in defence of food by michael pollan: book review

well here is another book review for you all to enjoy! i've been wanting to learn more and more about food and health, and the best way for me to do that has been to read loads of different books. i ordered a bunch a couple of weeks ago, and i have been working my way through them, in no particular order.

i'm not sure where i first heard about michael pollan's book, 'in defense of food' but it caught my attention. the reviews are pretty spectacular, and he's such a well known author - plus the book is a new york times bestseller, which must be a good sign.

the book is AMAZING! once it came in the post my mum grabbed it off me to read first, which was awesome because she doesn't often find 'health books' all that enticing usually. whilst she was reading she kept on laughing, and making shocked noises and generally just interacting with it. she wouldn't tell me why, she just told me that i had to read it, then i would understand.

and i now do. the book talks on a very understable level about the corruption of the food industry, and what that means in a practical way in everyday life. michael's overarching theory is: eat food. not too much. mostly plants. he breaks this down in the book and explains why we should stop looking at foods as nutrition, as a quantity of calories, carbs, vitamins and minerals, but rather something that should be enjoyed and savored for it's flavor and the way it makes us feel.

it's a brilliant philosophy which i really want to take on board in my life. so, we are now buying more organic food, and working towards putting more money aside each week for grocery shopping. i'm looking into local farmer's markets and different and exciting ways to enjoy vegetables. we are also trying to book people in for meals at our house, so that we are sharing each meal.

but the most important change from reading this book has come about in my mum; she's now taking fresh fruit to work, and a tupperware full of healthy nuts and dried fruit to snack on instead of dodgy chocolate bars. even better than that she actually gets excited when we go food shopping, and takes the lead in picking out the most good looking fruit and vegetables. it's great to see her so fired up about actually good food; it's meant that we have tried some really exciting organic produce lately, and that we will do so too in the future as well.

i love eating organic fruit and vegetables, and there's some produce which you can totally tell the difference with too: blueberries taste like they've been picked in some swedish forest, tomatoes smell as though they've been plucked straight from the greenhouse and are so so crisp, and apples are fresh rather than grainy.

so, if you haven't picked up your copy of in defense of food, i highly highly recommend you do so like right now. and if you want a relative of yours to get excited about good, healthy food, then this is the perfect book to make them see the light.