In Defense of Food: An Eater’s Manifesto is a must-read. Michael Pollan, the author, first explored the premise of the book for some NY Times contributions and, with time, a book project was born.
He explores the obsessive fascination many have with food and its nutritional components, and how eating has been denuded of its social and enjoyable aspect. The main question Pollan seems to be asking is, 'just where is the joy of eating gone?'
A sentence that peeked my curiosity is the following, “the tangible material formerly known as food.” While it is important to be aware of what one puts in one's system, there is more to the items one picks to masticate than the caloric intake.
The Times review notes:
Goaded by “the silence of the yams,” Mr. Pollan wants to help old-fashioned edibles fight back. So he has written “In Defense of Food,” a tough, witty, cogent rebuttal to the proposition that food can be reduced to its nutritional components without the loss of something essential. “We know how to break down a kernel of corn or grain of wheat into its chemical parts, but we have no idea how to put it back together again,” he writes.
I highly recommend this title.
graph per amazon
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