chargirlgenius | In Defense of Food

Has anybody else read In Defense of Food by Michael Pollan? I'm listening to it on CD while painting the bedroom, and I'm loving it. I have to say, I'm pretty proud of myself for coming up with "Eat food, not products" on my own over a year ago. Anyway, I recommend it to anybody who has ever dieted, or, well, ever eaten an American diet.

Although, listening to it on CD is a tad on the annoying side. The reader gets a bit of preachy, smug attitude in his voice, and while I'm sure that the book is full of plenty of preachy, smug attitude, I can handle it better in print. Annoying, but it doesn't detract that much from the book itself.

I've also recently read The End of Overeating by David Kessler. Admittedly, I haven't read the final chapter or two, where he lays out his plan for beating the system. I'm sure it's good, but I can't imagine it's the much different from Michael Pollan's Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants. mantra. Kessler hits HARD on the food industry and their marketing of highly processed foods. Pollan seems to aim more at "nutritionism", and science-based eating that is seemlingly prevalent in our culture. The books enhance each other's messages.

If Pollan hits on science, and Kessler nails industry, Marion Nestle (no, no relation) focuses on government (and industry, really) in her Food Politics blog (and in her book, too, I'm sure, although I haven't read it).

I'm looking forward to more reading... Food, Inc., the movie or the book, and Fast Food Nation, among others. I'll definitely check more Michael Pollan, including The Omnivore's Dilemma.

Other suggestions? Oh, and while I'm talking about food, do any of my southern friends shop at "Earth's Fare" stores? Jeff was in Huntsville for work this week, and I read an article about one of those stores opening in that area. Sounded intriguing.

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Fast Food Nation is an excellent and scary read. Liked it.

That's the thing with some of these books - they're pretty scary! I hear it's a lot like some of the new urbanist books I've been reading.

I remember Earth Fare from my college days.

Of course I was too poor to shop there.

Ah, from what little I could read in reviews, it sounded like it was much cheaper than, say, Whole Foods. Of course, that's not saying much... ;-)

I loved In Defense of Food! Though I've never succeeded in eating even mostly that way....

I can't say I'm succeeding, but I consider myself "working up to it". I had started my "good habits" in the weeks leading up to reading it, and so I've already been adding in more fruits and veggies. That's something. It's incredibly difficult to jump right into a new way of eating.

My sister just saw Food, Inc. and said it was good. I read The End of Overeating and found it interesting (and a bit scary, too). A lot of what he had to say was stuff I'd already learned in Weight Watchers, but it's still good stuff. I've read the first chapter or two of The Omnivore's Dilemma (downloaded a sample on my Kindle) and would like to get around to reading the whole thing eventually. Just haven't made/found the time yet.

You'll probably like In Defense of Food. The thing about The End of Overeating I liked was all of the studies that he cited. And I know he's still trying to sell a book, but I've come to the point where I can't believe Weight Watchers any more than I can believe a health claim by McDonalds. :-/

I've ordered The End of Overeating, can't wait to read it.

I think you'll enjoy it! It's very much aimed at an American audience, but I'm sure there will be a lot that applies there as well.

I think I already emailed you about it, but I've received recs in the past for Animal, Vegetable, Miracle by Barbara Kingsolver. It's about her family's decision to relocate across the country to a farm on which the whole family worked to make their own food, or if that wasn't possible, to buy from local farmers. Supposed to be a fascinating and inspirational read.

I have some insight into that sort of thing from my own family's adventure with it in the 70s. I credit my generally strong immune system to that time period's food. It didn't get much healthier than how we ate back then.

Which is why I'm so mad at my mother for letting my young son gorge on pudding once a week at her house. :^/

That's the thing - when I was a kid I was brought up on everything homemade. I was one of those kids whose appetite was definitely controlled by foods *not* being hyperpalatable. I didn't eat a lot, simply because I didn't like it. Of course, until I hit my early teens I was underweight. But then when I hit the hyperpalatable foods at the same time as teenage angst, it was all over. Hm. Sorry to ramble - that's the stuff of another post. ;-)

I read Omnivore's Dilemma first, about the time we moved to Foodie Central, and it formed the background to my first encounters with a serious producer-to-consumer culture. It and In Defense of Eating have become important in the way we think about food -- not just from a nutritional pov, but in terms of the ecology humans have created for themselves. I admire them in a more intellectual way than Kingsolver's book, which I just really enjoyed -- it makes the issues much more personal by showing one family actually living them day-to-day. It think A,V,M is one of the key reasons my family started canning this year, but that may not be an inevitable result ...

I thought of you and your local farms a lot while listening. :-D

Well, if you come to the area with Jeff, I'll hook you up with all the farmer's markets and sustainable farms in the area.

You might be interested in "The Revolution Will Not Be Microwaved" by Sandor Katz as well.

Countess Gwen (azure d'or on the AA)
(you're a mutual friend of someone on my friend's list, who knew?)

Excellent! I read on city data all of the people kvetching about the lack of a Whole Foods, but they'll also never be satisfied until a Cheesecake Factory shows up, so I'm guessing they're not concerned about the actual whole food. Nice to see you!

I came to the same conclusion about In Defense of Food and The End of Overeating. Eat REAL food, what a concept! You might want to look for a CSA (Community Supported Agriculture) in your area; getting a box of fresh vegetables, usually organic, from the farm every week is heavenly. It's almost enough to make me think that I could do a 100 mile diet.

Yeah, we had a CSA, but they had a problem with their fertilizer (or something) and the baskets just stopped being there (we did pick up). We tried contacting them, but they never responded. They even had a yahoo group, and when we sent an email asking if everything was ok, they blocked it. I suspect that they might have been continuing the delivery customers, but not the pickup, for whatever reason. People kept commenting, but the baskets just weren't there. Odd. :-/

In Defense of Food

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