I realize we're not even a month into this literary journey, but I'm pretty sure I just read my favorite book of the year. The last time I was this nerdgiddy about a book was last year's Manhunt: The 12-Day Chase for Lincoln's Killer, which I didn't think could ever be topped in terms of its edge-of-your-seat-informational-page-turner-ness. But Michael Pollan has matched it.
In Defense of Food is (as the cover says) an eater's manifesto: a look into how food science has replaced food culture, how foodlike products have replaced actual food, how industry and politics have divorced food from the natural world, how - in spite of America's obsession with "nutrition" and "healthy eating" - we have become more and more unhealthy, and (nerdbest of all) how to look at our relationship with food and eating in a healthy, productive, respectful way.
It's not a diet plan. Pollan never outlines exactly what we should or shouldn't do. He just presents some facts and philosophies and suggestions and leaves it to the reader to apply to his or her life. Some of his suggestions: Don't eat anything your great-grandmother wouldn't recognize as food. Don't eat anything with ingredients you can't pronounce. Eat your meals at a table (No a desk is not a table).
It's chock full of fascinating facts and insights. Whether you buy into it or not, it definitely makes you think about your relationship with food and nourishment and the natural world in a really constructive way. I, for one, totally buy into it, but then again I'm on a bit of a food-and-nature kick these days. This is the first in a string of food-related books on my YMR queue, so if any of you are interested in chatting about food culture in America, I'm your gal.
Pollen's main argument is seven words long: Eat Food. Not Too Much. Mostly Plants.
Hard to disagree with that.
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