Comments on the book: “In Defense of Food” ( by Michael Pollan)
From Alypios (9/21/09)
Excellent!! My favorite read from the list we have been looking at.
Fun to read. Well presented arguments. Interesting challenges to conventional “nutritional” science. Great historical timeline of developments.
Important points (which I endorse enthusiastically):
a. Scientific research in which we “ignore” variations in selected independent variables and try to explain dependent -variable variations of the “preferred” variable changes only, is usually wrong and dangerous.
b. The lifestyle/food choices are a dominant factor for health and quality of life.
c. The U.S. government has made several decisions which worked well macro-economically for a short period but may prove catastrophic for sustainability as well as the fabric of society in the long run.
Unfortunately things may be moving in the wrong direction even in France, Italy and Greece. The majority of younger generations (in their thirties and twenties now) have not been raised with the “good” food practices of the past. Take-out and the big-Mac are very common today. The supermarket chains are the same all over Europe and similar their U.S. counterparts. Small production farms are still there -mainly due to the difficulty of consolidation (terrain, bureaucracy)- but it is not clear for how much longer. Not too many young people in this activity.