Tuesday, August 19, 2008


In Defense of Food: An Eater's Manifesto
Apparently, Mom was not that impressed by this book, but I really enjoyed it. I read "Omnivore's Dilema" last year and found it compelling, so I was excited about this one. This book is more concise and doesn't go into as much detail as his first book, but that was okay with me. I enjoyed his down-to-earth eating recommendation: "Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants." That sums it up right there, but he explains each of those statements further and gives some guidance about how to choose the food you eat.
Every time I read one of these books (about food, health, or the environment), I get more and more frustrated with the way I eat and always want to improve myself and my habits. You would think it easy to eat food, not too much, mostly plants...but Pollan explains why so much of Western food culture conspires against people trying to do just that.
I found this book inspiring and hopeful and would recommend it to anyone who is curious about why the Western diet is slowly (or quickly) killing most people who adopt it.

2 comments:

Becky said...

So I should probably NOT read this book because I would DEFINITELY not fit into the "eat mostly vegetables." Hmmm.....

Jackie said...

His message is fairly simple but, unless you grow your own food it's really difficult to eat local and fresh when you live in an urban/suburban area. It's much easier for us because we're surrounded by farms and the neighbors all have gardens. Gotta tell ya, though, I've eaten enough crookneck squash and cucumbers this summer to last me all year!