In Defense of Food - Final Week - Chaps 13 - 17

I have thoroughly enjoyed this book. Though I feel Michael Pollan was very...humble and contrite in response to Omnivore's Dilemma, I appreciate the fact that he listened to his publics' opinions on it and responded with this lovely book.

Here are some V.I.Ps (very important points) I got from the last five chapters of the book -

• "If the soil is sick or somehow deficient, so will be the grasses that grow in that soil and the cattle that eat the grasses and the people that drink the milk from them." How many times must people read hear or see the lesson that life is an interconnected web before they will retain it and believe it? It may sound like a cliche or like a metaphor, but I mean this quite literally - WE EAT THE SOIL. So what do YOU want in your body?
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• "When we think of a species' environment, we usually think in terms of things like geography, predators and prey, and the weather." Humans also are a species and we no longer stop to think of what our environment consists of. We don't have to think about it anymore because our mode of getting food and the food itself is removed from any connection to where it came from. Neatly plastic wrapped in the grocery store, there's no reminders to us of the smell of the land where the food grew, no noise of wind that brushed past the food...
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• "You now have to eat three apples to get the same amount of iron as you would have gotten from a single 1940s apple, and you'd have to eat several more slices of bread to get your daily dose of zinc than you would a century ago." People wonder why I freak out when I hear people singing the praises of Genetically Modified Foods/Seeds and this is partially why. Because no matter how many vitamins and other good stuff can be pumped into food, there is no replacing the natural processes that happen between soil, environment, and the food.
  
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• "...a food system organized around quantity rather than quality has a destructive loop built into it, such that the more low-quality food one eats, the more one wants to eat, in a futile - but highly profitable - quest for the absent nutrition." This basically summarizes the entire problem we face as eaters of the Western diet. Now what are we going to DO about it?
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• Omega 3 vs Omega 6 - can we ever know how much we need of each of these and what roles they play in the intricate network of our bodies?

And now, finally, someone is trying to teach us how to EAT and not just how to SHOP, though he touches on that too, since that is how we get our food these days. So, with no further adao, it is time to unveil Michael Pollan's eating algorithms -


FOOD DEFINED


Algorithm 1:

Don't eat anything your grandma wouldn't recognize as food.

Algorithm 2:

Avoid food products containing ingredients that are a) unfamiliar, b) unpronouncable, c) more than five in number, or d) that include HFCS.

Algorithm 3:

Avoid food products that make health claims.

Algorithm 4:

Shop the peripheries of the supermarket and stay out of the middle.

Algorithm 5:

Get out of the supermarket whenever possible.



WHAT TO EAT

Algorithm 6:

Eat mostly plants, especially leaves.

Algorithm 7:

You are what WHAT you eat eats too.

Algorithm 8:

If you have the space, buy a freezer.

Algorithm 9:

Eat well grown foods from healthy soils.

Algorithm 10:

Eat wild foods when you can.

Algorithm 11:

Be the kind of person who takes supplements. *

Algorithm 12:

Regard NONtraditional foods with skepticism.

Algorithm 13:

Have a glass of wine with dinner.



HOW TO EAT


Algorithm 14:

Pay more. Eat less.

Algorithm 15:

Eat meals.

Algorithm 16:

Do all your eating at a table.

Algorithm 17:

Don't get your fuel where your car does.

Algorithm 18:

Try not to eat alone.

Algorithm 19:

Consult your gut.

Algorithm 20:

Eat slowly.

Algorithm 21:

Cook, and if you can, plant a garden.




And there you have it - some simple changes in thinking and a few minor changes in actions and you might just live a healthier, longer and yeah, I'll say it, a more SATISFYING life. Just try one step and see what happens. If you do, anyone lurking out there who has not commented before, let me know what you try and how it works for you.

Good luck eaters.



Food for thought:

- What would YOUR eating algorithms be?

- When and why did food and its quality become important to you?

- How do conversations about these topics turn out for you and others?



Further Reading:

"Still No Free Lunch," Brian Halwell

The Queen of Fats by Susan Allport

Food Politics by Marion Nestle


This green reading selection was brought to you by the power of Erikka and sponsored by Green Bean Dreams and her continued Be A Bookworm challenge. She has now created a site (I think...?) for just green book reviews. Please join us next Wednesday as we discuss chapters 7-12 of In Defense of Food.