Sunday, February 1, 2009

Boook review: In Defense Of Food

"Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants."

I have been reading "In Defense of Food" by Michael Pollan. If you are confused with all the trendy diets and nutritional recommendations the media advertises, this is the book to read. It offers simple and practical advice, as well as an interesting analysis of the American culture around food.

"Eat food." Well, what else would you eat, you ask? Not everything we eat nowadays is real food. We eat highly packaged food-like substances with ingredients we cannot pronounce. "Eat food" means eating whole foods with recognizable ingredients and minimal packaging.

"Not too much." We have lost touch with our bodies. We eat when we receive external signals like commercials, times of the day, free donuts at the lunch room, stress...what happened to eating when you are hungry? And, stopping when you are satisfied? We don't need to count calories, all we need to do is listen to our body.

"Mostly plants." Chronic diseases like diabetes, obesity, heart disease and cancer can be prevented by a simple change in our diets: eating less animal products, and more plants. Humans don't need as much protein as we consume in the Western diet.

If you don't wish to read the book, this site offers a a free excerpt and you can listen to an interview on NPR.

2 comments:

Zucchini Breath said...

Eating a whole foods, plant based diet is the best thing you can do for your body and for the environment

Anonymous said...

No doubt. What's good for your body, is good for Earth and humanity. We are what we eat.