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Online Mall - In Defense of Food: An Eater's Manifesto
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List Price: $29.95
Our Price: $5.99
Your Save: $ 23.96 ( 80% )
Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours
Manufacturer: Penguin Audio
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Average Customer Rating:  
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Binding: Audio CD
Dewey Decimal Number: 613
EAN: 9780143142744
Format: Audiobook
ISBN: 0143142747
Label: Penguin Audio
Manufacturer: Penguin Audio
Number Of Items: 1
Number Of Pages: 5
Publication Date: 2008-01-01
Publisher: Penguin Audio
Studio: Penguin Audio
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Spotlight customer reviews:
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Customer Rating: 
Summary: One of Us...One of Us..join us..forever and...ever
Comment: I have to say I'm prejudiced towards this kind of book that offers the reader a "lifestyle". With that said, I probably follow a lot of the ideas in the book, but I didn't have to read the thing to come to obvious conclusions like eating fewer portions of food will make you thinner. Really? Processed food is bad for me? Wow, I've been living a lie.
Though it won't explain how some people live healthy and long lives and they eat crap, drink too much, and smoke.
I'm impressed with the way these books tend to spread through the NPR-New Yorker crowd and make everyone jump all over themselves with enthusiasm. I heard Pollan on NPR and it seemed that his "wisdom of the grandmother" was a little too wistful and a bit false.
My grandmother smoked like a chimney and boiled the hell out of everything that she cooked, draining most of those nutrients out the door. Maybe if I had super-Oma or idealized nanna, she might have opened the oracle and showed me the way to live better and not be so nasty.
We eat differently than people two generations ago. To compare they way we eat to the way they ate is loaded with comparisons that don't make much sense because the conditions are much different. Processed food was not nearly as pervasive as it is now.
After reading the Jungle, I don't think anyone is going to make the case that sausage from a local company counts as "good honest" food compared to the way that some larger companies load their meats up with preservatives and fillers. Given a choice between a rat or some guy's finger and MSG, I think I'll go with the MSG.
It will be interesting to see what the next fad will be. Maybe it will be that processed food is better for us. I can't help thinking about that scene in Woody Allen's now dated film Sleeper, where a man wakes up in a totalitarian future to find two people trying to explain what his "health food store" was all about while they explain that smoking was found to be healthy and red meat was also good, especially when it's fried.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Eat food
Comment: Pollan's seven word manifesto has the potential to change how we eat in this country. He goes through the science of where we went wrong (redutionism) and then tries to explain how we can do better (holism).
Eat food, mostly plants, not too much. He then explains that is clear and understandable terms. We should all read this book and inculcate its message into our lives.
Customer Rating:
Summary: A manifesto for mindful food consumption...
Comment: Author Michael Pollan develops a powerful thesis which is succinctly summarized in the title:
* Eat food (he defines "food" and differentiates it from what passes for food at the grocery store
* Eat in moderation
* Eat mostly plants
That pretty much sums up the message, along with ancillary tips: eat at a table, eat with others, grow a garden however small, etc. About 60% of the book is filled with background material and science which at times made my eyes glaze over.
This book can change the way you feel about food and eating.
A good read to consume before your next trip to McDonald's.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Timely book by Pollan
Comment: Michael has written another gem. This book is profound and timely. What you eat and approach to food have a great deal to do with your health. He argues that the western diet is the problem. hard to dispute!
Customer Rating:
Summary: Only the last 1/3 of the book is useful.
Comment: First off, I am rather surprised at all the glowing reviews. The author really has no credentials to be writing about a subject such as the one he is trying to tackle. He starts off the book poo-pooing food science, but at the core of the book, he's really just ragging on the food industry for exploiting the scientific results (often from a single unrepeated study. Scientific facts are cemented by repeated studies, something the author fails to understand). Through the first 2/3s of the book, he really just repeats himself, not to mention make glaring errors that throw his credibility out the window (carbs and protein have 4 calories per gram, not 5. If he can't even get THAT right...).
The final 1/3 of the book is some good eating advice that would have made a good column in a magazine, or an essay on a website. It is certainly not worth buying the book for, and I'm glad I only borrowed my copy from the library.
Overall, not worth reading. Just avoid odd chemicals in food, buy organic, local, and in season if you can, and try for fresh (or frozen) instead of canned. That's it.
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Editorial Reviews:
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What to eat, what not to eat, and how to think about health: a manifesto for our times.
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