Eating Healthy Options

[Hartmann]

I just finished "In Defense of Food" by Michael Pollan. He basically rips apart the idea of "nutrionism" pointing out that things like omega-3 pills are nowhere close to as good for you as just eating fish. How beta-carotene pills that were touted to prevent cancer actually cause it.

His whole point is that if we eat food we should eat mostly plants and not too much. He cites the French, the Italians, the Japanese and how their diets are completely different from each other but they're still healthier than us.

[Spectatrix]

I just finished "In Defense of Food" by Michael Pollan. He basically rips apart the idea of "nutrionism" pointing out that things like omega-3 pills are nowhere close to as good for you as just eating fish. How beta-carotene pills that were touted to prevent cancer actually cause it.

His whole point is that if we eat food we should eat mostly plants and not too much. He cites the French, the Italians, the Japanese and how their diets are completely different from each other but they're still healthier than us.

I read that last year. I actually felt compelled to write a review of it on Amazon:

I have some mixed feelings about this book. The first section, "The Age of Nutritionism", is very strong and contains a fairly detailed history and critique of nutritional advice, in particular how it has developed since World War II. Even in my short lifetime, I have noticed the demonization of fat give way to the current demonization of carbs, not to mention near-daily nutritional analysis updates on omega-3s, antioxidants, trans fats, etc. -- all of which I found a bit suspect. So I found this section of the book quite interesting, learning some of the history behind these nutritional fads I'd already observed.

The second and third sections of the book were also fairly good, though I have reservations about some of his advice. After lambasting nutritional scientists for "reductionist science", i.e. concentrating on the positive and deleterious effects of individual nutrients on health rather than the effects of whole foods, he goes off on a tangent lamenting the lack of omega-3 fatty acids in the Western diet. He is acutely aware of this gaffe, as he briefly addresses it and others in the intro to the last third of the book, but gives little explanation as to why he concentrates on a single class of nutrients like this, after complaining about the same kind of thinking! Granted, the prevalence of fish in all (or nearly all) primitive diets lends credence to the assumption that various nutrients in fish are beneficial to the human diet, but it seems a bit absurd to concentrate just on omega-3s rather than the whole fish.

That would be my only major complaint about the book, though I do have a few minor nit-picks here and there as well. Overall, though, I think the dietary advice herein is both sound and simple. Eat fresh fruits, vegetables, and meat. Get involved with a shorter food chain (e.g. farmer's markets or CSA) when you can, and be cautious about your consumption of overly processed foods, though I would add that the occasional indulgence is probably not all that detrimental to your health.