Kansas Food Journal » In Defense of Food: An Eater’s Manifesto

In Defense of Food: An Eater’s Manifesto
Michael Pollan
Penguin Press, 2008

Every day we hear so-called “expert” advocating a low-fat, low-carb, sugar-free, or high-protein diet to be healthy and lose weight. So why is the majority of America overweight? Maybe people aren’t getting the message.

Author Michael Pollan believes the message is wrong. He advises people to live by his motto: “Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants.”

Michael Pollan’s previous books include Second Nature, A Place of My Own, The Botany of Desire, and The Omnivore’s Dilemma that was named one of the ten best books of 2006 by the New York Times and the Washington Post. He is a contributing writer to the New York Times Magazine and is a Knight Professor of Journalism at UNC Berkeley.

The main theme of this book, a follow-up to The Omnivore’s Dilemma, is overcoming the idea of “nutritionism”. The term, coined by Australian sociologist Gyorgy Scrinis, emphasizes that foods are the sum of their nutrient parts. It takes the focus away from whole foods and views them as a way to deliver nutrients. Pollan strongly disagrees with this concept and tells the many reasons why this is a ridiculous way of deciding what to eat.

Eat food, not nutrients, Pollan writes. Americans don’t associate food with pleasure. When asked how Americans feel when they think about chocolate cake, they say “guilty.”

Food has become, as Pollan puts it, “a delivery system for nutrients.” For years, scientists have been telling us to eat more or less of specific nutrients, especially less fat. Americans therefore developed what Pollan calls a “lipophobia”. Studies have recently shown that low-fat diets do not reduce the risk of disease. Many foods in the supermarket have gone from whole, natural foods to processed, unrecognizable products. Food is no longer food.

Pollan’s writing style was enjoyable and easy to follow. His theory makes sense and he delivers it in an effective way. He does not push his ideas, but merely presents the facts he has found and gives his impression of them. He is realistic and persuasive but only because he wants to help his readers improve their lives by changing what they eat.

Pollan urges readers to get away from the western diet of processed foods, but he recognizes that completely is not realistic. Giving up processed foods we have learned to love is difficult. But it’s easy to see they are not natural.

He provides simple rules to follow while grocery shopping:

Don’t put any item in your cart that your great-grandmother wouldn’t recognize.
Purchase only items that can rot.
Buy foods made with less than 5 ingredients, all of which you recognize and can pronounce.

Although many of his ideas have previously been studied and published, Pollan provides a necessary summary of the concept. Some critics say his ideas are unrealistic and that he asks consumers to hunt down perfect foods. His ideas may not be perfect, but they are a good place to start.

This book is for anyone who eats. Whether you eat mainly processed food or prepare them from scratch, this book will change the way you look at the foods you purchase and consume. It may even help you put the pleasure back in eating.