The skinny: Good book, or try some of his articles. This is probably the best nutrition/diet book you could buy (even though it is purposely neither.) Basically a confirmation that Ye Aulde hippie crunchy granola diet/way of living is, indeed, the healthiest you can choose... only Pollan is bringing in the latest science and information to prop up that fact.
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I think I read a Pollan article last year, online, and found him too sort of *extreme* for my taste. The whole organicee-buy local-cook-all-from-scratch thing... it seems A-OK for those with money and education, but those aren't the people at the most risk health-wise. But I sped-red through his latest book, and I really liked it. --> And he does address the fact that not everyone can afford to live the way he talks about in the book, considering that crappy fast food is highly subsidized by the US government (foods based on corn and soy) and therefore cheap. And he does address the connection between poor health, poor eating and class.
There's nothing too radical in this book--it's the same crunchy granola information that hippies have been touting for decades (and when you're a vegan, you're massively exposed to Crunchy Granola-ism.) But he puts a spin on the topic that I liked.
The big mystery we hear about these days is why Americans have only become more unhealthy / obese over the decades, despite the big push for low-fat foods, diets, etc. Pollan criticizes the way nutrition scientists look for answers by isolating one nutrient component of food at a time, and trying to find the *magic bullet* that reduces cancer, heart disease, cholesterol, weight gain etc. He recognizes that their approach is understandable--it's the only way you can test things scientifically--but he suspects that by looking at one nutrient away from its food (omega-3 from the flax seed -- the flax seed away from the bagel), and a single food away from its buddy-foods (eg. the bagel away from its peanut butter), and food away from its culture (how people have cooked and eaten for 1000s of years) you're going to have trouble finding out The Secret to healthy eating.
His proposal is that you don't need to find out What Makes the Carrot Tick--why certain foods impart health benefits--in order to benefit. You just need to eat carrots. Preferably ones grown with love (in good soil, eaten fresh.) And you need to eat carrots along with other plants, and in the ways people have eaten them for generations.
He cites some forgotten researcher type dentist guy from the 30s, who stopped dentistry and ran around the world instead, studying people's teeth. Because of the period in which he did his research, there were still many cultures relatively untouched by western foods, and he found that they ALL had better teeth than Americans. And this was across a variety of cultures, from the blood-and-milk drinking Masai, to the fish-and-few-greens Inuit... they just had very few signs of wear and decay.
Pollan goes on to describe the scientific search for The Mystery behind the health benefits of a Mediterranean diet, or the French diet, or the Okinawan diet (he says if you search those terms in PubMed you gets 100s of hits)--and Pollan's point is that there's little point in isolating the Secret Formula in those diets, and then building it into white bread... you should instead just adopt a similar diet, in all its complexity, and including the way of life that goes with it. (I think you should also be adopting a diet etc. that matches your genes, however. If little ole celtic me started eating an Inuit diet, I'm pretty sure I'd die.)
So. This is where the information is Nothing New. Eat less meat, eat less of these corn and soy derivatives, stay away from Yea Aulde High Fructose Corn Syrup, eat lots of plants, a variety of them, preferably fresh, cook your meals, set aside a lot of time for cooking a cleaning up, sit down to eat, eat in company with others, eat less, enjoy your food. (He doesn't address exercise at all, but I would assume that all kinds of Walking and Biking go along with the Okinawa and French and Greek diet.) And he's in for gardening.
Like I said, nothing radical. He brings in the latest research, but I've already read most of it on CSPI. But what I like is his perspective... which is basically that almost every regional diet in the world is good for you, except our recent Western diet--which emerged from the industrialization of food.
Which leads us to... tum tee tum... our entire way of life in North America?
One of my profs, who I otherwise quite like, is one of these "ohhh you think grad school is busy, wait until you're in the real world" or whatever. This irritates me on many levels, but one of the interesting things is this built in Protestant Work Ethic that our culture is built on. That if you're not busy all the time, there's something wrong. I mean, I understand why we do this--it's surely part and parcel of being (for Americans) one of the strongest economies in the world. But personally I think you've got to be aware of the trade-offs you're making when you choose that 50 hour a week job.
I want to work enough to live on, enough to be able to retire one day, but I also want time to live pretty much as Pollan describes. I want time to cook (and recycle, and read, and write etc bla bla bla.) And I don't want to live the kind of life where I'm always Counting Calories and calculating fat grams and feeling guilty for eating something nice. (Pollan cites a study where Americans associated a photo of chocolate cake with the word "guilty" while the French associated it with "celebration.") So basically Pollan just confirmed me in a new Way de Vivre that I'm already starting to live.
From all I've read, and from all my following of the nutrition since the 80s, I suspect that Pollan's got the right end of the stick. Stop looking for the miracle nutrient (conventiently baked into your pasta and cereal and bread) and eat like a hippie cookbook. I'll continue baking cookies instead of buying them (and then ENJOYING them), I'll continue trying out vegan cookbooks, I'm going to sign up for one of those vegetable delivery programs (but er maybe when school is done) and once this school foolishness is over, I'm going to make an effort to be Less Involved in the future, have Less projects, be Less the Super Employee, and jealously guard as much spare/fun/personal time as possible. And this is probably the best *diet* I could be on.
And since my ancestors survived on potatoes, I will no longer apologize for my starch addiction! ;-)
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