Author: Forget all those food fears, fads
Michael Pollan serves up a common-sense ‘Manifesto’ on eating
‘In Defense of Food: An Eater’s Manifesto’ by Michael Pollan The Penguin Press
Here’s a quick way to determine whether you should bother to read Michael Pollan’s latest book, “In Defense of Food.” Just take this quiz:
If you were trapped on an island and could have water and only one food, which of the following would be best for your health?
a) bananas
b) spinach
c) corn
d) alfalfa sprouts
e) hot dogs
f) peaches
g) milk chocolate
If you chose hot dogs or milk chocolate you’re in the minority — according to Pollan, only 7 percent of survey takers chose one of these foods, although they would, indeed, “best support survival.”
If you already knew this, you’re probably an informed food-science skeptic and won’t find much new information here. But if you believe you’d be better off withering away on sprouts, you may find this new book eye-opening and appetite-altering.
First off, Pollan establishes that much of what government officials and scientists have said about food — ever — is at best only one part of a very complicated puzzle, or at worst wrong.
Pollan released “The Omnivore’s Dilemma: A Natural History of Four Meals” in April 2006, and this book feels like a quick, sitting-on-the-couch snack compared with that book’s hearty, lively tale about where our food comes from.
In “Omnivore’s Dilemma,” Pollan energetically traced the origins of four meals, rode a tractor through a cornfield, rolled around in mud and killed his own pig.
Pollan describes “In Defense of Food” as a response to readers of “Omnivore’s Dilemma” asking what to eat once chicken nuggets and artificially sweetened cereal are off the table.
Pollan’s answer is laid out on the cover and the book’s first page: Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants. It might need this caveat: If you’re only going to eat one thing, protein is best. And don’t forget a glass of wine.
Pollan convincingly lays out all the blunders that have taken place in the name of food science and “nutritionism,” a term referring to the ideology of thinking of foods as nutrients rather than whole entities.
From baby formula to margarine to the myriad food products labeled (as the diet winds change) low-fat, low-carb, high-protein, etc., Pollan makes a strong case for ignoring foods that make health claims at all.
It may be hard to believe that people think that it’s better to eat enriched, fortified, hydrogenated, artificially sweetened banana chips rather than bananas — but it is hard to stomach the idea that everything we’ve been taught about fat is wrong.
A low-fat diet isn’t good for your heart, doesn’t reduce your risk of cancer, and doesn’t even mean you’ll be thin. Even Pollan says, “I was flabbergasted at the news.”
He argues — and this really seems so simple it’s hard to believe that it is an argument — that the key to keeping your body healthy is eating better-quality foods and reducing the quantity.
Foods are not just a sum of their parts. And diets can’t be taken out of the context of the culture of dining that surrounds them.
In the third section of his book, Pollan offers specific advice for eating. “Don’t look for the magic bullet in the traditional diet” is a maxim that will be deplored by writers of diet books everywhere.
He writes, “Oceans of ink have been spilled attempting to tease out and analyze the components of the Mediterranean diet, hoping to identify the X factor responsible for its healthfulness: Is it the olive oil? The fish? The wild greens? The garlic? The nuts?”
The same attention has been paid to the so-called French paradox. Most likely it’s a combination of all sorts of factors working together in ways we can’t fully understand. Maybe it’s that Greeks walk more than Americans. Or that the French spend more time shopping for food and make their meals last longer.
Pollan’s tips are obvious but, of course, little followed: Eat mainly foods from the edges of the grocery store (produce, meats, dairy). Don’t eat anything with weird ingredients you’ve never heard of, or anything that has high-fructose corn syrup. Don’t snack.
He offers, as evidence of his advice to avoid anything making health claims, a recently approved FDA health claim for corn oil: “Very limited and preliminary scientific evidence suggests that eating about one tablespoon (16 grams) of corn oil daily may reduce the risk of heart disease due to the unsaturated fat content in corn oil.”
Then there’s the fine print: “FDA concludes that there is little scientific evidence supporting this claim.” And finally, “To achieve this possible benefit, corn oil is to replace a similar amount of saturated fat and not increase the total amount of calories you eat in a day.” Confused?
Actually, the answer is simple. Eat meals of diverse, real, whole foods. Shop at farmers markets, or as locally as possible. Employ intense skepticism about any food or nutrient claim. Enjoy a glass of wine with dinner.
And most important, enjoy your dinner. It really is better to live to eat rather than eat to live. One incredibly good, organic chocolate truffle is better in every way for you and the Earth than a handful of Oreos. It might even save you on a desert island.
‘In Defense of Food: An Eater’s Manifesto’
by Michael Pollan
The Penguin Press
Michael Pollan
What: Michael Pollan appears in Portland.
When: 7 p.m. Tuesday, Feb. 12, Bagdad Theater, 3702 S.E. Hawthorne Blvd., 503-249-7474, ext. 1; tickets at the Bagdad or Ticketmaster, $21.95 includes a copy of “In Defense of Food.”