In Defense of Real Food

2008 January 8

by timethief

Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants. These seven simple words of dietary advice are at the heart of journalist Michael Pollan’s new book, In Defense of Food: An Eater’s Manifesto. Having covered the ecological repercussions of our food choices in his bestselling The Omnivore’s Dilemma, Pollan turns now to consequences for our personal health.

He doesn’t preach abstinence and he doesn’t think that the only way to live a healthy life is to sell your possessions and move to the land. I would imagine that it’s because he lives in the real world, just like the rest of us. He questions why decades of nutritional advice have left U.S. eaters fatter and less healthy than ever. His conclusion is not surprising. It’s sad.

In place of real food, Americans today are eating “edible food-like substances” that come largely from factories instead of farms. But we can, in Pollan’s words, “reclaim our health and happiness as eaters.” Readan excerpt from the book. Also, read Pollan’s recent article in the New York Times Magazine about what’s wrong with our food system.

6 Responses

2008 January 9

ella permalink

He is so right; far too many people eat far too much processed foods and empty calories. I try to eat low on the food chain — I don’t always succeed — but I refuse to ingest stuff that’s not even part of the food chain.

I also think to an extent we eat backwards, often skipping breakfast and almost always having our big meal at night, when there’s little chance to work it off and I certainly don’t sleep it off.

Great post. Thank you.
2008 January 9

Richard permalink

For quite some time I was having my big meal at mid-day and then at night, only some raw vegetables and fruit – and nothing after 8pm. I slept far better and felt better. Breakfast was alway light since I’m not hungry until I’ve been up for a few hours.

Thanks Brightfeather and ella for reminding me of that. I think a change is in order.
2008 January 10

brightfeather permalink

I’ve been listening to the feedback and lol. There are all kinds of urbanites claiming that the processed crap they eat is good food and suggesting that those who want the real thing are elitist. There are people whining that they do not have the time to prepare real food. What utter nonsense. Most whole foods like fruit and vegetables do not require much preparation time at all and many can be eaten raw.

However, the protest is not surprising when you consider who owns the factory farms, the seeds, control over not only production but distribution of “processed foods”, and how many years their advertising campaigns have set out to brainwash us into purchasing their products.

I’m guessing that the reason TPTB at wp.com have not offered this free GPL theme in their selection of themes is because bloggers would find the theme so versatile and so easy to customize that they would not be inclined to purchase a css upgrade.
2008 January 11

raincoaster permalink

I’m a Michael Pollard fan and have been for awhile.

Also a ttts fan…what a great makeover! It looks fantastic.
2008 January 11

brightfeather permalink

@raincoaster
Thanks for the theme compliment but it’s really the designer who deserves the credit. This is a GPL theme that is a K2 modification with many “built in” features. Developed by Joern Kretzschmar
Download new versions at the dkret3 homepage

Schemes - Schemes are CSS files that allow you to visually customize your blog, without ever touching the themes core files.
Header Settings – Choose the picture you would like to upload to the server and you are done.
You can even upload multiple files and randomly circle through them if you enable ‘Show Random Header Picture.’
Navigation – Choose number of levels you want to show in your top navigation.
Add Subnavigation Widget so everybody (even without javascript) can access your site.
Multiple sidebars – This theme has 7 sidebars and the blogger can choose which ones to use or not use.
Comments – Dkret uses AJAX to submit comments without reloading the page. Live Commenting is based on ‘jQuery AJAX Comments’.
Use Live Comments
Show Comment Preview
Show Gravatars
Dkret uses own function to display Gravatars. Install and activate the Gravatars2 Plugin if your have a lot of comments.
Show new comments first
Show old comments first
There are also plugins for galleries, etc.