In Defense of Food An Eater's Manifesto

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IN DEFENSE of F O O D
A L S O BY M I C H A E L POLLAN

Second Nature

A Place of My Own

The Botany of Desire

The Omnivores Dilemma

IN DEFENSE
of F O O D
AN EATER'S M A N I F E S T O

MICHAEL POLLAN

THE P E N G U I N PRESS

NewYoik « 2008
 THE P E N G U I N PRESS

Published by the Penguin Group

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First published in 2008 by The Penguin Press,

a member of Penguin Group (USA) Inc.

Copyright © Michael Pollan, 2008

All rights reserved

A portion of this book first appeared in The NewYoikTimes Magazine under the title "Unhappy Meals."

LIBRARY OF CONGRESS CATALOGING IN PUBLICATION DATA

Pollan, Michael.
In defense of food : an eater's manifesto / Michael Pollan.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN: 978-1-59420-145-5
1. Nutrition. 2. Food habits. I.Title.
RA784.P643 2008
613—dc22 2007037552

Printed in the United States of America

1 3 5 7 9 10 8 6 4 2

Designed by Marysarah Quinn

Without limiting the rights under copyright reserved above, no part of this publication may be reproduced,
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 FOR ANN AND GERRY,

With gratitude for your loyal friendship

and inspired editing

 CONTENTS

INTRODUCTION An Eater's Manifesto l

I THE AGE O F N U T R I T I O N I S M 17

ONE – From Foods to Nutrients 19

TWO – Nutritionism Defined 27
THREE –Nutritionism Comes to Market 32

FOUR –Food Science's Golden Age 36

FIVE –The Melting of the Lipid Hypothesis 40

six –Eat Right, Get Fatter 50

SEVEN –Beyond the Pleasure Principle S3

EIGHT –The Proof in the Low-Fat Pudding 58

NINE –Bad Science 61

TEN –Nutritionism's Children 78

I I THE W E S T E R N D I E T A N D T H E
D I S E A S E S O F C I V I L I Z A T I O N 83

ONE – The Aborigine in All of Us 85

TWO – The Elephant in the Room 89
 THREE – The Industrialization of Eating :
What We Do Know 101
1 ) From Whole Foods to Refined 106

2 ) From Complexity to Simplicity 114

3 ) From Quality to Quantity 118

4 ) From Leaves to Seeds 124

5 ) From Food Culture to Food Science 132

III G E T T I N G O V E R N U T R I T I O N I S M 137

ONE – Escape from the Western Diet 139

TWO – Eat Food: Food Defined 147
THREE – Mostly Plants : What to Eat 161
FOUR – Not Too Much: How to Eat 182

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS 202

SOURCES 206

RESOURCES 229

INDEX 231
IN DEFENSE of F O O D
INTRODUCTION «

AN E A T E R ' S M A N I F E S T O

E at food. Not too much. Mostly plants.

That, more or less, is the short answer to the suppos­
edly incredibly complicated and confusing question o f what
we humans should eat in order to be maximally healthy.
I hate to give the game away right here at the beginning
o f a whole book devoted to the subject, and I'm tempted to
complicate matters in the interest o f keeping things going for
a couple hundred more pages or so. I'll try to resist, but will
go ahead and add a few more details to flesh out the recom­
mendations. Like, eating a little meat isn't going to kill you,
though it might be better approached as a side dish than as
a main. And you're better off eating whole fresh foods rather
than processed food products. That's what I mean by the rec­
ommendation to "eat food," which is not quite as simple as it
sounds. For while it used to be that food was all you could eat,
today there are thousands o f other edible foodlike substances
in the supermarket. These novel products o f food science often