About “In Defense of Food”
#1 New York Times Bestseller from the author of This is Your Mind on Plants, How to Change Your Mind, The Omnivore's Dilemma, and Food Rules Food. There's plenty of it around, and we all love to eat it. So why should anyone need to defend it? Because in the so-called Western diet, food has been replaced by nutrients, and common sense by confusion--most of what we’re consuming today is longer the product of nature but of food science. The result is what Michael Pollan calls the American Paradox: The more we worry about nutrition, the less healthy we see to become. With In Defense of Food, Pollan proposes a new (and very old) answer to the question of what we should eat that comes down to seven simple but liberating words: "Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants." Pollan’s bracing and eloquent manifesto shows us how we can start making thoughtful food choices that will enrich our lives, enlarge our sense of what it means to be healthy, and bring pleasure back to eating. (Description courtesy of Penguin Random House.)
Awards & honors
- Winner — CODES Notable Books Council Award
- Winner — James Beard Award
Praise for “In Defense of Food”
“Michael Pollan [is the] designated repository for the nation's food conscience.”
“In this slim, remarkable volume, Pollan builds a convincing case not only against that steak dinner but against the entire Western diet.”
“A tough, witty, cogent rebuttal to the proposition that food can be reduced to its nutritional components without the loss of something essential . . . [a] lively, invaluable book.”
Book details
- Published
- 2008
- Latest edition
- 2008 · ISBN 9780143114963
- ISBN
- 9780143114963
Frequently asked questions
How many pages is In Defense of Food?
In Defense of Food by Michael Pollan has 244 pages.
More by Michael Pollan
Book descriptions, author biographies, award records and review quotes on this page are courtesy of Penguin Random House.