Review: In Defense of Food by Michael Pollan

Michael Pollan is skilled at making the politics and back office bluster of the modern age nutrition and food industry interesting and readable.  Usually one considers such topics when the sleep aids have run out or don’t work, however, in this instance the topic keeps interest and (surprise) can be relatively easy to follow.  I enjoyed this book almost as much as his Omnivore’s Dilemma.

I liked that the ideas he posits are backed up with scientific research and studies and not simply anecdotal evidence that is often easily dismissed. 

He sums up much of the problems with the Western Diet and the American Public’s obesity problem in a very succinct sentence:

“... the human being who manages to be both overfed and undernourished, two characteristics seldom found in the same body in the long natural history of our species.”

I found this book to be both informative and enlightening.  Although I lean in the direction of organic, natural, around the outside of the grocery store eating, in practice I’m still struggling to reach that.  This book was a boost and a reminder that eating for self and health are not to be taken lightly or ignored but can still bring a lot of fun and comfort.