In Defense of Food

In Defense of Food, by Michael Pollan: what a book. It took me so long to get it from the library, I kept it after it was due so I could finish reading it and re-read favorite sections. It might even qualify for a purchase.

This book is much more accessible than The Omnivore's Dilemma, focusing on the Western diet, and why it leads to the Western diseases (diabetes, high blood pressure, high cholesterol, etc). It includes summaries of recent research, with many resources at the end. Basically, the message that it's best to eat Real Food: Fruits, vegetables, grains, beans, meat fish. Real, unprocessed food.

To cut to the chase, the author recommends "Eat Food. Not too much. Mostly plants." How to escape the Western diet?? Here's some detail, but you really need to read the book.

EAT FOOD

• Don't eat anything your great grandmother wouldn't recognize as food.
• Avoid food products containing ingredients that are a) unfamiliar, b) unpronounceable, c) more than five in number, or that include d) high-fructose corn syrup.
• Avoid food products that make health claims
• Shop the peripheries of the supermarket and stay out of the middle
• Get out of the supermarket whenever possible

MOSTLY PLANTS

• Eat mostly plants, especially leaves
• You are what what you eat eats too - what this means is that cows are supposed to eat grass. If the beef you eat is eating corn instead of grass, you're not getting the benefit of the leaves that the cow should be eating.
  
• If you have the space, buy a freezer
• Eat like an omnivore
• Eat well-grown food from healthy soils
• Eat wild foods when you can
• Be the kind of person who takes supplements - another explanation is in order: it's not that the supplements actually work, it's that the people who take supplements tend to be healthier in general because they are paying attention to what they eat
• Eat more like the French, or the Italians, or the Japanese, or the Indians, or the Greeks
• Regard non-traditional foods with skepticism
• Don't look for the magic bullet in the traditional diet - it's the sum of the diet that is healthful, not some specific item in the diet.
• Have a glass of wine with dinner

NOT TOO MUCH

• Pay more. Eat less
• Eat meals
• Do all your eating at a table
• Don't get your fuel from the same place your car does
• Try not to eat alone
• Consult your gut - Americans let external, visual cues determine how much we eat. Rather, stop eating when you are no longer hungry.
• Eat slowly
• Cook and, if you can, plant a garden