Customer Reviews

In Defense of Food: An Eater's Manifesto

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It is so good to read a book about nutrition that does not promote any new diet! The author's message is plain and simple: Go back to nature, eat wholesome foods, and don't bother with dieting. Don't overeat; instead eat slowly, and enjoy your meals - such notion has already been promoted by Mireille Guiliano in her bestseller "French Women Don't Get Fat".

Our curse is processed food. The dieting industry completely distorted our feeding process. Our desire to improve everything and to separate 'needed' ingredients from the 'unneeded' ones leads us to refining most of our food products. However, our artificially 'improved' food only seemingly has the same nutritious qualities as natural food. Artificial and natural foods have as little in common as silk roses with real ones.

Processed food is easily obtainable, doesn't require much work to prepare, and, unfortunately, it is often also addictive. At the same time it is full of calories with very small nutritional content.

Like "The Omnivore's Dilemma", Pollan's new book is indeed eye-opening. It makes us think twice about what we are going to put into our mouths the next time we eat. For more reading about the danger of refined foods I strongly recommend "Can We Live 150 Years" - another book devoted to living in agreement with nature, and revealing the secrets of healthy diet.

I've been a very healthy eater for 10 months now, and I've lost 60 pounds. so what I've been doing has obviously been working and I had decided to stick to that forever. then I read this book, and I'm considering taking my outlook on food one step further.

Pollan can be funny at times, always easy to understand and to the point. I highly recommend this for anyone living in North America who eats food.

From bestselling author Michael Pollan comes "In Defense of Food", the highly anticipated followup to his previous masterpiece, "Omnivore's Dilemma".

Unlike "Omnivore's Dilemma" which was more of an exploration of the food that is on the typical North American dinner table. "In Defense of Food" is more of a prescription for healthy eating, and a natural follow-up to Pollan's excellent investigative work in "Omnivore's Dillemma".

Essentially, Pollan's argument is that we should eat less and eat mostly fresh vegetables bought at the farmer's market. Nothing fascinating there, but Pollan goes into depth to prove why the current North American diet is the absolutely worst diet humankind could have ever come up with.

Overall, I think most people will enjoy reading "In Defense of Food" more than "Omnivore's Dilemma" simply because it is more concise and has a direct message as opposed to the exploratory work that Pollan goes into with "Omnivore's Dilemma".

Informative, science based without sinking into scientific jargon, filled with common-sensical approaches to very complex issues. Would recommend to anyone who is interested in thoughtful nutrition.

This book is the last book on nutrition you'll need. It covers evertything from the beginning... when food was changed with modern industry and why so you get an idea about the history of nutritional adivse and diets. It really makes sense and like someone else also mentioned it doesn't try to sell you a new approach or diet but rather makes you think what you do to your body if you stick to your current diet. If you read the content of a package of whole wheat beagles like I did recently you are not certain anymore that you do your body something good because the label tries to sell you something healthy.... READ IT and save yourself from cancer, diabetes etc! I also like the short chapters so you can read it in little chunks inbetween ... well done!

It is nice to read a book by an author who is not trying to push the latest theory about this or that diet or the celeb nutrient of the day. But I do not wish to suggest he is not highly critical of the so-called Western Diet.

Much like another excellent book: An Apple A Day:... by Joe Schwartz, this book is written by someone who has first rate critical thinking skills, and what appears to be the complete absence of any agenda. The author is very well read and comments along the way, and quite helpfully, about other books on diet and nutrition that have sold well lately. And unlike the flawed book, The China Study, this book does not seem to over-reach.

Finally, as with An Apple A day, you end up walking away with quite a lot of optimism about the food choices available to you, and also optimistic about what you can do right away so as to eat in a way that does not cause you to suffer lingering anxiety over your dietary choices.

Granted, it's a case of 'preaching to the converted', but the impact of the book is the same: if I were able, I'd give copies to everyone I love.

Considering the subject matter -nutritionism- Pollan has a light touch, a very non-lecturing way of dealing with the most pressing of issues. While he backs up his conjectures (because, let's face it, *everything* in this field is conjecture, not the least of which what science tells us) with references, he doesn't get bogged down. The tone is serious...yet the delivery quite...well, 'digestible'.

All the way through reading 'Defense', I found myself a) shaking my head, b) feeling angry, sad, frustrated, and c) wondering what the average person's reaction would be. Because over the past few years, I've found myself walking a particular, mostly divergent path when it comes to certain points-of-view. I am not a materialistic consume-a-lot consumer. I do not see the automobile as being an acceptable core value. I have strident views regarding fitness and health. And I see what Pollan talks about as paramount in our world; the economy, the environment...none of it will matter unless we effect a paradigm shift in the way we eat. Pollan provides enough to chew on here for the necessary dialogue to begin.

We have, in many ways, been sold a bill of goods regarding food. And at the heart of it, the equivalent of the 'military-industrial complex' that has brought about the world we live in today in a war-sense. Behind this 'Western diet' effort, the scientists, the media and the government. Where we are now, with all of our health problems (and it could very well be true that *all* of our health problems can be linked to what Pollan suggests), is the result of 'the perfect storm': industry's greed, the consumers' need for newer, better, shinier, and the arrogance of a society that has at its core, a belief that it is the most advanced ever seen in all ways, and therefore, cannot possibly make 'mistakes'.

But I digress.

Two elements come to mind where I felt the need to add to what Pollan has to say. First, although I understand that this was a book about nutritionism, and therefore only addressed this, he never even touches on why North Americans have been driven to eat more. (No, I'm not referring to the 'empty calories' reason; I 'got' all that, I didn't miss his point). An unhappy, dissatisfied, lacking-compass person/group/culture uses food as a means to hide all these shortcomings. To me, this is a parallel concern to the thrust of Pollan's book. The second has to do with the seven words of wisdom he has as the foundation of what he posits: "Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants." I would, at great risk to those who align themselves with what he says, reduce this to "Eat fresh." For in doing this, just as I believe that activity is actually *more* important than 'diet' in terms of being a synergistic motivator, when you eat fresh, everything else falls into place. Eventually, as the impact of the mindset takes effect, you only eat real food, not processed. You don't overeat, because your body is getting what it craves on a much deeper level. And when you're eating fresh, you're bound to eat mostly plants. How can this be? Go back to our roots (something Pollan advises) and examine the eating habits of our ancestors: what they consumed was all fresh.

If you care about yourself, read this book. If you care about the people in your life, recommend it to others. Most of all, begin the dialogue.

This is probably the best nutrition/diet book you could buy (even though it is purposely neither.) This is basically a confirmation that Ye Aulde hippie crunchy granola diet/way of living is, indeed, the healthiest you can choose... only Pollan is bringing in the latest science and information to prop up that fact.

I just read a number of reviews and want to write something a little different than what has been expressed.

If this diet is new to you and you are afraid you won't like it, relax. A major change in diet takes time getting used to,but the foods Michael Pollan recommends we eat are delicious.

At one time, I ate processed food, much of it with a high fat content, too much salt and so on. For years now, I have eaten what Pollan suggests. I love the food I eat and now find fatty, processed foods to be inedible.

My tastes have changed. This winter I have been experimenting with new vegetables and ingredients. Yum! Load me up on the simple but delicious flavors of real food!

Author ofthe award winning book,Harmonious Environment: Beautify, Detoxify and Energize Your Life, Your Home and Your Planet.

Very well written. Easy to understand and very entertaining. It's a great book for somebody, who appreciates food and its connection to our health and our environment. The book gives you also some easy, yet inspiring tips, which will help you to take responsibility in our society and for your health.

I have it since three weeks and read it already twice...