In Defense of Food: An Eater's Manifesto

In Defense of Food: An Eater's Manifesto is a 2008 book by Michael Pollan. It was number one on the New York Times Non-Fiction Best Seller List for six weeks. The book grew out of Pollan's 2007 article Unhappy Meals published in the New York Times Magazine. Pollan has also said that he wrote In Defense of Food as a response to people asking him what they should eat after having read The Omnivore's Dilemma, his previous book. In the book, Pollan p... more

In Defense of Food: An Eater's Manifesto is a 2008 book by Michael Pollan. It was number one on the New York Times Non-Fiction Best Seller List for six weeks. The book grew out of Pollan's 2007 article Unhappy Meals published in the New York Times Magazine. Pollan has also said that he wrote In Defense of Food as a response to people asking him what they should eat after having read The Omnivore's Dilemma, his previous book. In the book, Pollan postulates that the answer to healthy eating is simply to "Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants." Pollan argues that nutritionism as an ideology has overly complicated and harmed American eating habits. He says that rather than focusing on eating nutrients, people should focus on eating the sort of food that their ancestors would recognize.. The book drew a critical review from James E. McWilliams. less