OK, this is one where NPR sucked me in. I heard an interview with Michael Pollan, author, and stopped and bought it. It reads more like an extended New Yorker article.
Basic idea right on the cover: “Eat Food. Not too much. Mostly plants.”
As the author states right up front, that is the thrust of the book. Follow this grandma advice and you will do well nutritionally.
The author describes how the thinking has shifted over the years in science and public policy to get us away from this basic line of thinking. With the combined forces of food processors, taste-makers and government policy, we get further and further away from this sound advice. Plus the science of what causes cancer, heart disease, stomach ailments, depression, etc, etc, blah, blah mainly serves as a distraction.
Media focus on one part of our western diet versus another just leaves people confused.
Since the advent of eating guidelines we have more obesity than ever before even while the percentage of fat in our diets has dropped.
After the top idea the next big idea is “if your great grandma wouldn’t recognize what it is, don’t eat it.” Which follows the advice of: “if you see an ingredient with a funny sounding chemical name, best not to eat that.”
This is not some vegetarian, whole foods, take your vitamins or organic argument but a sensible discussion of what foods are good for us and how they can supply our nutritional needs while keeping us trim.
A quick read at 200 pages to boot.
Dave Travis
Managing Director
Leadership Network
(And yes, in the interest of full disclosure, that’s an affiliate link picture up there benefitting Leadership Network)
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