Michael Pollan Talk on “In Defence of Food”
Michael Pollan talks about his book “In Defence of Food”. I haven’t read the book yet but from what I heard from the talk it is one of my must read books now. The book deals with the following topics: what is food? what we think about food today? what should we eat for better health? what are the ways for find healthy foods?
A Summary of Talk
Michael Pollan wrote “In Defence of Food” in order to shed fear of foods that he described in his previous book “The Omnivore’s Dilemma”.
People are prejudiced on what is food. He describes 4 common misconceptions most people think about food today:
- Nutrients are what matters in any food. Food is just a delivery system for nutrients.
- Since we can’t taste, see or smell a nutrient so we need experts to tell us on how to eat.
- There are good nutrients and bad nutrients.
- Our scientific understanding of food is still in infancy state. So we are in no position to state which nutrient is good or bad.
- The whole point of eating is about health. This is the american way of thinking.
- Different cultures eat food for various other reasons like community, religion, identity or pleasure.
Michael Pollan gives some advice on what food to eat:
- Listen to your grandma. This is a funny way of saying follow the customs which are passed from generation to generation.
- Stay away from the middle. This advice is for how to shop at supermarkets. Essential idea is eat perishable foods and stay away from packaged goods. Since perishable foods needs to be replaced often they are kept at the perimeter. So most often you will find packaged foods in the middle at the super markets.
- Eat food which has less number of chemicals or preservatives.
The whole thing can be summarized in seven words which is printed on the cover of the book:
Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants.
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