In defense of food : the myth of nutrition and the pleasures of eating

Available Formats:

Details:

  • Author: Pollan, Michael
    Contributor:

    Brick, Scott

    Summary:

    "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."

    Contents:
    • The age of nutritionism. From foods to nutrients ; Nutritionism defined ; Nutritionism comes to market ; Food science's golden age ; The melting of the lipid hypothesis ; Eat right, get fatter ; Beyond the pleasure principle ; The proof in the low-fat pudding ; Bad science ; Nutritionism's children
    • The Western diet and the diseases of civilization. The Aborigine in all of us ; The elephant in the room ; The industrialization of eating : what we do know. From whole foods to refined
    • From complexity to simplicity
    • From quality to quantity
    • From leaves to seeds
    • From food culture to food science
    • Getting over nutritionism. Escape from the Western diet ; Eat food : food defined ; Mostly plants : what to eat ; Not too much : how to eat.
    Genre: Food and drink, Medicine, health and fitness
    Original Publisher: New York , Penguin Random House Audio Publishing Group
    Language(s): English
    ISBN:

    9781415944936

    ,

    1415944938

Details

DC Contributor

Brick, Scott

Abstract

"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."

Genre
Food and drink
Medicine, health and fitness
Publisher (Source)

New York

Penguin Random House Audio Publishing Group

Not specified

Record