Another food book

Ryan would be the first person to tell you that I've been a little obsessed with the whole food thing lately. I just finished reading another book by Michael Pollan (the same guy who wrote The Omnivore's Dilemma). The book is called In Defense of Food. It was so interesting! He turns the whole concept of reading nutrition labels on its head, as well as what he calls" The Lipid Hypothesis". His philosophy for eating better is simply put: "Eat food, not too much, mostly plants."

Eating "food" is harder than it sounds. There are a lot of non-food things out there that are pretending to be food, and some interesting legislation that was passed a few decades ago that allowed those things to be sold without the label "imitation" on them. Science has tried its hardest to break down what it thinks all the nutrients in food are, and has promoted the idea that if you get enough of the right nutrients, you will be healthy. Problem is, we still don't know what all of the properties are in raw food items that are good for us, and do helpful things for our bodies. We probably never will. Breaking down the nutrients item by item and packaging them in a sugary breakfast cereal, or attempting to make a baby formula that replaces a mother's milk simply does not work. The whole is more than the parts.

It's funny that most of the stuff in the book are things that my mom has strongly believed, even though for a time it was not considered in vogue to be health-conscious. I remember one time going to a church activity, and someone there who happened to be a chemist of sorts was telling us that science has now found a way to get all of the nutrients you need and put them in a chocolate cake--or any other form you want. He thought this was great, because now you can give kids chocolate cake, and they will get the same nutrition you would get from eating something boring for breakfast. I was fascinated by this concept, and being a sugar-deprived Spencer, thought I'd run that one pass the boss. I told my mom about it, and she said that was the biggest load of nonsense she had ever heard. She also pointed out that if I took a look at the physical well being of this chemist, he was not a prime example of good health and probably not the best source to believe on the topic of nutrition. She was right.

Anyway--a fascinating read. The last part of the book is particularly helpful, because it gives suggestion on ways to eat real food, ways to eat more plants, and how to eat less. Five stars from me.