In Defense Of Food - Michael Pollan

I rolled into the airport in Baltimore fully expecting to be on my way to Chicago within the hour. According to the monitor I was already 20 minutes delayed as I walked into my gate. As I waited, the skies opened up and dumped water on us for 15-20 minutes while I gave in and picked up some California Tortilla. It wasn’t exactly the best choice of foods, and, after my flight, I’m seeing even more reasons to doubt the nutritional value of most things I put into my stomach.

The Borders located by the “A” terminal is surprising packed with good books; Twilight sequels line the walls and I think I found the next book on my list, “Chuck Norris vs. Mr. T.” Anyway, I’ve been reading some nutritional blogs/studies recently, and a book called “The Omnivores Dilemma” by Michael Pollan had been referenced multiple times. I considered it, but then noticed his next book, “In Defense of Food.” The cover includes his “Eater’s Manifesto”:

Eat Food. Not Too Much. Mostly Plants.

I got about three quarters of the way through the book before I realized I was rereading every other page to make sure I was reading it right. It’s pretty unbelievable, the facts Pollan brings up. I’m motivated to do a brief series to cover what I believe to be some of the more important and interesting tidbits from the book. Actually, before I get started, I just want to say that this book is definitely worth purchasing if you are interested in nutrition or nutritional science in any way.

One of the first things I read was the introduction of a new term to me: orthorexics, or people with an unhealthy obsession with healthy eating. Surprising to you as well? Well, there isn’t solid evidence yet, but there’s a concern that there is a relationship between worrying about nutrition and a person’s overall health and happiness. Basically, people worry about nutrition so much that they neglect other aspects of their nutrition, as I’ll (really, Pollan) cover later.

Our first steps towards orthorexia, as Pollan states, is a separation of nutrient and food. Once William Prout, a smart English dude, discovered Fats, Carbs, and Protein in food, we thought we knew why food was good for us. So, we began to engineer (yup, engineer food) to included ratios of these nutrients that we believed to be “healthy.” It got even worse when we realized there were vitamins in food. Eventually, we began to think of food in terms of the nutrients in them instead of as the sum of the whole. See “Vitamin D Added,” “Now, with more vitamin C,” and “With Extra Fiber.”

It’s about time for me to hit the sack here in Chi-town. I’m going to the Aslanian Group conference on Web Marketing for Adult Students tomorrow, it should be interesting!