In Defense of Food

An Eater's Manifesto

De: Michael Pollan

Narrado por: Scott Brick

#1 New York Times Bestseller from the author of This is Your Mind on Plants, How to Change Your Mind, The Omnivore's Dilemma, and Food Rules

Food. There's plenty of it around, and we all love to eat it. So why should anyone need to defend it?

Because in the so-called Western diet, food has been replaced by nutrients, and common sense by confusion--most of what we’re consuming today is longer the product of nature but of food science. The result is what Michael Pollan calls the American Paradox: The more we worry about nutrition, the less healthy we see to become. With In Defense of Food, Pollan proposes a new (and very old) answer to the question of what we should eat that comes down to seven simple but liberating words: "Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants." Pollan’s bracing and eloquent manifesto shows us how we can start making thoughtful food choices that will enrich our lives, enlarge our sense of what it means to be healthy, and bring pleasure back to eating.©2008 Michael Pollan; (P)2008 Penguin Audiobooks

Reseñas de la Crítica

"Michael Pollan [is the] designated repository for the nation's food conscience." —Frank Bruni, The New York Times

"In this slim, remarkable volume, Pollan builds a convincing case not only against that steak dinner but against the entire Western diet." —The Washington Post

"A tough, witty, cogent rebuttal to the proposition that food can be reduced to its nutritional components without the loss of something essential . . . [a] lively, invaluable book." —Janet Maslin, The New York Times

"What should I eat for dinner tonight? Here is Pollan's brilliant, succinct and nuanced answer to this question: 'Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants.'" —Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

"In Defense of Food is written with Pollan's customary bite, ringing clarity and brilliance at connecting the dots." —The Seattle Times

"This is an important book, short but pithy, and, like the word 'food,' not simple at all." —New York Post

"With his lucid style and innovative research, Pollan deserves his reputation as one of the most respectable voices in the modern debate about food." —The Financial Times

Prepare to change your habits

The best books affect you, make you think and sometimes they even make you change your day to day habits. This is one of those books, a short read of ground shifting potential. And like all great books I’ve read, it starts with a simple premise and a simple question: Western culture is, by and large, health obsessed and has been for a while. We count calories, we examine fat content, we examine with finite prevision the nutritional makeup of our foods. So why, in a culture of nutritional obsession are we getting sicker and sicker every year?

What the author poses as an answer is, to use his words, that we have removed culture from our eating habits (culture being a word that means your mother). So he examines the food industry for all its faults and suggests an alternative: eat food, not too much, mostly plants. It’s strange that someone would need to spend a whole book defending food but most of what we eat is not, strictly speaking, food. You should read this book, it has made an impact in my life. So go on, get cooking.

A manifesto for the foodie

If you had to choose between celery and hot dogs for the rest of your life, which would be the "healthy" choice? The answer may surprise you...
Pollan sets out to establish a guideline for what people should eat, and he's quite successful. This isn't and anti-dieting book, but it's not a guide to "nutrition" either; instead, the book sets out cases and examples that willl make you think twice about the assumptions you have about food (and "food products"), and hopefully will help you figure out how to eat more food and less garbage.

Eye Opening book!

Would you recommend this audiobook to a friend? If so, why?

Yes, this is a wonderful book that I would recommend to anyone that wants to know about food and all the "diets" that have contributed to our health today.

If you were to make a film of this book, what would the tag line be?

Eat Real Food!

Interesting book

The content of the book is very interesting! But some of the fact does not sound scientifically correct, read it with skepticism.

Delicious

Although most of this material was not new to me, I thought that Pollan did an excellent job of covering the major issues in the food industry and offering practical advice for people wanting to take control of their food. I recommend this to anyone who's starting to wonder about the western diet health epidemic. Don't expect a president to regulate the very industries that support him. The system is broken, and it's up to us to take back our health. Pollan's humour & writing skills as a journalist were put to good use here.

The narrator was perfect.