Books: In Defense of Food
by rrusczyk, Jun 2, 2008, 1:48 PM
In Defense of Food by Michael Pollan
I was walking around the UNLV campus with Tom Davis at the West Coast ARML site when we wandered into a bookstore. This is, of course, like an alcoholic wandering into a bar. I had to buy something. Tom recommended this book, which vRusczyk had picked up a few times in bookstores, but never got around to buying. I'll be taking more recommendations from Tom in the future -- this is one of the most inspiring books I've read in a while. Not inspiring in a 'life is great' kind of way, but inspiring in a 'live differently' way.
The book is about how dramatically humanity has altered its diet in the last few generations, and how this has caused all sorts of health problems. He outlines a variety of reasons this has happened, spearheaded by lazy science and government cowed by special interests. But, above all, it's a story of economics -- if people want cheap food, they'll get cheap "food". Lots and lots of cheap, processed food, instead of real food that your great-grandparents would recognize as food. His recommendations can be summed up very simply: "Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants." He has a variety of simple approaches to changing how you eat: don't buy anything with more than 5 ingredients, if great-grandma wouldn't recognize it then don't buy it, if the food makes health claims then don't buy it, and so on. Two ideas that particularly struck me is that you'll probably be better off if you're spending more money on food (real food costs more in general than processed food) and spending more time preparing and eating your food. The latter is particularly tough for me, but I'll try. Cutting back on meat will be tough, too. I'll never be a vegetarian, but now is a good time for me to try cutting back the meat intake, since our garden will start producing soon.
The book is also very short, so it's a very quick read. I'm not going to dive into particular arguments of his because I'd essentially end up re-creating the book. If you think at all about what you eat, check this book out.
I was walking around the UNLV campus with Tom Davis at the West Coast ARML site when we wandered into a bookstore. This is, of course, like an alcoholic wandering into a bar. I had to buy something. Tom recommended this book, which vRusczyk had picked up a few times in bookstores, but never got around to buying. I'll be taking more recommendations from Tom in the future -- this is one of the most inspiring books I've read in a while. Not inspiring in a 'life is great' kind of way, but inspiring in a 'live differently' way.
The book is about how dramatically humanity has altered its diet in the last few generations, and how this has caused all sorts of health problems. He outlines a variety of reasons this has happened, spearheaded by lazy science and government cowed by special interests. But, above all, it's a story of economics -- if people want cheap food, they'll get cheap "food". Lots and lots of cheap, processed food, instead of real food that your great-grandparents would recognize as food. His recommendations can be summed up very simply: "Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants." He has a variety of simple approaches to changing how you eat: don't buy anything with more than 5 ingredients, if great-grandma wouldn't recognize it then don't buy it, if the food makes health claims then don't buy it, and so on. Two ideas that particularly struck me is that you'll probably be better off if you're spending more money on food (real food costs more in general than processed food) and spending more time preparing and eating your food. The latter is particularly tough for me, but I'll try. Cutting back on meat will be tough, too. I'll never be a vegetarian, but now is a good time for me to try cutting back the meat intake, since our garden will start producing soon.
The book is also very short, so it's a very quick read. I'm not going to dive into particular arguments of his because I'd essentially end up re-creating the book. If you think at all about what you eat, check this book out.
February 2012
January 2012