Customer Reviews

The Omnivore's Dilemma: The Secrets Behind What You Eat

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I originally bought this book for my son as I had read the "adult" version. I think this one may be an easier read for adults who don't really get into foodie/nutrition/enviromental style books. So I would say it is not just for kids!!! Also, this version has a few photos that area great addition.

Everyone should know where their food comes from so that they can make informed choices. This book is full of good information about the food we eat and it's sources. It is not a book for young children as they will have difficulty digesting all this information but it is definately recommended reading for children 11-12 and older, it is even a good read for adults who may not have the time or inclination to read the full version.

I previously read the adult version of this book and really enjoyed it. When I saw this I thougth I would give it a try. I have to say that this book is not only easy to underdstand, it also gives me more insight into the book. Love this book, and would suggest everybody read it.

This is a great book but not for 4-8 year olds as listed above? Amazon do you have the wrong information? This is a Young Adult book, or a family discussion book. Please note before purchasing!

Industrial food is not just at the local fast food restaurant. it is also at our grocery stores. Food is made to taste better and have a longer shelf life, but is the chemicals and preservatives we use really worth the health risk? Do we know where our meat comes from, the diet of the cows before they go to the slaughter and become our hamburger and steak? This book is an eye opening education. You can read the adult version, "The Omnivore's Dilemma, A History of Four Meals" also. Michael Pollan, the book's author is not trying to make us all into vegetarians, although he did try that lifestyle for a short period of time and then went back to eating meat. The point is to be informed about our food, because diet is just as important as exercise. You cannot put empty calories and lots of high fructose corn syrup and genetically modified food into our bodies and then be surprised at the poor body figure we now have.

Also have a look into sustainable farming and learn why our current methods of producing food cannot last forever. Why do we dump fossil fuels on our fields? What does this do to the ecosystem of the land, the soil? Also, learn why we cannot go back to using cow manure for fertilizer. Why is it (the cow manure) so toxic to the soil and to us? What is genetically modified corn and other grain doing to our field and why can't we control it from going into other fields? Perhaps industrial food and industrial farming needs to change. Why do farmers over produce and why can they never get compensated for their grain and make a living?

When you are through reading this book, Michael Pollan appears in the movie, "Food Inc." which is a great movie to continue on your way in discovering the problem with many American foods. A few other movies I recommend are, "The Future of Food", about genetically modified food, and "Supersize Me" which is a documentary on fast food and a one month McDonald's bing. Then when you are ready, watch "Sweet Misery, the story of Aspartame." This last movie is not as well edited as the others but it has excellent information from doctors and patients that give testimonies on their bad experiences with aspartame, artificial sweetener. If you have any problems with MS, or if you get sick easily watch these great films. Keep your mind open to these new ideas. Doctors have much more training in pharmaceutical drugs than in nutrition. We cannot expect our doctors to know every problem that comes up with each new food additive that comes on the market. Research for yourself. Read books, do not trust the media or television to give you all the answers here.

If you're trying to decide whether or not to buy this book, there really shouldn't be any dilemma....just buy it. You will thank Michael Pollan later. Our copy arrived on Tuesday and our 9 year old daughter has been devouring it. My husband and I have read the adult version and we are all having fantastic dinner time conversations about the education we are receiving from Mr. Pollan's work. I truly believe that the information in this book holds some of THE MOST IMPORTANT lessons we can teach our children. As a matter of fact, I am ordering 4 more copies today....one to donate to my daughter's classroom at school, one for the school library, one for the health teacher and one for the public library. My daughter and her friend have decided to read this book together on the bus to school in the morning and are then going through their cafeteria lunch line to read the ingredients on the "edible foodlike substances" (they both bring their lunches from home :-) ) I can't make this stuff up! They completely came up with this "research" project on their own because of this book. Thank you Mr. Pollan, for making our parenting job so much easier! We're on to reading Food Rules now....that, too is a good family read. Very different than Omnivore's Dilemma, but a good, quick family read.

Just FYI, I saw Michael Pollan in an interview today and he said the target age is 8 to 12 years old. I just ordered this so I have not read it yet, but I read the adult version and thoroughly enjoyed it and am excited about sharing this version with my kids.

I recently purchased this "Young Readers Edition," for our high school library. The "for kids" label here is a bit misleading, as I believe the best audience for this book is grades 7-12, as well as adults (like me). After I started reading this, I discovered that our agriculture sciences teacher hopes to make this required reading for one of her classes next year.

I "devoured" this book (pun intended). I found it to be a very readable introduction into where our food comes from. I personally have been trying to avoid corn products for years, just because I could sense something wrong in my body every time I ate them, but this book helped to explain why.

I like Pollan's style in the way he does research and the way he makes this book a personal journey through the world of food. He interviews farmers, works on a sustainable farm, goes hunting and gathering, and he grows his own. After reading this book the word "sustainable" finally makes sense to me in the way he describes the operation at Polyface Farms.

I will be recommending this book to any of our students who interested in food or agriculture. But if you are an adult who hasn't read the full version, go ahead and read this one. You'll be glad you did.

My grand daughter, Hannah, who is 11 years old, was reading this book and it totally changed her previous passion for pizza, fries, chicken nuggets, etc. This book explains how food is "processed" and it is quite disturbing. Better to eat food without all those additives, and food grown locally. It's very interesting and though it is the Kids Version, it contains all the information we need to know...

The young readers edition of "The Omnivore's Dilemma" offers a descriptive look at what Americans are truly consuming, in an easy to read and interesting way. Although the book is technically aimed for young readers, its content would be suitable for middle school and older. The book looks at 4 different types of food, and the preparation each type needs. Beginning with the industrial meal, Pollen introduces the fact that corn has taken over the American diet. Whether we are consuming corn through high fructose corn syrup, the many corn based ingredients secretly stuffed into products, or through consumption of meat that has been unnaturally fed with corn, it is no doubt that corn products are abundant in these processed type of foods. Processed food also fills our bodies with chemicals, pesticides, and unnatural amounts of CORN! Part two of the book discusses the Industrial Organic Meal, and the preparation that goes into labeling a meal "organic," while processing such food on a large scale. The third section focuses on the local sustainable foods/way of life. This section was the hardest to read because it discusses the slaughtering of animals and the horrid conditions animals live in when in large factories. This section was pointing out the difference between the large and small, local sustainable farms, however. The fourth section of the book was the Do-It- yourself section which again was hard to read about hunting, but the gardening and gathering was difficult yet rewarding for Pollen. The final sections of the book discuss aftermath, responses Pollen has received about his book, and tips on how to eat for an "ominivore's solution".
Through the reading of this book, I have become more aware of every little thing I eat. It made it hard to continue reading the book, because I became so aware of what I was putting into my mouth that it was affecting my spending and my conscious! It takes much more energy, time, thought, and money to think about what you are eating and make the decision to eat the right thing. How simple is it to go through a drive through at any time of the day or night and order a full meal for 5 dollars? Piece of cake! How easy is it to plan every ingredient in a home cooked meal, go to farmers markets, buy ingredients, chop, prepare, grow your own vegetables, grow your own meat (you get the idea)? It's difficult! But what are the consequences of each on your body, on your mind? Knowing that a cow or a chicken had to suffer through a miserable and be killed so that I may have a quick bite to eat makes me sick to my stomach.
After seeing a certain movie I became a vegetarian for close to two years, eating no meat whatsoever. About a year ago, however, I gave in to the ease of eating meat once again but have since always felt a pang of guilt for the animals sake. yet, after reading this book, I was able to determine that there truly exist farms and places where the animals are treated with respect, fed what they should eat in nature, and are killed in the most humane of ways. These type of farms, local sustainable farms, should be greatly respected for their ability to diminish animal cruelty.
The Omnivore's Dilemma is an informative look at the dilemma everyone who eats food should consider. You decide what you eat so it's important to ultimately know the facts about these decisions that immensely affect your life. Reading this book with children, as well as informing our youth that they have a decision about their daily food intake is important. Although many of the issues covered in this book are highly graphic, kids need to be aware of the junk they are consuming and the other options they have. Although parts of this book could be seen as offensive to children, at some point we need to introduce the idea that what they are eating came from another living being. This doesn't need to be done by showing any sort of visual, or even skipping over graphic parts of the text, but children can be food detectives and uncover hidden parts of their diet they may not wish to be eating! Overall, I found this to be an easy, informative book about a dilemma I didn't know was occurring in so many of my daily meals.