From Surf Wiki (app.surf) — the open knowledge base

In Defense of Food

2008 book by Michael Pollan

Field	Value
name	In Defense of Food
image	Defense of food cover.jpg
author	Michael Pollan
country	United States
language	English
publisher	Penguin Press
pub_date	January 1, 2008
media_type	Print (hardcover)
pages	256
isbn	0-14-314274-7
dewey	617.4/810440922 B 22
congress	RC1045.P78 M57 2008
oclc	173243755
preceded_by	The Omnivore's Dilemma
followed_by	Food Rules

In Defense of Food: An Eater's Manifesto (released internationally as In Defence of Food) is a 2008 book by journalist and activist Michael Pollan. It was number one on the New York Times Non-Fiction Best Seller List for six weeks. The book grew out of Pollan's 2007 essay Unhappy Meals published in the New York Times Magazine. Pollan has also said that he wrote In Defense of Food as a response to people asking him what they should eat after having read his previous book, The Omnivore's Dilemma.

In the book, Pollan explores the relationship between nutritionism and the Western diet, postulating that the answer to healthy eating is simply to "Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants." Pollan argues that nutritionism as an ideology has overcomplicated and harmed American eating habits.

Pollan argues that the science of nutrition should not influence people's eating habits because a full range of nutrients has yet to be identified by scientists, and claims that the more focused Americans become on nutrition, the less healthy they seem to become.

In 2009, the University of Wisconsin–Madison selected In Defense of Food as the inaugural book of its Common Read program Go Big Read. A professor from the university's department of dairy science wrote to oppose this decision, saying that Pollan's writing expressed "an individual's biased and disputed view of today's food and agricultural systems."

In 2015, In Defense of Food was adapted into a television documentary for PBS.

References

Pollan, Michael. (8 January 2008). "Extract: In Defence of Food: The Myth of Nutrition and the Pleasures of Eating by Michael Pollan".
results, search. (31 January 2008). "In Defence of Food: The Myth of Nutrition and the Pleasures of Eating". Penguin.
Maslin, Janet. [https://www.nytimes.com/2008/01/03/books/03masl.html "Obsessed With Nutrition? That’s an Eating Disorder"]. ''[[New York Times]]'' (January 3, 2008).
Shapiro, Laura. [http://www.slate.com/id/2180504/ "The Holy Church of Food"]. ''[[Slate (magazine). Slate]]'' (December 31, 2007).
[https://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=17725932 'In Defense of Food' Author Offers Advice for Health]. [[NPR]] [[Morning Edition]] (January 1, 2008).
He says that rather than focusing on eating nutrients, people should focus on eating the sort of food that their ancestors would recognize, implying that much of what Americans eat today is not real food, but "imitations of food". In the book, he distinguishes between food and "edible foodlike substances". Pollan recommends that Americans spend more money and time on food, and buy locally.Maslin, Janet. [https://www.nytimes.com/2008/01/03/arts/03iht-03masl.9006634.html Book Review: 'In Defense of Food']. ''[[New York Times]]'' (January 3, 2008).
(20 March 2008). "In Defense of Food - Michael Pollan".
Penzenstadler, Nick. [http://www.jsonline.com/news/wisconsin/61388172.html "7,000 attend talk by controversial food author"]. ''[[Milwaukee Journal Sentinel]]'' (September 4, 2009).
Grummer, Ric. [http://host.madison.com/wsj/news/opinion/mailbag/article_87f51ea8-a892-11de-936b-001cc4c002e0.html 'In Defense of Food' is short on science]. ''[Wisconsin State Journal]'' (September 23, 2009).
(2015-11-05). "In Defense of Food {{!}} Shows". PBS Food.

Info: Wikipedia Source

This article was imported from Wikipedia and is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Content has been adapted to SurfDoc format. Original contributors can be found on the article history page.

american-non-fiction-books 2008-non-fiction-books non-fiction-books-adapted-into-films books-by-michael-pollan books-about-food-and-drink penguin-press-books

Want to explore this topic further?

Ask Mako anything about In Defense of Food — get instant answers, deeper analysis, and related topics.

Research with Mako

Free with your Surf account

Content sourced from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.

This content may have been generated or modified by AI. CloudSurf Software LLC is not responsible for the accuracy, completeness, or reliability of AI-generated content. Always verify important information from primary sources.

Report