In Defense of Food
Synopsis: We're all about healthy eating here in America - but you'd never know it by looking at our med charts. Food activist and UC Berkeley journalism prof Michael Pollan takes on health advisors, the food industry, and scientists in his latest book, which takes eating back to basics and might just make you change your diet.
About the author: Michael Pollan, winner of the James Beard Award, is the author of The Omnivore's Dilemma (named one of the 10 best books of 2006 by both the New York Times and the Washington Post), as well as several other books. Pollan is in the documentary film Food, Inc. that just hit theaters this June, and this fall PBS will air a doc based on his other best-selling book, The Botany of Desire, giving us a "plant's-eye view" of the world.
About the author: Michael Pollan, winner of the James Beard Award, is the author of The Omnivore's Dilemma (named one of the 10 best books of 2006 by both the New York Times and the Washington Post), as well as several other books. Pollan is in the documentary film Food, Inc. that just hit theaters this June, and this fall PBS will air a doc based on his other best-selling book, The Botany of Desire, giving us a "plant's-eye view" of the world.
Reading Selection Week 4:(July 27-31) Part 3, Ch. 2 through the end; 55 pages.
Take-out...and Takeaways?
Last night I made fresh pasta for the first time. The eggs, pastured, hailed from an area farm. The sauce’s ingredients were sourced regionally too - heirloom onions, farm stand garlic and foraged mushrooms. And as I walked through the rituals of cooking - kneading and rolling the dough; dicing vegetables; filming a pan with olive oil - I gotta admit I was pretty proud of it all.
Not everything was local (never ask me to give up Italian wine), or organic (who can afford it?), but the spirit of the meal fit so well with Pollan’s call to action and something I really believe. To me, food is so glorious - ok, awesome - that merely respecting it seems like just the beginning. Celebration is more like it.
All that said, I live in the real world, too, where at the end of the work day, when my 1-year-old is finally asleep, I’m not about to crank out a 3-course dinner. Take-out Chinese starts to sound pretty good.
So in Pollan’s world, I gotta hope that’s food, too.
On to the next book, Biters. Thanks for stopping in. Any final thoughts?
-Alison
Not everything was local (never ask me to give up Italian wine), or organic (who can afford it?), but the spirit of the meal fit so well with Pollan’s call to action and something I really believe. To me, food is so glorious - ok, awesome - that merely respecting it seems like just the beginning. Celebration is more like it.
All that said, I live in the real world, too, where at the end of the work day, when my 1-year-old is finally asleep, I’m not about to crank out a 3-course dinner. Take-out Chinese starts to sound pretty good.
So in Pollan’s world, I gotta hope that’s food, too.
On to the next book, Biters. Thanks for stopping in. Any final thoughts?
-Alison
Submitted by alara on Thu, 07/30/2009 - 11:00pm.
R-E-S-P-E-C-T
Since Alison's on Friday duty, this will be my last Book Club post (tear). I had a really great time reading this book, and it was fun to throw out questions and comments and get your guys' views on it too - I've never actually been in a book club, so this was all new to me.
Anywho, I feel like this book really has helped change the way I look at food. It had a lot to chew on (ahem), although some of it Pollan himself even admits uses the reductionist science he's critiquing here - and I'm not so sure everything in here is iron-clad truth. But it's always good to have your perspectives widened and learn some new things.
To me, the most poignant takeaway from this book is to respect food a lot more than I do. If I have to pay a little more for food I can respect, well, it's probably worth it because 1) I'll eat less of it, and 2) I probably don't really need to spend $50 more downloading music off iTunes tonight anyway.
It's all tradeoffs...and I feel like Pollan makes a good case to trade other stuff for food.
Thanks everybody, and come back tomorrow for Alison's final words!
-Mike
Anywho, I feel like this book really has helped change the way I look at food. It had a lot to chew on (ahem), although some of it Pollan himself even admits uses the reductionist science he's critiquing here - and I'm not so sure everything in here is iron-clad truth. But it's always good to have your perspectives widened and learn some new things.
To me, the most poignant takeaway from this book is to respect food a lot more than I do. If I have to pay a little more for food I can respect, well, it's probably worth it because 1) I'll eat less of it, and 2) I probably don't really need to spend $50 more downloading music off iTunes tonight anyway.
It's all tradeoffs...and I feel like Pollan makes a good case to trade other stuff for food.
Thanks everybody, and come back tomorrow for Alison's final words!
-Mike
Submitted by mkrolak on Wed, 07/29/2009 - 11:00pm.
Confessions of a City Chick
Pollan’s guidelines seem reasonable and do-able, but at the end of the day, wouldn’t it be great to grow your own stuff? As a born and bred city girl, I know little about gardening, but would love to try. At least fresh herbs - y’know, mint for my mojito, et al - but I've managed to kill rosemary, a notoriously hardy plant.
If you’re a gardener, how many pounds of food do you produce at home? How many varieties of stuff?
-Alison
If you’re a gardener, how many pounds of food do you produce at home? How many varieties of stuff?
-Alison
Submitted by alara on Tue, 07/28/2009 - 11:00pm.
Allison-
I see your point but some of us "city folk" have neither the space nore the time to grow food ourselves. Economically speaking its much more expensive to "grow your own" if you are doing it on a small scale as well.
I thought this book was very informative. I take a keen interest in all things health related. With the way obesity is running rampant it really pays to watch what you eat, before you become part of that statistic. We as a society definitely need to "take back" control of our eating and fitness habits.
I was reading an article a couple days ago where they examined all the things that changed over the past 2 decades that may have contributed to the explosive growth in national obesity figures and the final conclusion seemed to be something like, "start mowing your own lawn, and hide the remotes". No big surprise there. Laziness is a huge part of the problem, and eating the wrong foods only exacerbates things.
--
PPI
I just started growing my own food this year. I have only grown a few things to start but I will say I didn't think it was very hard and I am excited about the possibilities now that I have discovered how easy it is. I live in an apartment and so the only outdoor space I have is a deck. It's not huge but it's big enough for a few pot and a table and two chairs. This year we grew herbs (oregano, sage, basil and chives), tomatoes, green peppers, jalapeno peppers and lettuce. These were very easy to grow. I couldn't give you the exact pounds because we're still getting them but I've been able to use them in quite a few meals. As for cost, these were very inexpensive and we got back a lot more in produce than we spent. Like I said, next year we plan on adding a lot more to our garden including some fruit (strawberries seem like they should work). Gardening is an intimidating endeavor but once you start you get a sense of pride from it and you realize that it's worth the trouble.
Giana: I'm trying to grow some tomatoes on our roof right now, and it's not easy with SF's weather, but I totally agree with you on the pride thing. I've never really grown anything, but my tomatoes are still alive at least!
And the thing about it is, even if my tomatoes stay green, well, no one's gonna come and take me to jail or anything. Lesson learned and I'll try to do better next time. The intimidation goes away once you dig in, methinks.
Economically speaking its much more expensive to "grow your own" if you are doing it on a small scale as well.
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Lost in the Supermarket
"I'm all lost in the supermarket / I can no longer shop happily."
Finally we come to the actionable portion of the book where we get tips on how exactly we can change our diets for the better. Pollan's simple advice is easy to implement, like this one, which I've been trying to follow lately: "Get out of the supermarket whenever possible."
What percentage of your food shopping do you do out of the supermarket? I'm probably only going to a farmer's market like once a month on average, but 25% feels like a good step in the right direction.
Finally we come to the actionable portion of the book where we get tips on how exactly we can change our diets for the better. Pollan's simple advice is easy to implement, like this one, which I've been trying to follow lately: "Get out of the supermarket whenever possible."
What percentage of your food shopping do you do out of the supermarket? I'm probably only going to a farmer's market like once a month on average, but 25% feels like a good step in the right direction.
Submitted by mkrolak on Mon, 07/27/2009 - 11:00pm.
I would say that about 10% of my shopping is done at the supermarket. I'm pretty good about this. I'm at a point where even the produce at the grocery store is tasting really bland, and is certainly less filling to boot!
Difficult to say exactly how much I shop outside of the supermarket, however if I calculate it monetarily I shop about 35% at the farmers' market. I spend approximately $160 per month at the farmers' market and about $300 at the supermarket. Not bad if you ask me.
I think I probably do about half of my shopping outside of the supermarket at this point: we get our CSA on Wednesdays and I try to pick up everything else at the farmer's market on the weekends. I'll be sad when I don't have an alternative again...in the winter, there's just nowhere to get food around here except at the giant markets.
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The Wonders of Wonder Bread
I laughed aloud when Pollan deconstructed the ingredients in Sara Lee White Whole Wheat bread (why would you ever name a baked good “smooth and easy” by the way?). It made me think of how as a grade school kid in the cafeteria I used to squeeze Wonder Bread into tiny cubes - nothin’ but air in there. Later, I used this test as a rule of thumb: any food you can smoosh down to 1/16 of its original size probably doesn’t have much nutritional value.
Have you come up with any rules of your own - along the lines Pollan describes or otherwise? Tell us about them.
-Alison
Have you come up with any rules of your own - along the lines Pollan describes or otherwise? Tell us about them.
-Alison
Submitted by alara on Sun, 07/26/2009 - 11:00pm.
Sort of along those lines, I try to avoid anything that's grape flavor, like popsicles or candy or whatever.
Because what in the world is the flavor grape that everyone seems to use? It bears like 0.1% resemblance to the flavor of an actual grape. It scares me.
How about, 'don't eat anything that has bright orange "cheese" powder on it'. That stuff is really weird. Mac 'n' cheese from a box and cheese puffs are tops on this list. Clearly, that is NOT cheese.
Thank you for the sensible critique. Me & my neighbour were preparing to do some research about that. We got a good book on that matter from our local library and most books where not as influensive as your information. I am very glad to see such information which I was searching for a long time.This made very glad.
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