In Defense of Food


This one was fairly easy to understand. Pollan talks a lot about this idea of nutrition-ism, the idea that the nutrients within food are actually more important to our health than the foods they come from. This myth is perpetrated by food industry, who would love to sell you more and more "nutrients" rather than have you subtract from their profits by cutting back on the foods they sell. Some of the principles found within this book are identical to Food Rules, which Pollan channels in several of the chapters within this book towards the end. He clearly drew from this book when writing food rules. One small thing that I did take issue with is his description of some kind of puritanical view of food that has gained traction in America, the idea that we should not enjoy our food. If that is the case, then why is that America has a love affair with highly-processed junk foods? I for one gain far more pleasure eating a brownie than I do from eating lettuce. If I ate with the goal of enjoying my food, I would be a far more rotund person. Pollan continues to espouse the philosophy of "Eat food, not too much, mostly plants." Basically his entire approach in the book is to convince us of the evils of processed foods in favor of this very simple statement. I'm interested to see in the future whether or not he will continue to espouse this very sentiment, or if he has made any adjustments to his worldview over the course of a long career.