Book #54: In Defense of Food: An Eater's Manifesto by Michael Pollan

I read this book in 2011 (wow, that seems SO long ago now, before I'd even started this blog) and it gave me a lot to think about then. After reading Salt Sugar Fat a few weeks ago, it made me want to revisit this book and review what Pollan talks about. It's a little scary having read both of these books together, because they basically make you want to avoid ALL THE FOOD and somehow live off of vegetables you grow in your own backyard. Salt Sugar Fat was more about the processed food industry and how they try to hook us on eating their foods, and this one is about the dangers of the cult of "nutritionism," or focusing so much on eating food just for the nutritional value it can provide for us and how that mindset actually messes up our eating habits, and how our following the guidelines that nutritionists have set out has actually led to the obesity crisis and made us less healthy. The food pyramid with its focus on grains and carbs and meat has really messed up people's perspectives on eating. Pollan says that our food guidelines should be simple: "Eat Food. Not too much. Mostly plants." He gives specific ways we can accomplish those goals, like don't eat foods that have been messed with in a lot of ways (meats with tons of hormones added or antibiotics, processed foods), don't eat foods with more than five ingredients or which your great-grandmother wouldn't recognize, etc. If we eat mostly plants (some meat is fine, but it's not fine if it's 50% of your diet) we will be getting all the nutrients we need and will be avoiding the problems of obesity and heart disease that have been increasing. This book gives me some good motivation to eat more whole wheat things (like pasta and rice--we used to be so good at the whole wheat pasta but I kind of forgot about it) and to try and incorporate more produce into our diets. And to try and figure out how to buy local! We are going to go to a farmer's market on Saturday and see what we can get there. I went to the farmer's market in Santa Monica every week when we lived there in 2012 (not long after reading this book) and loved it, but we haven't been to one in years. I'm excited to see if we can find something good close to us. Especially since it's summer here and there should be some good stuff there.