eShop USA > Books > In Defense of Food: An Eater's Manifesto
In Defense of Food: An Eater's Manifesto
List Price: $21.95Our Price: $13.17 You Save: $8.78 (40%)Prices subject to change.
Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours
Binding: Hardcover
Dewey Decimal Number: 613.2
EAN: 9781594201455
Edition: 1
ISBN: 1594201455
Label: Penguin Press HC, The
Manufacturer: Penguin Press HC, The
Number Of Items: 1
Number Of Pages: 256
Publication Date: January 01, 2008
Publisher: Penguin Press HC, The
Studio: Penguin Press HC, The
Related Items: Featured Listmania!
Editorial Review:
Amazon Significant Seven, January 2008: Food is the one thing that Americans hate to love and, as it turns out, love to hate. What we want to eat has been ousted by the notion of what we should eat, and it's at this nexus of hunger and hang-up that Michael Pollan poses his most salient question: where is the food in our food? What follows in In Defense of Food is a series of wonderfully clear and thoughtful answers that help us omnivores navigate the nutritional minefield that's come to typify our food culture. Many processed foods vie for a spot in our grocery baskets, claiming to lower cholesterol, weight, glucose levels, you name it. Yet Pollan shows that these convenient "healthy" alternatives to whole foods are appallingly inconvenient: our health has a nation has only deteriorated since we started exiling carbs, fats--even fruits--from our daily meals. His razor-sharp analysis of the American diet (as well as its architects and its detractors) offers an inspiring glimpse of what it would be like if we could (a la Humpty Dumpty) put our food back together again and reconsider what it means to eat well. In a season filled with rallying cries to lose weight and be healthy, Pollan's call to action—"Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants."--is a program I actually want to follow. --Anne Bartholomew
What to eat, what not to eat, and how to think about health: a manifesto for our times
"Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants." These simple words go to the heart of Michael Pollan's In Defense of Food, the well-considered answers he provides to the questions posed in the bestselling The Omnivore's Dilemma.
Humans used to know how to eat well, Pollan argues. But the balanced dietary lessons that were once passed down through generations have been confused, complicated, and distorted by food industry marketers, nutritional scientists, and journalists-all of whom have much to gain from our dietary confusion. As a result, we face today a complex culinary landscape dense with bad advice and foods that are not "real." These "edible foodlike substances" are often packaged with labels bearing health claims that are typically false or misleading. Indeed, real food is fast disappearing from the marketplace, to be replaced by "nutrients," and plain old eating by an obsession with nutrition that is, paradoxically, ruining our health, not to mention our meals. Michael Pollan's sensible and decidedly counterintuitive advice is: "Don't eat anything that your great-great grandmother would not recognize as food."
Writing In Defense of Food, and affirming the joy of eating, Pollan suggests that if we would pay more for better, well-grown food, but buy less of it, we'll benefit ourselves, our communities, and the environment at large. Taking a clear-eyed look at what science does and does not know about the links between diet and health, he proposes a new way to think about the question of what to eat that is informed by ecology and tradition rather than by the prevailing nutrient-by-nutrient approach.
In Defense of Food reminds us that, despite the daunting dietary landscape Americans confront in the modern supermarket, the solutions to the current omnivore's dilemma can be found all around us.
In looking toward traditional diets the world over, as well as the foods our families-and regions-historically enjoyed, we can recover a more balanced, reasonable, and pleasurable approach to food. Michael Pollan's bracing and eloquent manifesto shows us how we might start making thoughtful food choices that will enrich our lives and enlarge our sense of what it means to be healthy.
Customer Reviews
Average Rating: 
Rating:  - Compelling
This is the first blockbuster I've ever reviewed on Amazon. Usually I defer to the droves of other reviewers to cover every point, but this book is just too compelling. I devoured it in two days, an extraordinary rarity for an unusually slow reader like me.
Here, Pollan firmly repudiates the "Western diet" and the scientific, industrial, and political complex surrounding it. He challenges the tenets of scientific nutritionism and its tendency to lionize or demonize various chemical components ... Read More
Rating: - You Will Never Read A Food "Study" The Same Way Again
There is so much to like about this persuasive, thoughtful essay. It's really a snap to read -- breezy, informative and very funny in spots. Pollan reduces food and nutrition information to its essence, and who doesn't need that kind of crystallized advice in this day and age? Perhaps my favorite section is how he exposes the thinking and "science" behind the various food studies which have informed our thinking to date. In short, this section breaks down how hard it is to isolate one influencing factor for ... Read More
Rating: - Voice of Reason, Voice of Revolution
This may be one of the best books I've read this year. I came across it mostly by chance, when browsing the biology books. Michael Pollan has written a book about the evolution of fruit-trees, and when looking at that, "In Defense of Food" came up too. Since it's very popular, I naturally wanted to see what was shaking!
I wasn't disappointed. I originally assumed that Pollan was a wacky independent thinker, but actually he's a professor of journalism at Berkeley, and a regular contributor to the ... Read More
Rating: - Terrific
The book? It was terrific. If you eat, you should read it. Period. If you read one book this year, then...well...you're just not reading nearly enough books. Read several books, and make this one of them.
BTW, I am completely confused by the 1- and 2-star reviews. I read through them, and the people who wrote them clearly didn't even read the book and are just out to do a hatchet job. The 1-star reviewer says:
"Pollan also wants to associate (blame?) increasing heart disease on nutritionists ... Read More
Rating: - For Natural Foods and Against Nutritionism
Instead of repeating other reviewers, let's focus mostly on other content. Our need for constant dental care stems from our western diets (pp. 96-97). Oddly enough, our digestive tract has as many neurons as the spinal column (p. 63). This suggests that the digestive process is a much more complex one than simply the breakdown of foods.
What if "western diseases" occur simply because people now live long enough to develop them? Pollard rejects this thinking, and presents evidence that a 70 year-old today ... Read More
Related Categories:
| |
 |
![High School Advantage 2008 [OLD VERSION]](http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51DmsVCgQiL._SL75_.jpg
)
