eShop USA > Books > The Omnivore's Dilemma: A Natural History of Four Meals
The Omnivore's Dilemma: A Natural History of Four Meals
Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours
List Price: $16.00Our Price: $9.60 You Save: $6.40 (40%)Prices subject to change.
Customer Reviews
Rating:  - Too Many Words
I eagerly opened this book and plunged into a morass of words. How many does it take to complete a thought. Couldn't the author have read and applied Zinsser's book "On Writing Well" before tackling this meaty subject?
The content is right on, but the message was obscured by the prose. Too bad. I would have liked to have finished it, but by the time I read a complete sentence or paragraph, there so many modifiers and conditional phrases, I lost the main point. I found it boring because of that.
If someone edited this book, pulled out the content buried within and tightened his writing, Mr. Pollan could have made his point much better.
Rating:  - changed the way i think and eat
"TOD" is not an easy read, and a takes a bit of time to get into, but it's incredibly absorbing. I learned a ton -- about where our food comes from, how it's made and processed, and how "organic" isn't really all that "organic" or necessarily good for the planet. Reading this book has changed my food choices for the better and really made me think about what I eat and select.
I'll tell you this -- I haven't had McDonald's in 9 months, and will never eat there again, not even in an emergency. (This healthy choice owed to this book, + the documentary "king corn," which features Pollan; and "Super Size Me" and "Fast Food Nation," which I also highly recommend.)
Buy this book, and eat healthy!
Rating:  - Not much to add...
I have really nothing to add that wasn't already covered in earlier reviews, except to say that I too am absolutely absorbed by this book, it's informative, interesting, relevant and the writing style is simply captivating. I can't put it down!
Rating: - What's for dinner, Mr. Pollan?
Pollan's book takes a dry and somewhat elitist look the state of the human diet and more specifically, the American diet. He investigates three meals (I'm not sure where the fourth one from the subtitle came from), fast food, organic, and a hunter/gatherer meal. What he finds is interesting and thought-provoking, much of which supports the findings I wrote about in The Evolution Diet: What and How We Were Designed to Eat, Second Edition: we are extremely removed from what we were designed to eat.
The author's personal experiences make up the majority of this lengthy book, and his interactions with some of the characters in the food procurement industry is insightful if drawn out. The section on the hunter/gatherer meal was the most appealing (naturally), and despite the glaring paradox of "preparing a hunter/gatherer meal", it was freer from contradiction than the other sections. Pollan rightly attacks the socialism that has led to a national food industry that pumps unrecognizable processed material into our stomachs, but he fails to notice that Roosevelt's socialism is just as detrimental as Nixon's. As Pollan quotes an interesting farmer Joel Salatin in the book, "You can't regulate integrity".
Pollan doesn't commit to a diet plan for the reader--he admits that the extreme meals (fast and slow) should only be an annual ceremonial meal--but the stories that he conveys will no doubt lead the reader to a healthier lifestyle. For specifics on that healthier lifestyle, please feel free to reference The Evolution Diet, mentioned above.
Rating: - This is no Dilemma, just a great book of knowledge
The book came on time and in great condition. I am still reading it now (on meal three) and finding out a lot of things that I did not know and other things that I have just turned a blind eye to. If you want to really get your intelligence started in finding out what you are eating and how it has changed from the good ole days...start here.
Featured Listmania!
| |
 |
