more reads on food

as i have posted before.... i like to read about food. i have become a big fan of michael pollan and have finished another of his books. as with the other book of his i read, there are aspects of his argument that flies over my head... like when he gets into all the science stuff - which he does for very good reason - because it gives substantiation to his argument. so, i admit to skimming through some of it. BUT there are many things that i take away from this read. much of it having to do with how my family eats. i think most of the major changes, we have already made in terms of some of the things pollan advocates.... but there is always room for improvement.

this is what he advocates:
eat food. not too much. mostly plants.
he does flush out what all of that means but not before he lays a pretty convincing groundwork as to why this should be of vital importance: we are an unhealthy nation (as a whole). he is trying to help us get healthier.

some quotables:
"the sheer abundance of food in america has bred 'a vague indifference to food, manifested in a tendency to eat and run, rather than dine and savor.'"

i thought this was funny: "don't eat anything incapable of rotting."

"go backwards...in order to eat well we need to invest more time, effort, and resources in providing for our sustenance, to dust off a word, than most of us do today."

some of the things he proposes:

• avoid foods products that contain ingredients that are a) unfamiliar b) unpronounceable c) more than 5 in number d) that include high fructose corn syrup
• avoid foods that make health claims
• stay out of the middle of the supermarket
• eat mostly plants, especially leaves
• you are what you eat eats too
• eat more like the french or the italians or the japanese or the indians or the greeks
• have a glass of wine with dinner
• pay more, eat less [fascinating discussion on how americans use external sources to signal fullness versus the french who eat more slowly and use internal factors]
• eat at the table
• try not to eat alone
• don't get your food where your fuel comes from
  

for a lot of people i know this is not a crucial issue.... i think it is important to think about especially in terms of raising healthy kids who care about being good stewards of the earth.... something to chew on.