View our feature on Michael Pollan's In Defense of Food.
The companion volume to The New York Times bestseller The Omnivore’s Dilemma
Michael Pollan’s lastbook , The Omnivore’s Dilemma, launched a national conversation about the American way of eating; now In Defense of Food shows us how to change it, one meal at a time. Pollan proposes a new answer to the question of what we should eat that comes down to seven simple but liberating words: Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants. Pollan’s bracing and eloquent manifesto shows us how we can start making thoughtful food choices that will enrich our lives, enlarge our sense of what it means to be healthy, and bring pleasure back to eating.
In Defense Of Food
Introduction: An Eater's Manifesto
I. The Age Of Nutritionism
One: From Foods to Nutrients
Two: Nutritionism Defined
Three: Nutritionism Comes to Market
Four: Food Science's Golden Age
Five: The Melting of the Lipid Hypothesis
Six: Eat Right, Get Fatter
Seven: Beyond the Pleasure Principle
Eight: The Proof in the Low-Fat Pudding
Nine: Bad Science
Ten: Nutritionism's Children
II. The Western Diet And The Diseases of Civilization
One: The Aborigine in All of Us
Two: The Elephant in the Room
Three: The Industrialization of Eating: What We Do Know
1. From Whole Foods to Refined
2. From Complexity to Simplicity
3. From Quality to Quantity
4. From Leaves to Seeds
5. From Food Culture to Food Science
III. Getting Over Nutritionism
One: Escape from the Western Diet
Two: Eat Food: Food Defined
Three: Mostly Plants: What to Eat
Four: Not Too Much: How to Eat
Acknowledgments
Sources
Resources
Index
“ Michael Pollan [is the] designated repository for the nation’s food conscience.”
—Frank Bruni, The New York Times
“ A remarkable volume . . . engrossing . . . [Pollan] offers those prescriptions Americans so desperately crave.”
—Jane Black, The Washington Post
“ In Defense of Food is written with Pollan’s customary bite, ringing clarity and brilliance at connecting the dots.”
—The Seattle Times