As I've been really interested in the topic of food this year, it was good to read something like this. It felt like a bit of a recap of my year.
This is the most no-nonsense book about food I've ever read. And there are a lot of kernels within to chew on.
Instead of talking about what foods you should not eat, he talks about our overall relationship to food. Such a simple thing, but something you never hear from nutritionists.
One part that stuck out for me was when he said that a person's hunger goes down once he/she stops eating processed, refined, and fried foods. While common wisdom is that those foods cause you to crave more of them, Pollan suggests that it's the opposite. In fact, your body may be craving nutrients you are not getting enough of, so you feel hungrier. But you eat the same processed, refined, and fried foods instead of fruits and vegetables, so your body keeps telling you that you are hungry. It's a vicious cycle then.
The book's mantra is simply: Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants. What could be better advice than that? He also says you should never eat anything your grandmother would not recognize as food. When I think about my grandmother's relationship to food and then I think about my husband's teenage nieces' relationship to food, it is like worlds apart. She made and grew everything she ate. Today's kids go to Dunkin Donuts as their first thought when they get hungry. I'm just not sure there is a way to reconcile today's eating habits with what we have forgotten from the past. How much longer can Americans really live in this snack food lifestyle?
This is the most no-nonsense book about food I've ever read. And there are a lot of kernels within to chew on.
Instead of talking about what foods you should not eat, he talks about our overall relationship to food. Such a simple thing, but something you never hear from nutritionists.
One part that stuck out for me was when he said that a person's hunger goes down once he/she stops eating processed, refined, and fried foods. While common wisdom is that those foods cause you to crave more of them, Pollan suggests that it's the opposite. In fact, your body may be craving nutrients you are not getting enough of, so you feel hungrier. But you eat the same processed, refined, and fried foods instead of fruits and vegetables, so your body keeps telling you that you are hungry. It's a vicious cycle then.
The book's mantra is simply: Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants. What could be better advice than that? He also says you should never eat anything your grandmother would not recognize as food. When I think about my grandmother's relationship to food and then I think about my husband's teenage nieces' relationship to food, it is like worlds apart. She made and grew everything she ate. Today's kids go to Dunkin Donuts as their first thought when they get hungry. I'm just not sure there is a way to reconcile today's eating habits with what we have forgotten from the past. How much longer can Americans really live in this snack food lifestyle?
