on Jan 10th, 2008Seven words
Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants.
Those seven words open In Defense of Food: An Eater’s Manifesto, by Michael Pollan, author of The Omnivore’s Dilemma, a 2006 best-seller.
A simple manifesto, those words, but how difficult for millions in this era of vitamin-laced soft drinks. While it would seem we Americans are obsessed with nutrition, despite the billions spent each year on processed pseudo-foods, Pollan points out, “You would not have bought this book…if your food culture was intact and healthy.”
In the book’s introduction, he writes about how such a basic question — What to eat? — became so complicated. His seven-word solution is not a call to vegetarianism, not at all. It’s easier than that: if your grandmother wouldn’t recognize it, don’t eat it.
Many of us have long heard the advice for a healthier trip to the supermarket: shop the perimeter, where the produce and fresh, whole foods are. It’s when we wander into the aisles full of meals in boxes with expiration dates two years away that we begin to run into trouble. As Pollan reminds us, Americans worry more about the health consequences of food choices than anyone else on earth, yet we have more diet-related health problems. We are, he says, becoming a nation with an unhealthy obsession with healthy eating.
He recommends eating better, buying locally when possible and doing a little cooking. That message certainly resonates here. Further, he reminds us to beware of easy health claims on food, such as “whole grain goodness” on boxes of sugary cereal and to remember that low-carb spaghetti is actually imitation spaghetti.
In Defense of Food has just been published by The Penguin Press. More information about Pollan and the book, with links to reviews, can be found here. His recent article on sustainability in the The New York Times Magazine is here. Another post, in the blog This time, this space, can be found here.
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A supermarket is a treacherous place indeed. And ever notice that there is no such thing as a coupon for actual food? I have to say that having just recently moved, and upon finding a dismal array of choices in the meat dept of the local market, I have had the unexpected pleasure of having a good, ongoing dialogue with the butcher who has since added Murray’s, Bell & Evans, Empire Kosher and D’Artagnon chickens to see how his customer’s respond. Imagine my surprise in discovering that all you have to do is ASK.
I love the grandmother remark - I’ll be passing that one along!
Now that you mention it, it does seem the only coupons I ever use are for cleaning products or personal care. Good observation!
You’re smart to make friends with the butcher and fishmonger. Mine have ordered things for me that I used to take for granted in NY and are always willing to cut or dig out something better from the back. I hope D’Artagnon sells well at your market. Excellent quality, imo.
I wonder what our grandmothers would have said about things such as “cheese” from an aerosol can?
Good catch pbsweeney
I just checked and confirmed I have received no coupons in the last month’s batch that are for anything other than prepared, fast schlock pretending to be real food, cosmetics or house cleaning products.
We just sat through a viewing of Fast Food Nation at our house and we are still in shock. T. and I haven’t add meat in a meal for about a week. I guess my old friend Serendipity is smiling again. We will start reading the book tomorrow. Thanks
waving to brightfeather!
@rhbee - I love Serendipity! I read Fast Food Nation when it first came out, in fact it’s on my “bookshelf” at Library Thing, and it was a stunner. I finally understood how a million pounds of ground beef could be contaminated — it’s one cow. There’s an interview with the author among the extras on the dvd of Supersize Me. If you haven’t seen that, you might enjoy it.
And after watching it, I bet you’ll never ingest another McDonald’s french fry, delicious as they are.
Great entry. I enjoyed reading everyone’s comments.
There is a painful reality most of us live with, however.
Stuff that your grandmother wouldn’t recognize tends to be much less expensive, plus you get those great coupons.
There may not be a price we can put on health. But there is a cost to living which will be escalating over the next months.
For those of us who believe, “you are what you eat,” grocery trips have become rather Kafkaesque in pricing these past months; and this is just the beginning.
Here’s to everyone’s health and well being.
Blue Smoke, i hear ya! I live that painful reality too. Sometimes my food budget is 25 dollars a week. What do we eat? One organic chicken dinner, beans and rice cooked from scratch - that means no cans, curried red lentil soup or white bean kale soup, (once again from dry lentil & beans - really cheap) lots of shredded raw “slaw” of organic cabbage, carrots & celery, then also tuna, eggs, oatmeal, and breads, rolls, tortillas etc that I make. Apple crisp is our big dessert. If we have more money, I add more variety of fresh veggies and fruit, plus I buy our staple of oils and flours and such. It’s not so bad, and a lot cheaper than a package of anything.
There are lots of blogs out there on this kind of living - so we have lots of friends in the blogoshere in the same boat. So join in! It ain’t half bad!
@bluesmoke - I know I said at least a month ago I was going to write about supermarket sticker shock and I really must. The price of pasta has jumped - pasta!
And you’re absolutely right about cost vs price. Everything has a cost, including — and sometimes especially, according to studies — the cost to communities of having that big box store touting its always low prices.
He wrote about the cost issue in either the introduction (first link) or first chapter (second link). He’s well aware of it, not in an ivory tower.
@pbsweeney - Aren’t lentils a gift from the universe?
When I need a nutritious budget-stretcher, I play with a lentil-rice casserole recipe I got on a mailing list years ago. It does need tinkering but you can access and save/download it here – with my notes and those of the person who uploaded it to the list.
Bonus recipes - if that’s not a reason for leaving comments, I don’t know what is!
Excellent post, ella.
“supermarket sticker shock ”
Compared to the rest of the world, we’ve enjoyed exceedingly low food prices for 2 generations. I just heard this discussed today on a market analysis blurb on the radio. Just as oil prices and other commodities are no longer set by the North American markets; so too with grain and foodstuffs.
China and India want the variety we have come to take for granted, and they can now easily afford it.
“eating better, buying locally when possible and doing a little cooking”
Amen!
ellaella,
First, I ain’t no fast food junkie, that’s my partner and wife, T. We haven’t seen Super Size Me yet but I’ve railed for years at our family who are in the fair food concession business (where that strategy is rampant) and who always want us to give up our fruit and vegetable stand to come join them. They are right, there is real money in selling people fat, fried, and filling but we’ve discovered there is also a living to be made by selling what we’d buy ourselves - fresh, organic, and nutritious.
@sage - Hi! We have indeed enjoyed low food prices and still people go hungry. I have trouble accepting that. As for buying locally, I so wish we had a longer growing season here.
@rhbee - I imagine the profit margin on fair food is huge. It’s probably almost as bad as the markup on snacks at the movies.
Not quite as bad as the movies but that’s because the fair controls the prices somewhat and competition affects things too.
Here’s a funny story: One of our friends in the business, we call him Chicken Charlie because about 4 years ago he was looking to get his own business at the fair so he bought the Broasted Chicken stand. Well, he decided that he needed to expand his offerings so he started experimenting with frying things, Twinkies,Oreos,Deep-fried Coke Syrup, all of which sold like the proverbial hotcakes. Proving that the axiom that drives the fair business - the customers are there to eat - had a corallary - and they’ll eat anything if it’s fried. Two summer’s ago he featured the famous Kripy Kreme double deck Hamburger. He’s rich by the way. Anyway, the ironic point to this story is that the whole Broasted Chicken idea was founded on the concept of not frying food because that was unhealthy.
Oh, that is funny — and I haven’t heard the term “broasted” in years.
A few years ago, when a Brooklyn restaurant introduced fried Twinkies, which became the talk of the town, my squeeze and I schlepped to Brooklyn to try them. They were delicious, in the way bad-for-us-food usually is, but 2 Twinkies were $8. I don’t know the price of Twinkies at the supermarket but I’m pretty sure there was quite a profit there.