and carbs and fat and micro-nutrients.

In the last section he translates his ideas into recommendations for eating well, consisting of defining food, what to eat and how to eat. Here are a couple that are very profound:

  • Don't eat anything your great-grandmother wouldn't recognize as food!
  • Avoid food products containing ingredients that are: A. Unfamiliar, B. Unpronounceable, C. More than 5 in number Or that include D. High-fructose corn syrup.

He explains: "None of these characteristics, not even the last one, is necessarily harmful in and of itself, but all of them are reliable markers for foods that have been highly processed to the point where they may no longer be what they purport to be. They have crossed from foods to food-products."

He has other interesting recommendations as well:

  • Pay more, eat less: Buy higher quality foods.
  • Eat meals: Not snacks.
  • Sit down at the table and eat. What a concept!
  • Try not to eat alone.
  • Consult your gut: Stop eating when you start feeling full. No need to clean up your plate. That is only for the kids!
  • Eat slowly: Apparently a group in Italy started the Slow Food movement to counter the fast food tide. I would call this mindful, deliberate, focused eating.

The book is really making me think about food and pay more attention to it.

Business Week had this article a couple of days ago that made me think of the book: The Rise of the 'Locavore'

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