In Defense of Food

ByMichael Pollan

Release Date: 2008-01-01
Genre: Diet & Nutrition

Score: 4

From 269 Ratings

Description

#1 New York Times Bestseller from the author of This is Your Mind on Plants, How to Change Your Mind, The Omnivore's Dilemma, and Food Rules

Food. There's plenty of it around, and we all love to eat it. So why should anyone need to defend it?

Because in the so-called Western diet, food has been replaced by nutrients, and common sense by confusion--most of what we’re consuming today is longer the product of nature but of food science. The result is what Michael Pollan calls the American Paradox: The more we worry about nutrition, the less healthy we see to become. With In Defense of Food, Pollan proposes a new (and very old) answer to the question of what we should eat that comes down to seven simple but liberating words: "Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants." Pollan’s bracing and eloquent manifesto shows us how we can start making thoughtful food choices that will enrich our lives, enlarge our sense of what it means to be healthy, and bring pleasure back to eating.

Reviews

I expected new info
2
By netlinn
Nothing was new about this information for me. It’s also written from the perspective of privilege. The suggestions are common sense but the problem is many people in America don’t have access to healthy “real” foods and some cannot sit around a dinner table because they don’t have one. More research is needed especially regarding the alcohol study where the author neglects to mention was funded by the alcohol industry. Overall this book was a disappointment. If you are familiar with the food industry and marketing and know what real food means, don’t waste your money on this book.
Knowledge is power!
5
By Running Mommy :-)
This book will give you the knowledge to take the power of choice back from industry. You will have the wisdom to make the best choice for you and your family.
Great job again Michael!
Highly recommend. Changed the way I eat and see food.
5
By tenderweave
This book isn't meant to scare you, but to enlighten you.
Life-changing
5
By The Pixel Pilot
There's an extremely short list of books I've ever read that have changed my life irrevocably. 'Photoshop for Dummies' helped define a career path that I'm still on today, some 20 years after I read it. 'Eat Food, Mostly Plants, Not Too Much,' has changed the way I view the endeavor of sustenance permanently. There is so much wisdom in this short book I wouldn't know where to begin. Suffice to say, that if you wish to live a longer, healthier, and an eminently more satisfying life. This book is a must-read. Bravo!
Excellent!
5
By DrDra
I was first introduced to the idea of CSAs and Wendell Berry when I took a course at Penn State University by an amazing professor Madhu Prakash. After the course, I made a commitment to connect more with eating. I joined a CSA and now I am educating myself and my family about the history of food...and what are we really eating? This book was an excellent read that I could easily understand. I will now have to buy a hard copy just so I can have others read it!
Great information but not an easy read.
3
By Tddubb
Great information but not an easy read.
Excellent
4
By LudafroQ
Excellent book. Gets repetitive at times in the first half but is reasonable. The premise itself that food is greater than the sum of it's parts is well expounded and leaves it to the reader to act and continue reading, rather than being and anti-nutritionist manifest... Most of the time.
Informative
4
By KenousC
This book introduced me to some ideas about food that I never would have thought about on my own. It certainly helps to get the backstory on how the food industry's desire for more money has inspired misinformation on nutrition related topics to United States inhabitants over the years. I plan to put many of the author's ideas in to practice.
You are what you read
5
By Veggiedelight83
I am consistently impressed with Pollan's work. His points are substantial and backed with simple and easy to understand facts and opinions. Once again, he has taken the complex issue of the evolution of food and the idea of modern nutrition back to the very basics, and made this accessible to all.
Excellent read
5
By robsojon
Deals in common sense mainly, but sometimes it takes a book like this to make you stop and think a little more. Excellent read!