Elastic Waist Club of Books: In Defense of Food
We're talking about my boyfriend Michael Pollan's In Defense of Food, and here's what you're saying about it:
Lara said:
Is it weird of me that I'm afraid to read that book simply because I love me some processed food? It's like I'm an addict or something, swimming around in my river of denial.
psychsarah said:
I used to live on Lipton Sidekicks, chicken fingers, boxed mac and cheese, etc., and now I can't handle any of them. Thanks Michael Pollan for starting a revolution in my brain at least! I hope it catches on to others as well. (I'm personally working on indoctrinating my husband-a hard sell, but I think I can wear him down over time...)
Kiala said:
He totally called me out on my BS of nutritionalizing everything. You know, instead of eating blueberries because hey, delicious, I'd be eating them because of their anti-oxidants and fiber or whatever. Ridiculous. It's like meta-eating.
lisa-marie said:
I haven't read this book, but the principles sound similar to Tosca Reno's "Eat-Clean Diet" book. Actually it sounds similar to what experts have been saying for the past couple of years: eat real food, not fake food. It's not really hard to do, just extremely expensive (based solely on my own personal experience).
Joy said:
Oh I loved your comment about this book being the Bible. I have been having numerous 'Go tell it on the mountains' moments since reading it. I am aware that I have become deeply annoying to my friends (what can I say, it makes me evangelical) but I don't care because what MP says is RIGHT!
sasha said:
I read it in a single sitting, I was so entranced. I'm now rereading it to get a better grasp on the details. I was struck by how much "nutritionism" has distorted my own thinking (and I am both the child of hippies and an occasionally professional cook, in the school of Alice Waters et all). I kept thinking about how many times I had thought to myself over recent years "I should eat more of X because of the Antioxidents, and less of Y because of the carbohydrates" instead of thinking in terms of whole complete food.
SP said:
Did you (or anyone in the peanut gallery) read the Times Magazine article that it's based on? If one has read the article, is it worth picking up the book anyway? I've read some reviews that suggest there's not a whole lot more to it than was in the (truly excellent) original piece.
So what do you have to say?
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