Eat Food, Not Too Much, Mostly Plants

“Eat Food, Not Too Much, Mostly Plants” is the advice that adorns the cover, and is the call to arms, of Michael Pollan’s newest book, In Defense of Food.

This is a marvelous book that, as the author asserts in his lecture at Google, really does go a long way toward offering a solution to the dilemma presented in his prior book The Omnivore’s Dilemma.  And his proposed solution is…drum roll please…contained in those 7 words adorning the cover.

What this book does NOT do:

*  It does not point toward wonderful or evil nutrients that should be either sought (through supplements or industrial fortification) or shunned (through abstinence or regulation).  On this topic, the book instead points out the flaws of that kind of “parking lot” food science.

*  It does NOT trumpet some new scientific advancement or wonder-drug or wonder-diet.  On this topic, it instead points out the inconsistent/contradictory history of such practices — from the Protein is bad for you and carbohydrates are good for you faze that ushered in breakfast cereal as the “healthier alternative to bacon and eggs” to just a nearly opposite recent trend (embodied in part by the Atkins Diet).

What this book DOES do:

*  It implores readers to seek to eat the way their grandmothers or great-grandmothers ate.

*  It implores readers to focus on food systems rather than food additives or ingredients.

*  It implores readers to focus on eating as an end in and of itself rather than merely a means to an end.

I could go on and on about obese, diabetic westernized Aborigines that cured their ills merely by returning to the bush (and a traditional diet).  I could go on and on about how red meat is not a problem, but how feed-lot red meat is a problem — and how the problem can be solved by eating range-fed, grass-fed beef / chickens / eggs rather than their “conventional” or even “industrial organic” cousins.  I could go on and on about how the French Paradox may be less about the red wine (although we are still learning about how beneficial small quantities of red wine can be) and more about HOW the French eat (no snacking, no eating in cars, no eating alone).

On a great many subjects explored in this fascinating book…I could go on…and on.

But I won’t.

I will instead encourage you to “eat food, not too much, mostly plants” and to read the book.