Book Review: In Defense of Food by Michael Pollan

After watching Food, Inc. my interest in food and nutrition was piqued. I recently read Michael Pollan’s In Defense of Food, and my hunger for an informative and common-sense approach to the subject was totally satisfied.

I’ve observed people jumping on various diet bandwagons, cutting carbs, ordering low-fat, fasting from sugar, abstaining from this or that, and I’ve always been a bit bewildered by it. It just seems so darned exhausting. (And often, they tumble off the bandwagon a few weeks after climbing on.) I have to wonder if jumping through all of these dietary hoops is really worth it. As Pollan states, “Thirty years of nutritional advice have left us fatter, sicker, and more poorly nourished.”

But Pollan provides a solution to our eating dilemmas that not only seems much easier, but just makes good sense: Eat Food. Not Too Much. Mostly Plants.

“Food is also about pleasure, about community, about family and spirituality, about our relationship to the natural world, and about expressing our identity. As long as humans have been taking meals together, eating has been as much about culture as it has been about biology.”

Modern science has taken a reductionist approach to food, trying to break it down to the micronutrient level to discover that one magic element that will ensure health and wellness. Whenever science makes progress in finding the latest wonder-nutrient, the processed food companies race to fortify their food-like products with it. (I’m sure we’ve all seen these ridiculous labels at the store: Froot Loops: Now with WHOLE GRAINS!!) But for whatever reason, human ingenuity has been unable to replicate the nutrition that occurs naturally in our food. What makes a carrot so darn healthy? Is it the vitamins? Anti-oxidants? Fiber? Some yet undiscovered component? Or the various relationships and interactions between each element?

“The good news is that, to the carrot eater, it doesn’t matter. That’s the great thing about eating foods as compared with nutrients: You don’t need to fathom a carrot’s complexity in order to reap its benefits.”

Pollan outlines the paradigm shift in eating, food shopping, and nutritional thinking that has taken place over the last 30 years. He then summarizes the rapidly rising occurrences of heart disease, obesity, diabetes, and hypertension that have mirrored this shift in our eating habits. As he explains,

“In 1960 Americans spend 17.5% of their income on food and 5.2% on health care. Since then, food spending has fallen to 9.9%, while healthcare spending has almost tripled to 16%.”

Is it a coincidence that healthcare costs have almost tripled while food costs have dropped by almost half? As science discovers new technologies for food fertilizing, processing, and preserving, the ‘food’ output gets cheaper. But the high fructose corn syrup, trans-fat, and myriad chemicals and additives have proven to have catastrophic impacts on health.

The solution is simple.

Eat Food. Pollan suggests if your great-grandmother wouldn’t recognize the product, you can safely assume it isn’t food. Case in point: Go-gurt.

Not Too Much. This one seems pretty obvious. We eat too much food, so eat less.

Mostly Plants. Meat, dairy, eggs…they are all perfectly healthy options. But they are the accompaniment to the main attraction: fruits, veggies, and whole grains.

Of course, changing our eating habits means making changes to our budget and schedule.

“While it is true that many people simply can’t afford to pay more for food, either in money of time or both, many more of us can. After all, just in the last decade or two we’ve somehow found the time in the day to spend several hours on the Internet and the money in the budget not only to pay for broadband service, but to cover a second phone bill and a new monthly bill for television, formerly free.”

Perhaps it wasn’t the author’s intention, but I believe his book simply affirms God’s plan for man’s sustenance.

“Then God said, "I give you every seed-bearing plant on the face of the whole earth and every tree that has fruit with seed in it. They will be yours for food. And to all the beasts of the earth and all the birds of the air and all the creatures that move on the ground—everything that has the breath of life in it—I give every green plant for food." And it was so.


God saw all that he had made, and it was very good.” Genesis 1:29-31

Improving our eating habits is an ongoing goal for me and our family. This book provided not only motivation, but valuable information to help me on this journey. I highly recommend In Defense of Food.