Reddit reviews In Defense of Food: An Eater's Manifesto
We found 35 Reddit comments about In Defense of Food: An Eater's Manifesto. Here are the top ones, ranked by their Reddit score.
Penguin Books
I think every woman's "normal" is individualistic.
I shave everything off (legs, armpits, pubes) once week; legs and pits every other day during the summer. Twice a month I shave my arms and face because it feels really good, I like the exfoliation, and my hair grows slowly and soft. I pluck my eyebrows and upper lip when need be, so maybe like every couple of weeks or so.
I don't wear any makeup at all; I think the last time I did was maybe 4-5 years ago.
I only use bar soap with minimal ingredients in order to lessen the toxic burden. I try to treat my skin as delicate fabric, not a dirty floor to be scrubbed with harsh chemicals.
In terms of hair care, I have thick, wavy hair that I simply wash; no products, I just set my waves while my hair is wet so that it's not frizzy. I use diluted lemon juice a couple times a week to clarify my hair.
Always clean and fitted clothes, teeth flossed and brushed.
Two well-balanced meals per day, no snacking, 99% of my meals are homecooked with whole foods and full fat, nothing ever bottled/packaged or processed. I only drink black coffee, unsweetened tea, wine, beer, or water. I definitely allow myself dessert when I crave it, or eat junk food at parties/other people's homes if offered, but I do not buy it and keep it in my home. Michael Pollan's In Defense of Food: An Eater's Manifesto is a good one to abide by. I walk everywhere (I live in NYC).
Basic philosophy: minimal, clean, natural, and groomed.
If you want to eat healthy I suspect you are going to have to change some of your expectations. Preparing an entire week of healthy meals will take more than an hour, vegetarian or not. The processed foods themselves are bad for you if its turkey loaf or to-furkey. Sometimes its fine but in neither case do you want to be living off of that. Swapping out the milk in chocolate milk for soy milk will at least release animal suffering but it isn't great to be feeding children so much sugar either. There is another book that really affected me I suggest you read called "In Defense Of Food" by Michael Pollen. I found it way more engaging than the Omnivores Dilemma in explaining why these foods are not ideal and will help you in developing not only a better meal plan but a better way of thinking about food.
https://smile.amazon.com/dp/0143114964/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_dp_T2_pk5tzbNGZTCGM
Yep, there's a section in Michael Pollan's In Defence of Food that details dentist Weston A. Price's research in the 1930s:
> isolated populations eating a wide variety of traditional diets had no need of dentists whatsoever (Well, almost no need of dentists: The “sturdy mountaineers” of Switzerland, who never met a toothbrush, had teeth covered in a greenish slime—but underneath that Price found perfectly formed teeth virtually free of decay). Wherever he found an isolated primitive race that had not yet encountered the “displacing foods of modern commerce”—by which he meant refined sugar, canned and chemically preserved foods, and vegetable oils—he found little or no evidence of “modern degeneration”—by which he meant chronic disease, tooth decay, and malformed dental arches. Either there was something present in the Western diet that led to these problems or there was something absent from it.
In Defense Of Food By Michael Pollan
> "Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants."
I love this book!
In Defense of Food by Michael Pollan. He is single-handedly changing my understanding of the American agriculture/food industry and I must say I don't like what I see!
You can try In Defense of Food by Michael Pollan. The basic philosophy of the book is "Eat food, not too much, mostly plants."
It doesn't advocate a strictly vegetarian diet, but more goes into the food production system in North America, and talks about things like the corn subsidies in the US, how many resources it takes to raise a cow, ect. It's a helpful book if you want to know how the food industry has changed for the worse (for our health and environment).
It's one of the thesis in Michael Pollan's In Defence of Food. (Try chapter 8, "Bad Science" where he discusses how scientific reductionism can be misleading taking examples the cholesterol debate, the mystery of antioxidants and problems with nutritional epidemiology.) It's a bit long to summarise - but a well written thoughtful book.
My favorite book on the topic:
https://www.amazon.com/Defense-Food-Eaters-Manifesto/dp/0143114964
My favorite Pollan quote goes something like "Eat Food, mostly vegetables, not too much." (I think it's from In Defense of Food)
People who make excuses are a lost cause and are cheating themselves. Not to defend those people but a couple of good reads:
The food giants want you to consume shit food and stay fat.
If you want to get healthy, start doing your research. Learn all you can from reputable sources and then use your new knowledge to get a plan. You should read "Why We Are Fat" by Gary Taubes and some of Michael Pollan's books. Check out r/keto and r/paleo. Watch "Fat Head" on Netflix. Personal health is a science and before you start, make sure you are doing it the best way for you. Plus, you don't want to put in a lot of time and effort only to find out there was a better, easier way out there. I wish I would have found r/keto wayyyy sooner. Good luck! You can DEFINITELY do this!
I can recommend Michael Pollan's books:
He talks about why a lot of current nutritional science is flawed (poor data, biased funding, etc...) and concludes that while humans can survive and thrive on a wide variety of diets, the modern western diet is not one of them. His advice boils down to "Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants."
It's a good read because he's not really trying to push any one particular diet. The books are more concerned with how and why the western diet and modern nutritional science got to be the way they are.
You'll find that this sub is extremely supportive - no berating or humiliating here at all, just encouragement and sometimes tough love.
Others have said this, but it can't be stressed enough that food should be your #1 priority. What you're doing in MFP is absolutely the right thing - if you keep eating at a deficit, you will 100% lose weight. (And the fact that you already have a MFP account and have been logging what you're eating shows that you are past the point of "literally no concept of health or weight loss!" You know what to do, the trick is making yourself do it, which is why we're all here, haha.)
Once you get the ball rolling, you can start to add in exercise, but that's not the priority upfront. By all means start walking a little more, but really focus on your calories and don't try to jump immediately into intense workouts - it's not necessary right now.
Ultimately, as everyone will tell you, this needs to be about a complete lifestyle change - you can't think of it as dieting. What helps me is reminding myself what's literally happening in my body when I eat certain foods. I really recommend the book It Starts With Food - regardless of whether you actually want to do a Whole 30 (30 days of eliminating a bunch of foods that tend to give people issues), the book is an excellent overview of how what you eat effects all of the organs in your body, both positively and negatively. Michael Pollan's In Defense of Food is another great choice.
You can do it! Good luck!
In Defense of Food is a nice one. It is not just about HFCS as it is nonsense to assume that you are just leaving that out and all of a sudden all your problems will be gone. I'm having the impression that the media is promoting this just so that the companies can now write "no HCFS!!!" on the packaging to pretend that their crap food is healthy.
I don't know if it is sufficiently unscientific but I remember that it was a nice read and I'm not even a native speaker. Lots of people have read and liked it so I think it should have enough mass appeal.
http://www.amazon.com/Defense-Food-Eaters-Manifesto/dp/0143114964/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1291745240&sr=8-1
In Defense of Food is a really good book that addresses this question directly. its helpful to look at healthy eating conceptually rather than trying to remember all the information, stats, counting nutrients, etc. that gets overwhelming. if you can understand what a generally healthy diet looks like (more vegetables, less processed foods, that sort of thing) then you default into getting all the nutrients you need just because you're eating well. also, dont forget this one, dietary fiber is super important, this comes from plants and basically feeds your gut bacteria and is a pipe cleaner in your tubes. the gut bacteria process fiber that your body cant on its own and then give out things your body can use.
May I recommend a book? In Defense of Food by Michael Pollan addresses the culture of "nutritionism" as he calls it. (Pollan is a well known and very important food writer / investigative reporter. Although he is not a nutritionist, he has written several of the most prominent books on the US food industry.)
His basic thesis in In Defense of Food is that the food industry has taught us to think of food as a delivery of nutrients. This is not a good way to think about food, he argues, because:
This book can make you feel more overwhelmed, a bit, but at the end, Pollen describes cooking a meal from veggies he just picked in his garden. The whole point of his book is to think of food in terms of corn, cilantro, and black beans (yum yum yum), and not in terms of Vitamin X and Mineral Y.
There is no such thing as an immortality diet. So just do your best, and eat your veggies. Stews are a great time saver: make a huge pot of stew, and freeze them for when you don't have time to cook.
Thanks!
Very cool to see the actual course listing information. I'd forgotten what it was like to flip through an actual paper course catalog with that kind of stuff in it. Thank god for the internet.
Also, you helped me figure out what book I was trying to remember in this comment! It was The Omnivore's Dilemma: A Natural History of Four Meals by Michael Pollan. IIRC, it was an awesome concept and 75% of it was an absolutely fantastic read, but one of the sections (maybe the third one?) was bit uninspired. Still overall worth the read, for sure, just be prepared to slog through one section. (And don't skip it, because what it discusses is still relevant to the final section, even if it's not as entertaining as the rest of the book.) It's worth it in particular for anybody living in an industrialized "modern" nation; it provides some of the come-to-Jesus moments that we all need to hear periodically. It's not on the level of Fast Food Nation in that regard (which is required reading for every American and Canadian, as far as I'm concerned), but still.
EDIT: And that helped me remember another book I've heard recommended, also by Michael Pollan: In Defense of Food: An Eater's Manifesto.
You're on a roll, friend.
I'm in the same boat as far as feeling discouraged. I've been at a plateau for like 6 weeks and nothing has really had any effect whatsoever. It's very frustrating!
Can I recommend a few books? Maybe In Defense of Food or Food Rules. The author breaks down how our bodies deal with food and makes suggestions, citing good information.
Regarding insulin response:
Enter The Zone: A Dietary Road map https://www.amazon.com/dp/0060391502/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apap_aYdFVAwVnJWJz
Regarding nutrition, calories, etc:
In Defense of Food: An Eater's Manifesto https://www.amazon.com/dp/0143114964/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apap_84Pt1bNIvcu25
In Defense of Food by Michael Pollan
>Man you seem like a smart motherfucker sometimes Murda.
i swear i actually am sometimes.
>Would you say the diet improvements and the yoga helped a lot?
rediculously so. im lactose intolerant plus got celiac too so im pretty much vegan by default short of a couple thing and cant eat any sort of bread. the yoga was a life saver. if you get really into it beyond just a workout system, then its got some crazy beneficial effects. im all russell simmons now, meditate like twice a day, and the shit just grounds you very well.
if youre not trying to get spiritual with it, it will still leave you feeling amazing. plus, its easy to do. dont get trapped in the "but im not flexible" mindset. think of it like riding a bike with training wheels, once you learn how to ride without them then youre not just gonna stop riding a bike. youre gonna enjoy it that much more. so the goal isn't to be flexible, the goal is to relax and enjoy it.
yeah, i cut out all the meats. i read this book and this one somewhere early on in the diet shift. first one was written by the front man to one of my more favorite bands. just helped put things in perpective that we dont HAVE to eat meat and that doing so doesnt make you tough. Im just not tryin to have stuff die if it doesnt need to. second one gave me a better idea of what I should be putting into my body plus theres a lot about just how fucked our food supply is in there too.
other than that, the internet. tons of information at your disposal
the best way to do it, is to start cooking more. go to the grocery store, find the weirdest vegetable you can find and then look up how to cook it. and just consciously think about it. like hey, i dont HAVE to eat meat. make it so it's a choice. its not a cold turkey thing. maybe go one meal a day where you dont eat it and take it from there
plus, adding Worcestershire sauce to stuff helps give it that meaty flavor.
The Eater's Manifesto.
It's not Paleo^TM Brand Paleo^TM but it's really good.
Reading Rainbow... Reading Rainboooooooowww!!!! (totally singing the song now)
So I've had this book on my list for a while and I really really really want to read it. My health journey is also a knowledge journey and I'm learning about what goes in my body. I also love Michael Pollan's writing style. He has a way of turning scientific information into an almost-poetic work of art. I'm watching "cooked" on Netflix too! Fangirl!
This book has been getting a lot of publicity recently.
Here you go. Really changed the way I looked at my eating habits.
You can check out the reviews of the book here:
In Defense of Food: An Eater's Manifesto: Michael Pollan: 9780143114963: Amazon.com: Books
https://www.amazon.com/Defense-Food-Eaters-Manifesto/dp/0143114964/
> SPARTY 047
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> 5.0 out of 5 stars - A life changing book...
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> February 22, 2016
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> I have a medical and science background...so traced references cited....everything checks out. Recently diagnosed with osteoarthritis at age 63 and weight 284 pounds. Read this book the first week of January.....went shopping for real foods the second week of January. Find it satisfying to eat no more than 4 oz of red meat 2-3 times a week....salmon, mackeral, sardines 2-3 times a week....and a couple of days with no meat...just veggie omega 3 sources. Have re-read the book....highlighted...added notes on all pages...and bought 2 more copies for my 30 and 21 year olds...both who grew up in the age of "nutritionism" with all its false information. Following Pollan's common sense advice....paying the extra for organic basic veggies and olive oil. Decided to eliminate all wheat and corn until I loose the weight I've set as a goal.
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> Five weeks eating 3 meals a day...and by week two much of the chronic 24 hour a day pain was gone and I began walking the elliptical and the woods. Five weeks and 30 pounds lighter....with more energy than I've had in 20 years. Buy this book, learn it, live it, tell your loved ones.
Humans are omnivores, and as omnivores with a jack-of-all-trades digestive system there is no best or perfect human diet. We can eat a variety of foods, from all around the world, and be perfectly healthy individuals.
Don't get sucked in by fad-diets and get-healthy-quick schemes. They just want your money. Unless you have a condition that prevents you from eating a certain food group, or limits your consumption of a food group (e.g. allergies, intolerances, celiac, heart conditions, diabetes) then best advice I can give you is to "eat [locally and in season] foods, not to much, mostly plants". This isn't another diet book, its a manifesto in defence of good quality food.
This book covers a lot of the topics you're curious about. And while it won't give you a menu or a set of strict rules to follow, it will help you to make well informed decisions on what you eat. This is the article Pollan first wrote which lead to the book. It's lengthy, but well worth the read. The book expands on the same ideas and gives a great history of the American food and health industries. I also personally enjoy his writing style; he uses a lot of tongue-in-cheek humor to make some really strong points.
And of course, /u/UnaBarbaAzul is right: there's no magic bullet. Even Pollan has some bias. So read as much as you can and develop your own opinions on whats best for you. Good luck!
Here's all my favorites! For books:
Fast Food Nation.
In Defense of Food: An Eater's Manifesto.
Food Rules: An Eater's Manifesto.
Salt Sugar Fat.
"Pandora's Lunchbox: How Processed Food Took Over the American Meal".
For movies/documentaries:
Fed Up,
Fast Food Nation,
That Sugar Film,
Food Fight,
Forks Over Knives,
The Future of Food,
Sugar-Coated.
I believe all of these are on Netflix!
Hi De,
Sorry, I'm not positive I understand why the answer was unsatisfactory to you.
They have poisoned the food supply through negligence, and undermined the farming system through monopolization.
Who is they?
There are the voice of corporate money -- finance in particular -- which has overwhelmed the power of people's votes. See Food inc, Omnivore Dilema, In Defence of Food, Supersize Me.
One theme that recurs through out these four works on the politics of food is that the will of the people gets overruled by corporate money once it gets to Washington. That money, in turn, is required to be this amoral by the atmosphere in Wall St.
---
It's possible that you are asking for a simple answer to a complicated question. I can understand that, to someone who hasn't invested a fair amount of effort educating themselves on the issue, the one-liners used in the manifesto might seem trite. But they refer to very specific organizational behaviors that are well documented.
I'm happy to continue the conversation, though at one point you will have to read a long-form book or watch a documentary or two, in order to understand the conversation on the ground at Liberty Square.
I'll look further into the lives of these chickens.
Only fortified almond milk contains B12. Fortified foods aren't any different from supplements.
Here's why I find supplements to be dubious:
You might be familiar w/ Michael Pollen's book In Defense of Food.
> You do not need animal products to get B12
Ultimately, this statement isn't indisputable. As long as there's reasonable disputability then "just enough" animal products from sources that don't/minimally compromise the livelihood of the animal, I argue, are still vegan - because it's the best we can do.
I'm curious as to what you think about the above statements.
I'm not pro-soy or anti-soy. I'm pro-eating-the-whole food, because I believe our bodies are designed to eat whole foods.
When you isolate a single part of a food (like the fruit from a juice) you will take in an artificially large portion of it. That's why you must eat processed food in moderation, because the portion size isn't automatically moderated for you by nature anymore. Our bodies co-evolved to digest the foods in our environment... none of the food that most people eat today is in it's original (or close to original) form, or in the ratios given by nature.
For more info, read Mismatch, and In Defense of Food.
Um… no. Replacing real food with a chemical powder that makes health claims on the package will be BAD for your health.
The true nutritional benefit of real, unprocessed food goes way beyond vitamins, minerals, calories, fats, and proteins. You will wreak havoc on your digestive system for starters.
See the film "Food Inc." Read anything by Michael Pollan, but especially "In Defense of Food." Read this link:
http://www.naturalnews.com/039743_processed_foods_eating_reasons.html#
And this:
http://bodyecology.com/articles/hidden_dangers_of_processed_foods.php#.U0U-EpK9KSM
Book here used for cheap:
http://www.amazon.com/Defense-Food-Eaters-Manifesto/dp/0143114964
Good luck and happy eating healthy!
P.S. Är du svensk? (The label has Swedish.)
dudeareyoufuckingser is actually correct (although a bit rude about it!). A good resource on this is In Defense of Food by Michael Pollan - http://www.amazon.com/In-Defense-Food-Eaters-Manifesto/dp/0143114964. Here's a quicker read just on enriched flour - http://www.ahealthiermichigan.org/2011/07/26/whats-in-your-food-enriched-flour-tops-list-of-unhealty-ingredients/