Reddit reviews In Defense of Food: An Eater's Manifesto

tl;dr - The title gives it away, but eat food, not too much, mostly plants. Basically, nutritionists don't know much about nutrition, they get bogged down thinking about vitamins and micro-nutrition, not macro-nutrition. That's why every 5 years eggs go from good-for-you to bad-for-you and back again.

Supplements don't do anything, because the vitamins usually work together, and if you don't have it's partners, it won't work much.

Processed foods and refined foods are horrible, they lack nutrient combos. The nutrients they add in may be lacking the undiscovered ones that allow them to work.

Don't eat packaged food with ingredients you don't know (chemicals and preservatives)

The most important parts are on page 11 & 12

(forgive my summary, I just browsed the article, I am summing up this and parts of his great book In Defense of Food)

EDIT: "Nutritionists" in this instance does not mean those unregulated people who call themselves nutritionists. I was referring to all nutrition scientists, including food scientists, dietitians, and nutritionists.

EDIT 2: Also, I'm not trying to make claims here people, just trying to sum up the article/book. I understand my comments are blanket statements, but that is what "TL;DR" is for.

If you're really "trying to eat healthy," it's not that complicated. Vegetables should be your main source of nutrition.

>Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants.

-Michael Pollan

Because science doesn't know all the answers. As much as some nutritionists would want you to believe the opposite, we are only scratching the surface with our understanding of what the human body needs. Take a look at Michael Pollan's In Defence of Food which offers an alternative to nutritionism > Eat food, not too much, mostly plants.

Food Rules by Michael Pollan. It is incredibly simple and he makes very good points throughout. It is almost written too simply and is a bit redundant, but it's a great book.

If you want something a little more in-depth, In Defense of Food is basically an expanded version of Food Rules, also by Michael Pollan.

They reference Michael Pollan "In Defense of Food" in the article. I am currently reading another book by Michael Pollan called "Omnivore's Dilema" which is an incredible book on the history and techniques used by modern farmers, both industrial and organic.

This guy knows what he is talking about. I really recommend the read if you are interested in where your food comes from, which I believe everyone should know.

In his book In Defense of Food, Michael Pollan makes a very convincing argument against what he calls nutritionism. Basically that studying individual nutrients in isolation will never show us the whole picture of how our diet really works. And also that not only is that basic premise flawed, but so too is the evidence used to support it.
http://www.amazon.com/Defense-Food-Eaters-Manifesto/dp/1594201455

Also, Michael Pollan's books on the subject, including In Defense of Food: An Eater's Manifesto

Joel Salatin (the author) is a bit of a (admitted) nut job though. A lifetime of being the voice in the wilderness will do that to you.

I've seen him speak, and he's very persuasive. When he mentioned that raising animals on pasture produces meat/dairy with the optimal omega-3/6 balance for human health, it made my head pop.

For more on the benefits of traditional, natural ways of cooking, growing crops & raising animals, check out Michael Pollan's books: Omnivore's Dilemna and In Defense of Food.

These books have literally changed my life and my relationship to food - it's been a wonderful, rewarding experience.

Bingo.

That book along with The Omnivore's Dilemma completely changed the way I look at food.

Focus on your health and not your weight. Weight and appearance are extremely complicated issues emotionally and are not going to help you to improve your health. Accept your body as it is right now. It does not mean that you are at your ideal weight, but you need to be comfortable with who you are.

Your long-term project should not be weight loss. It should be achieving and maintaining health. And it does not end if or when you reach some target weight. It continues for the rest of your life. Your goal is to eat a healthy diet and get enough exercise. Weight loss is not the goal, but is an indicator that your are making real progress.

Read In Defense of Food and The End of Overeating for diet information. The China Study is very controversial, but it has been a great motivator for me. Read ACJN and other journals on a regular basis - doing research is a great motivator.

In terms of exercise, what worked for me was making a goal of working out an hour every day. The challenge is then to see how many days I can do this for. On average it works out to about 4 - 5 days a week at about 90 minutes per day.

You need to build up your cardiovascular strength a lot. Start by waking an hour or so a day. When walking does not get your heart rate up that much any more, switch to riding a bike. Whenever possible, exercise outside. Expose some skin and don't use sunscreen (not 11am - 4pm though) so that you get some vitamin D out of it too.

I have been fat since puberty. Not as high a BMI as you, but emotional pain is not exactly proportional to BMI. I didn't have any friends in college. I had no boyfriends. It took me 15 years to figure out how not to feel like shit. When you are a little girl/boy, you have an image of what you will be when you grow up. Then you grow up and it's nothing like what you expected. You need to get over it. You are fat and if anyone has a problem with it, fuck them.

This is from Michael Pollan's "In Defense of Food: An Eater's Manifesto" - in the book, he describes it as a condition or obsession, not a disease. You have to read the book to get the full context. It is certainly not a way to justify eating junk/fast food.

http://www.amazon.com/Defense-Food-Eaters-Manifesto/dp/1594201455

Its a good book, BTW.

There's also the book:

http://www.amazon.ca/Defense-Food-Michael-Pollan/dp/1594201455

In continuing with the hilarity of me giving nutrition advice though, I haven't read it.

To anyone interested in this movie, you might want to check out In Defense of Food by Michael Pollan:
http://www.amazon.com/Defense-Food-Eaters-Manifesto/dp/1594201455/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1211866064&sr=8-1

Also, Iowa's DNR Director Rich Leopold has some great ideas when it comes to ethanol and crop alternatives. Please don't think that we're complacent about our situation.
http://www.siouxcityjournal.com/special_sections/ethanol/

p.s. southern Iowa is a pretty good model for small farms, let's hope they're able to keep it up. Support your local farmers market!

>Fiber will increase metabolism and make you healthier by cleaning out toxins.

Whenever you hear a vague mention of toxins it is usually a good sign you should just stop reading. Whoever wrote this is probably clueless. If you want to lose weight, read and follow the advice of In Defense of Food, and start doing significant amounts of cardio.

> I'm really interested in food and health and the whole industry behind it

in that case i might add. . .

• 
  In defense of food Micheal Pollan
  

I'd highly suggest reading this http://www.amazon.com/Defense-Food-Eaters-Manifesto/dp/1594201455 along with the rest of Pollan's books. I've learned a lot and made drastic changes to my diet as a result.

http://www.amazon.ca/Salt-Sugar-Fat-Giants-Hooked/dp/0771057105

http://www.amazon.ca/Defense-Food-Eaters-Manifesto/dp/1594201455/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1425300234&sr=1-1&keywords=in+defense+of+food

http://www.amazon.ca/Mindless-Eating-More-Than-Think/dp/0345526880/ref=pd_sim_b_3?ie=UTF8&refRID=0PJDH57XQVR2RN712MSF

http://www.amazon.ca/The-Diet-Fix-Diets-Yours/dp/0345813588/ref=pd_bxgy_b_img_z

• This last one is by a guy who also has a decent website: http://www.weightymatters.ca/
  

No, that is just the name of chapter seven.

>Somebody better come up with a marketable, sustainable, acceptable food source.

Well, you can start by reading this book.

I'm not really interested in arguing - whatever works for you works for you. You don't have to agree with me. But some points:

My cereal and milk and banana every morning is roughly the same .47 as your shake - within a few cents - and mine are all organic and have an ingredients list I can read.

As for your salmon comparison - it's normally a negligible difference between the two - and I can choose to have either in moderation.

You also preach nutrition and in the same breath recommend food-replacement with shakes made of chemicals. Can I recommend some books/movies:

http://www.amazon.com/Omnivores-Dilemma-Natural-History-Meals/dp/1594200823

http://www.amazon.com/Food-Inc-Eric-Schlosser/dp/B0027BOL4G

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1594201455

Yup, read this;

http://www.amazon.com/In-Defense-Food-Eaters-Manifesto/dp/1594201455

If you have an hour to spare I recommend this talk by Michael Pollan on his new book: Food Rules. It is both informative and funny. Out of all the books I read on nutrition and health I got the most out of In Defense of Food.

I am pretty sure that esdee is just a jackass who thinks s/he knows more than s/he does, but I suspect the point about nutritionists may be that it is a field of science that is still in its infancy.

I came to stop listening to nutritional science thanks to Michael Pollan's books. In Defense of Food is a great book that calls out nutritional science as little more than a ploy to move "value-added foods." It goes into why the science in this case is more a shot in the dark at keeping healthy than is asking your grandmother what to eat. (tl;dr version: Nutriotional science is too reductionist and focuses too much on specific molecules in food rather than heeding conventional wisdom of "if we survived on it for two million years, we should eat it." Pollan sums it up himself in only seven words: Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants. Oh, and avoid processed foods.) Great book. If you end up liking it, read Omnivore's Dilemma by Pollan to enter the world of food politics.

There is a whole century's worth of studies linking the Western diet with the Western diseases and the Standard American Diet just took this to an extreme. But, you might want to take a look at Michael Pollan's In Defense of Food.

It's probably worse for you than a good pork bacon from the likes of Burgers or Harringtons. I'm reading In Defense of Food for a Human Biology and Nutrition class, and I'd highly suggest it. It really puts a lot of our recent food history here in America in perspective.