Book Cover

Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants.

# Review

This book is not a traditional nutrition book as it doesn’t focus on nutrition but rather on the science of nutrition. This book is a critique of the modern American food industry and the nutritional science and marketing which supports it.

The writing is very easy to read and filled with anecdotes. Pollan also sources many studies and consults experts in the field. Pollan also offers insights into the history of nutritionism.

The key takeaways for me were:

• The modern “Nutritional Industrial Complex” is largely driven by nutritional scientists and marketing specialists who work in tandem to sell food products to consumers. The nutritional scientists assume that foods are solely composed of their macro- and micro-nutrients because these are the only things that they can test. As a result, there is a fixation to include or exclude certain nutrients from people’s diets. Pollan provides many examples of when the “Age of Nutritionism” gave birth to new products such as margarine (which later turned out to be even more detrimental to one’s health than butter, which it was trying to replace).

• Another concern with the Age of Nutritionism and reductive nutritional science is that consumers are largely confused about what to eat and are swept up in diet trends. Scientific studies often contradict one another and even governments don’t really understand conclusively what is “good” and what is “bad” for consumers.

• The crux of the issue with modern nutritionism is that the scientists don’t take a holistic view on eating. They study food removed from the culture of eating, which misses much of the health benefits of eating (and also enjoyment of food). For instance, while the French consume a diet abundant in butter and fats (which are painted as unhealthy by nutritionists), they’re healthier than Americans because they don’t snack between meals and they tend to have smaller meals (while enjoying the meals more).

• American agriculture became focused on yield over diversity and quality of crops, which greatly reduced the diversity and healthiness of foods Americans consume. I experienced this effect first hand, when last year, I ate at a farm-to-table restaurant called Restaurant Pearl Morissette. At the restaurant, I had a tour of their gardens where they farm for taste and not for yield. It was incredible how much more delicious the produce I tasted in the garden was, compared to even the organically farmed produce at the grocery store.

Pollan offers much advice on how to distinguish food from processed food, and also advice on how to eat healthier. While his advice is sound, much of it isn’t really practical. For instance, Pollan recommends shopping for food at farmer’s markets and even subscribing to community supported agriculture (CSA) farms. This sort of advice assumes a decent level of financial comfort as well as an abundance of time, which obviously won’t be the case for the vast majority of people. Pollan also details the government’s complicit role in establishing the modern Nutritional Industrial Complex. I would’ve liked to see his analysis on how the government policy can help in ameliorating the situation.

# Conclusion

An eye-opening look at nutritional science.

# Overall rating: 7.8

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