In Defense of Food - Michael Pollan

Those of you who know me know my obsession with food and food writing. Among my favorite food writers are Mark Bittman, author of the inimitable How to Cook Everything Vegetarian (I should write a review of that!), and Michael Pollan, author of The Omnivore's Dilemma. Love them both.

Recently, I picked up another of Pollan's books, In Defense of Food, a shorter read than The Omnivore's Dilemma and with a more practical focus. Although it draws on many of the same principles Pollan espoused in Omnivore, In Defense of Food goes further in laying down some simple rules for eating in our culture and effective strategies for "opting out" of what Pollan calls "the Western diet."

Pollan begins with a very, very simple maxim: Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants. While the first section of his book is dedicated to breaking down the problems with the Western diet, with our obsession with nutrition (what Pollan calls "nutritionism," in an effort to bring to light its ideological concerns), and with the power the food industry has over the Western consumer, the second section is dedicated to breaking down Pollan's initial maxim into practical componants. For instance, Pollan explains what he means by his injunction to "eat food" - what is "food"? Don't we eat it already? What isn't food? How do we tell food from not-food? And so on.

He gives practical, simple rules to guide us in how not to eat too much. He provides advice on why leafy plants are so very good for the body, and how the Western diet tends to eschew them in favor of meats and seeds. He points out the dearth of food culture in American society and encourages the development of one. He defends the idea of quality over quantity.

In short, In Defense of Food is sort of a primer to the wholistic view of eating and food that is championed by folks like Pollan, Bittman, and others - the idea that we don't really need "nutrition science" to tell us how to eat, but that we do need to step outside the current paradigm and re-align our way of thinking about food. It's a great book - simply and clearly written, and I particularly appreciate that Pollan spends a great deal of time examining the various nutritional studies that have been done and detailing their strengths and weaknesses. This kind of work is very needed.

In Defense of Food reiterated the themes and principals that I'd already encountered in The Omnivore's Dilemma, the documentary, Food, Inc., and Animal, Vegetable, Miracle (to say nothing of the amount of food journalism I've consumed this year), and so much of it was a refresher course for me. Even so, I found it to be one of the most comprehensive and well-grounded of the wholistic food literature out there, and it's a book that I'll be forcing on all my friends and relatives in the near future.

You think I won't? Watch me.