The Omnivore’s Dilemma
Michael Pollan’s Omnivore’s Dilemma is my favorite book about the current state of food. He begins with a simple question, “where do we get our food”? From there his investigation goes from commodity corn and the industrial food complex, to organic, to sustainable, and all the way to foraging. He weaves facts and stats into entertaining and engaging prose about his personal experiences, and makes the reader question what they value in food.
Although it was originally written in 2006, the afterward in the 2014 edition explains that little has changed for conventional food but that there has been a significant increase in farmers markets and distribution alternatives, like CSAs and meat clubs.
I particularly like that in the forward for his young readers edition, Pollan says that he often meets vegetarians that switched to eating humanely raised meat and meat eaters that switched to being vegetarian after they read his book. To me it shows that the information is presented in a balanced way that makes people think about what they are eating.
Unfortunately I do not recommend The Omnivore’s Dilemma: Young Readers Edition, because the adaptation by Richie Chevat tries to simplify the subject for a young audience but loses Pollan’s detail and descriptive prose that makes the subject interesting.
Good Calories, Bad Calories
For a long time we have been told that losing weight and being healthy is just a matter of eat less and move more. That it is just “calories in, calories out”.
In 2007, Gary Taubes’ Good Calories, Bad Calories: Fats, Carbs, and the Controversial Science of Diet and Health argued that the type of calories matters just as much as the amount. It reveals that sugars (and refined carbohydrates) not fats are responsible for most of the modern chronic health problems. The book also discusses how food science politics and dogma often overshadow science when it comes to recommendations on how to eat.
It is a very dense read, with lots of citations. If you are a food and health geek you will probably love it. If that’s not your cup of tea, he followed up with the next book, Why We Get Fat.
Why We Get Fat
Why We Get Fat is the follow up after Good Calories, Bad Calories. It is a little less dense and therefore more user friendly. It has the same general theme that what you eat matters as much as how much you eat (in calories).