In Defense of Food summary

I finished reading Michael Pollan's In Defense of Food a couple of weeks ago and am finally getting around to sharing a bit about it. I'm happy to report that it's already affected my eating habits, as I'm definitely cooking at home a lot more these days. And I'm recycling my copy: it's on it's way to my Dad in Kansas, he's got a big birthday on Saturday.

(Happy Birthday, Dad!)

In writing In Defense of Food, Pollan sets out to remind us that eating was once a more pleasurable experience, mainly because we ate for the joy of doing so rather than to meet the U.S. RDA of various nutrients (or to add the latest "super" nutrient to our diet). His point isn't that eating is unrelated to satisfying our nutritional requirements; instead, it's that all the knowledge we need to eat a healthy diet is contained in the wisdom that's been passed down through the centuries, mostly by our mothers.

Humans can thrive on a wide variety of diets, judging from the fact that you've got examples of well-fed people living in environments as diverse as the Arctic and the Sahara. But over time, an increasing proportion of the world's population has taken to eating what's known as the Western diet. In doing so, they've found themselves burdened with a whole range of diseases--think obesity, heart disease, diabetes, cancer--that are rare in populations eating more traditional fare.

Five trends define the development of the Western diet:

1. The transition from eating whole foods to eating refined foods. Think of white flour replacing whole grain flour, white rice replacing brown rice, high fructose corn syrup replacing a little bit of honey, and so on.
2. The transition from complexity to simplicity. Once upon a time we used manure as fertilizer. Then someone "discovered" that the key ingredients could be summed up as "NPK" (nitrogen, phosphorous, and potassium), and artificial fertilizer was born. In making this transition, we simplified the chemistry of our farm land, which in turn simplifies the chemistry of what grows there.

   Moreover, we've vastly reduced the number of foods that we eat: wheat, corn, and soybeans make up the great majority of what the agricultural industry grows. (And try to find something to eat in the center aisles of the grocery store or at a fast food restaurant that doesn't contain one or more of those big three crops.)

   Here's an interesting article on one man's effort to save a bunch of American plants and animals that are facing extinction by returning them to the dinner table. He's collecting culinary lore and recipes from seniors before they're all permanently lost.

3. The transition from quality to quantity. Science has clearly coaxed more macronutrients from the soil, not only here in the U.S. but also in Asia where the Green Revolution of the 40s and 60s dramatically improved crop yields. But research indicates that the quality of the food may have gotten worse, with fewer micronutrients (like vitamins) than in the past.

   And a growing worry is the current global food crisis. A stronger link is being forged between the price of food and the price of fuel by the increasing conversion of corn to ethanol for use as a gasoline replacement. This has pushed up corn and other crop prices (land used to grow wheat is now being shifted to corn production, for example), and people around the world are having more trouble avoiding hunger. And the whole rationale for using ethanol in the first place is being called into question. A report in the February 29th issue of Science magazine stated that the greenhouse gas emissions of corn ethanol "exceed or match those from fossil fuels and therefore produce no greenhouse benefits."

4. The transition from eating leaves to seeds. Agriculture has brought about a dramatic shift from eating the leaves, roots, fruits, and vegetables of plants to eating their seeds. Think about all that wheat, corn, and soybean acreage again (as well as the fact that cows, which evolved on a grass diet, are now primarily fed corn here in America). This transition has resulted in a significant shift in the balance of omega-3 and omega-6 fatty acids in our diets. The omega-6s are abundant in seeds, and we now consume far more omega-6 fatty acids than the omega-3 variety, a big change from the pre-Western diet.

   One thing that was made clear in my biology class this semester is the fundamental role these fats play in every cell in our bodies.

5. The transition from food culture to food science. Once upon a time we ate because it satiated our hunger and because food tasted good. Now we've become a nation (and increasingly a world) of label readers. The food industry makes money with new and improved products, with packaging, with processing and additives, and with health claims. Yet the healthiest foods are those that are the most traditional, the least packaged, the least modified, and the least marketed.

   A report issued earlier this week raised a red flag about the costs of factory farming, noting the negative impacts to human health and the environment from what agriculture has become. Perhaps the most significant thing about the report is that even ag industry representatives agreed with recommendations like banning the use of antiobiotics in livestock except to treat disease (they're currently used to speed up growth as well).

Like I said, I've already taken Pollan's advice (summarized below) to heart: cooking at home more, eating fewer processed foods, eating a lot more fruits and vegetables.

I've also stopped drinking nonfat milk... which for years I assumed was the "right" choice. But Pollan explains that this is a great example of where we've taken a simple, one-ingredient food and complicated it.

Nonfat milk alone tends to be too watery for most people's tastes, so the dairy industry adds powered milk (aka "milk solids") to the milk. But in making powdered milk, the cholesterol it contains is oxidized, and in this form it's much worse for our cardiovascular system than the original cholesterol was. And now some dairies are trying to compensate by adding antioxidants. "New and improved," indeed.

POLLAN'S ADVICE ON EATING WELL IS SIMPLE:

• Eat food. (Think of food as what your greatgrandmother would have recognized as food.)
• Mostly plants. (Shift the balance from animals to fruits and vegetables. Some meat and dairy is great. Too much may not be, and perhaps more importantly, crowds out the produce.)
• Not too much. (There's no question that people are larger now than 20 or 30 years ago. We eat more, we exercise less. And if we're eating crap, too much of a bad thing is even worse.)

There's one minor point that Pollan makes that I would take issue with: he suggests that a multivitamin supplement "can't hurt." The most recent research finds that antioxidant supplements may, in fact, do just that. Read more here.

And if you're interested, I also wrote a post in 2006 about another Pollan book, The Omnivore's Dilemma. Read it here.