More from Michael Pollan

[wosnes]

I was browsing at one of the online booksellers and found that Michael Pollan has a new book coming out January 1: In Defense of Food: The Myth of Nutrition and the Pleasures of Eating. Since we've discussed his articles and The Omnivore's Dilemma, I thought you might be interested.

Book Description
What to eat, what not to eat, and how to think about health: a manifesto for our times

"Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants." These simple words go to the heart of Michael Pollan's In Defense of Food, the well-considered answers he provides to the questions posed in the bestselling The Omnivore's Dilemma.

Humans used to know how to eat well, Pollan argues. But the balanced dietary lessons that were once passed down through generations have been confused, complicated, and distorted by food industry marketers, nutritional scientists, and journalists-all of whom have much to gain from our dietary confusion. As a result, we face today a complex culinary landscape dense with bad advice and foods that are not "real." These "edible foodlike substances" are often packaged with labels bearing health claims that are typically false or misleading. Indeed, real food is fast disappearing from the marketplace, to be replaced by "nutrients," and plain old eating by an obsession with nutrition that is, paradoxically, ruining our health, not to mention our meals. Michael Pollan's sensible and decidedly counterintuitive advice is: "Don't eat anything that your great-great grandmother would not recognize as food."

Writing In Defense of Food, and affirming the joy of eating, Pollan suggests that if we would pay more for better, well-grown food, but buy less of it, we'll benefit ourselves, our communities, and the environment at large. Taking a clear-eyed look at what science does and does not know about the links between diet and health, he proposes a new way to think about the question of what to eat that is informed by ecology and tradition rather than by the prevailing nutrient-by-nutrient approach.

In Defense of Food reminds us that, despite the daunting dietary landscape Americans confront in the modern supermarket, the solutions to the current omnivore's dilemma can be found all around us.

In looking toward traditional diets the world over, as well as the foods our families-and regions-historically enjoyed, we can recover a more balanced, reasonable, and pleasurable approach to food. Michael Pollan's bracing and eloquent manifesto shows us how we might start making thoughtful food choices that will enrich our lives and enlarge our sense of what it means to be healthy.

[kccc]

Thanks for posting this, Wosnes!

This week, I was at a training workshop where we all ordered in lunch from Jason's Deli. No big deal - they have decent sandwiches, and several side choices, including a fruit cup.

So I picked something that sounded good, and a fruit cup. I did pick from the "heart healthy" menu, because I know the "regular" stuff can be pretty awful in terms of nutrition. (Besides, I actually like the "heart healthy" stuff.)

Another woman in the session was agonizing over her choice. This one has more fat grams than that one... How can it be "heart healthy" when it's over 500 calories? That kind of thing.

It was like looking into a mirror showing my own past.

I am so grateful that I no longer analyze my meals for "nutrition".

The habit of eating one plate one plate at mealtimes translates to "not too much" rather nicely. I'm working on "mostly plants" and "real food". But I think it's easier once you can break the "dissecting your food" habit.

[reinhard]

I actually quote that line in the No S Book (he also used it in a recent New York Times magazine article).

I think I'll add this book to the No S Diet amazon store (I'm sure it'll be worth reading, based on his previous stuff).

Reinhard

[bonnieUK]

"Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants."

This is great simple advice, and forms part of my myriad of reasons for becoming a vegan several years ago (other reasons include dairy intolerance, IBS, and ethical issues). I think if I lived in different time where animals were healthy, well fed, looked after and free range etc. I wouldn't object to eating animal foods very occasionally (it's not so much the killing of the animal that bothers me, it's more the way they are treated & the garbage they're fed when alive - mad cow disease is a classic example).

Anyway, I've gone off on a tangent slightly, but I think the point I'm trying to get to is that the best and healthy way to eat is one that mirrors a traditional / natural way of eating as much as possible (e.g. eating whole unrefined foods and avoiding refined sugar, hydrogenated oils and other funny stuff that was only introduced to the human diet in the last couple of hundred years or so).

Peace

[bopque]

Here's a link to a recent conversation with Pollan in which he briefly discusses his forthcoming book. He states that he was surprised to find that science can tell us next to nothing about what to eat.

http://www.grist.org/feature/2007/10/12/pollan/

[wosnes]

So, here in just over 20 words we have everything you need to know about eating for weight loss and management and health:



No Snacks
No Sweets
No Seconds
Except (sometimes) on days that start with 'S'

Eat food, not too much, mostly plants.

[wosnes]

An article from Time magazine from last year:

Six Rules for Eating Wisely
A guide through the increasingly treacherous landscape of food choices
By MICHAEL POLLAN
Once upon a time Americans had a culture of food to guide us through the increasingly treacherous landscape of food choices: fat vs. carbs, organic vs. conventional, vegetarian vs. carnivorous. Culture in this case is just a fancy way of saying "your mom." She taught us what to eat, when to eat it, how much of it to eat, even the order in which to eat it. But Mom's influence over the dinner menu has proved no match for the $36 billion in food-marketing dollars ($10 billion directed to kids alone) designed to get us to eat more, eat all manner of dubious neofoods, and create entire new eating occasions, such as in the car. Some food culture.

I've spent the past five years exploring this daunting food landscape, following the industrial food chain from the Happy Meal back to the not-so-happy feedlots in Kansas and cornfields in Iowa where it begins and tracing the organic food chain back to the farms. My aim was simply to figure out what—as a nutritional, ethical, political and environmental matter—I should eat. Along the way, I've collected a few rules of thumb that may be useful in navigating what I call the Omnivore's Dilemma.

Don't eat anything your great-great-great grandmother wouldn't recognize as food. Imagine how baffled your ancestors would be in a modern supermarket: the epoxy-like tubes of Go-Gurt, the preternaturally fresh Twinkies, the vaguely pharmaceutical Vitamin Water. Those aren't foods, quite; they're food products. History suggests you might want to wait a few decades or so before adding such novelties to your diet, the substitution of margarine for butter being the classic case in point. My mother used to predict "they" would eventually discover that butter was better for you. She was right: the trans-fatty margarine is killing us. Eat food, not food products.

Avoid foods containing high-fructose corn syrup (HFCS). It's not just in cereals and soft drinks but also in ketchup and bologna, baked goods, soups and salad dressings. Though HFCS was not part of the human diet until 1975, each of us now consumes more than 40 lbs. a year, some 200 calories a day. Is HFCS any worse for you than sugar? Probably not, but by avoiding it you'll avoid thousands of empty calories and perhaps even more important, cut out highly processed foods—the ones that contain the most sugar, fat and salt. Besides, what chef uses high-fructose corn syrup? Not one. It's found only in the pantry of the food scientist, and that's not who you want cooking your meals.

Spend more, eat less. Americans are as addicted to cheap food as we are to cheap oil. We spend only 9.7% of our income on food, a smaller share than any other nation. Is it a coincidence we spend a larger percentage than any other on health care (16%)? All this "cheap food" is making us fat and sick. It's also bad for the health of the environment. The higher the quality of the food you eat, the more nutritious it is and the less of it you'll need to feel satisfied.

Pay no heed to nutritional science or the health claims on packages. It was science that told us margarine made from trans fats is better for us than butter made from cow's milk. The more I learn about the science of nutrition, the less certain I am that we've learned anything important about food that our ancestors didn't know. Consider that the healthiest foods in the supermarket—the fresh produce—are the ones that don't make FDA-approved health claims, which typically festoon the packages of the most highly processed foods. When Whole Grain Lucky Charms show up in the cereal aisle, it's time to stop paying attention to health claims.

Shop at the farmers' market. You'll begin to eat foods in season, when they are at the peak of their nutritional value and flavor, and you'll cook, because you won't find anything processed or microwavable. You'll also be supporting farmers in your community, helping defend the countryside from sprawl, saving oil by eating food produced nearby and teaching your children that a carrot is a root, not a machine-lathed orange bullet that comes in a plastic bag. A lot more is going on at the farmers' market than the exchange of money for food.

How you eat is as important as what you eat. Americans are fixated on nutrients, good and bad, while the French and Italians focus on the whole eating experience. The lesson of the "French paradox" is you can eat all kinds of supposedly toxic substances (triple crème cheese, foie gras) as long as you follow your culture's (i.e., mother's) rules: eat moderate portions, don't go for seconds or snacks between meals, never eat alone. But perhaps most important, eat with pleasure, because eating with anxiety leads to poor digestion and bingeing. There is no French paradox, really, only an American paradox: a notably unhealthy people obsessed with the idea of eating healthily. So, relax. Eat Food. And savor it.

(emphasis in last paragraph mine)