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In Defense of Food: An Eater's Manifesto Hardcover – January 1, 2008

by Michael Pollan (Author)

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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.

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Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com 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

From Publishers Weekly

Starred Review. In his hugely influential treatise The Omnivore's Dilemma, Pollan traced a direct line between the industrialization of our food supply and the degradation of the environment. His new book takes up where the previous work left off. Examining the question of what to eat from the perspective of health, this powerfully argued, thoroughly researched and elegant manifesto cuts straight to the chase with a maxim that is deceptively simple: Eat food, not too much, mostly plants. But as Pollan explains, food in a country that is driven by a thirty-two billion-dollar marketing machine is both a loaded term and, in its purest sense, a holy grail. The first section of his three-part essay refutes the authority of the diet bullies, pointing up the confluence of interests among manufacturers of processed foods, marketers and nutritional scientists—a cabal whose nutritional advice has given rise to a notably unhealthy preoccupation with nutrition and diet and the idea of eating healthily. The second portion vivisects the Western diet, questioning, among other sacred cows, the idea that dietary fat leads to chronic illness. A writer of great subtlety, Pollan doesn't preach to the choir; in fact, rarely does he preach at all, preferring to lets the facts speak for themselves. (Jan.)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

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Product details

Hardcover: 256 pages
Publisher: Penguin Press; 1 edition (2008)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 1594201455
ISBN-13: 978-1594201455
Product Dimensions: 5.8 x 0.9 x 8.6 inches
Shipping Weight: 13.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
Average Customer Review: 1,027 customer reviews
Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #59,503 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #504 in Books > Self-Help > Spiritual
- #791 in Books > Health, Fitness & Dieting > Nutrition
- #1109 in Books > Health, Fitness & Dieting > Diets & Weight Loss > Other Diets

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SPARTY 047

A life changing book...

February 22, 2016

Format: HardcoverVerified Purchase

I have a medical and science background...so traced references cited....everything checks out. Recently diagnosed with osteoarthritis at age 63 and weight 284 pounds. Read this book the first week of January.....went shopping for real foods the second week of January. Find it satisfying to eat no more than 4 oz of red meat 2-3 times a week....salmon, mackeral, sardines 2-3 times a week....and a couple of days with no meat...just veggie omega 3 sources. Have re-read the book....highlighted...added notes on all pages...and bought 2 more copies for my 30 and 21 year olds...both who grew up in the age of "nutritionism" with all its false information. Following Pollan's common sense advice....paying the extra for organic basic veggies and olive oil. Decided to eliminate all wheat and corn until I loose the weight I've set as a goal.
Five weeks eating 3 meals a day...and by week two much of the chronic 24 hour a day pain was gone and I began walking the elliptical and the woods. Five weeks and 30 pounds lighter....with more energy than I've had in 20 years. Buy this book, learn it, live it, tell your loved ones.

Comment 133 people found this helpful. Was this review helpful to you?

Yes

Monica

In defense of our wallet and health

November 16, 2014

Format: Kindle EditionVerified Purchase

Eat Food. Not too much. Mostly plants. How simple is that?

This book takes a look at how "authorities" in food nutrition have steered us down the wrong path (well, any path!) in order to make a profit.

We can take charge and eat what our grandmother's put on our parents plates and I have to agree with this. My mom still buys whole milk and we would think, Oh, the fat content, my gawd, don't you buy 1% milk? That's what we do now .. we buy 1% milk that has been so processed it barely resembles what came out of the cow.

What strikes me as amazing is that the author isn't saying anything ground breaking, it's just simple, straight forward, basic ideas about food and how the industry is basically fooling us to buy into the next great nutritionism.

I enjoyed reading this book so much that I originally purchased the e-copy, but then bought the paperback so I have a hard copy.

Comment 8 people found this helpful. Was this review helpful to you?

Yes

Laura Smith

Tight, concise, well-written guidebook on what to eat

July 26, 2012

Format: PaperbackVerified Purchase

If you've read other books on food, you'll find this to be written better but not containing much new information. It's as if Pollan took the other information out there and regurgitated it in a more digestible format. Which can be a good thing, if you consider the huge tomes out there that are difficult to read.

Pollan covers baby formula and how it's essentially an experiment (p.32). Techno-foods: "modern cornucopia of highly processed foodlike products." (p.14) Public confusion: "thirty years of nutritional advice have left us fatter, sicker, and more poorly nourished." (p.81) This first section covers monocultures, the industrialized food model, distraction of the real message, and detachment from our food. Pollan seems to be driving home the message that any food that purports to have health benefits really ought to be avoided, that it's "a strong indication it's not really food." (p.2) Later he tells us quite simply to "watch out for those health claims." (p.40) This really got my mental juices flowing and made me consider the counter arguments to that.

The most impactful take-away as I finished was the idea that we really don't need books on what to eat. At one time, he tells us that nutritionism has done us no good, "At the behest of government panels, nutrition scientists, and public health officials, we have dramatically changed the way we eat and the way we think about food [...this] has done little for our health, except possibly to make it worse." (p.40) Gee, that is so inspiring. As a parent, I think I'd rather take this message, with a nice positive spin and which reinforces the message that we're smarter than we think we are, "most of what we need to know about how to eat we already know." (p.13)

He tells us that "seventeen thousand new food products" are presented to us every year (p.133) "Although an estimated 80 percent of cases of type 2 diabetes could be prevented by a change of diet and exercise, it looks like the smart money is instead on the creation of a vast new diabetes industry." (p.136) "Medicine is learning how to keep alive the people whom the Western diet is making sick." (p.135) "Don't eat anything incapable of rotting." (p.149) "Ordinary food is still out there, however, still being grown and occasionally sold in the supermarket, and this ordinary food is what we should be eating." (p.147) Don't eat anything my great grandmother wouldn't recognize as food. (p.148)

This book boils down to a lot of rules for better eating. Some of them, for me, are doable. Some of them are not. What I can adopt is a mesh of several of his uidelines... "eat meals" and "try not to eat alone" and "do all your eating at a table." My great grandmother would think it silly, though, if those were guidelines at all.

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Fern

Food for Thought and Strong Motivation to Rethink Your Diet

September 1, 2012

Format: PaperbackVerified Purchase

I'm already inclined to eat healthy, eat organic and eat mostly vegetarian, so it's probably no surprise I liked this book. I learned a few new things about the whole industrial food complex and by the time I finished the book I did feel more motivated to do an even better job of watching my diet for a variety of reasons: 1. To improve my health, 2. To not contribute to a system that denies farm animals thte basics like space to breathe, sunshine and grass, 3. To improve the freshness, nutritional value and flavor of the foods I consume, and 4. To encourage sustainable farming practices that don't degradate the earth.

I also became more aware of the overwhelming number of "manufactured" foods on supermarket shelves that are really doing you no favors with their fructose corn syrup, preservatives and other junk.

What personally bothers me is how food-makers will continue using certain ingredients or packaging methods science has shown is harmful to human health until they are absolutely forced to change by consumer demand. Eg, BPA lining in canned foods was a battle consumers only partially won. Another example: Campbell's soups and other companies are vigorously fighting having to merely identify which foods are genetically modified. If they didn't think GM foods were harmful, why resist identifying them so strongly?

It is a shame how undiversified American farms are today, and the factory-like conditions that abuse animals. It's the kind of thing that most people don't focus on simply because it goes on, year after year, sight unseen. But it makes me even more determined to buy locally grown, organic foods straight from the farmer just a few miles down the road.

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Most recent customer reviews

PortieOwner

Simple and powerful

I loved reading this book. I am a big fan of Michael Pollan’s works. The Omnivore’s Dilemma was eye opening.Read more

Published 9 days ago

Nick W.

Great Book For Food Lovers

My wife really enjoyed this book. As a dietitian, it was right up her alley.

Published 15 days ago

Agnes

Five Stars

Excellent read for anyone who cares about their health, the environment and the well-being of farm animals.

Published 1 month ago

Katie

Was bored during the introduction

This book, simply put, was boring. I started reading the introduction and couldn't wait for it to be over. Was sadly surprised when the first chapter was just as boring.Read more

Published 1 month ago

J. Harbour

The Man is on to Something

Michael Pollan became a favorite of mine after watching Cooked on Netflix. This book has so much wisdom I have given it as a gift to all of my friends.

Published 1 month ago

map

A good read for anyone concerned with eating well

A good reminder of the role of food in our lives and society. The food industry and our own acquiescence has greatly altered or relationship to food and this book discusses those...Read more

Published 1 month ago

Four Stars

Great read, I like the book even better than the documentary.

Published 1 month ago

Kevin Hickman

A Must Read

A must read for those who are food conscience.

Published 1 month ago

cookiecolor

Four Stars

It all depends on the author's definition of "food". Read it.

Published 2 months ago

Amazon Customer

Ok but pretty condescending

The book is ok if you are interested in the general topic of healthy eating. There are no specific guidances on foods to eat.Read more

Published 2 months ago

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