Some good messages but very preachy

Having enjoyed The Botany of Desire, I was excited to give this a listen. Sadly it’s a book-long holier-than-thou rant as Pollan positions himself as an authority who knows better than everyone else about how to eat well - only he admits multiple times he’s no scientist or authority at all (save a trip here and there to a nutrition conference). Narrator had nasally, sardonic voice, and I’m not sure whether it contributed to my perceptions of this pretentiousness or nailed the tone of the book. I’m guessing the latter.

There are definitely some good ideas in here and it’s a useful book for practicing more mindfulness about eating habits (though common sense makes most of said ideas unoriginal). That said, I would have liked a little more of the anthropological dives into the relationships people have had with food over history that drew me in with Botany of Desire.

Instead, there’s a condescension towards American lifestyles without adequate acknowledgment about the economic systems in place making it difficult for families to buy “healthier” foods. He claims the majority of Americans can afford to spend more money on less food and encourages the buying or organic produce and the practice of cultivating gardens, but this advice comes from a place of privilege that he fails to acknowledge.

Also it really irked me that he failed to do thorough enough research to realize that “Indian”, “Aborigine”, and “Eskimo” are all outdated terms or straight up racial slurs for indigenous peoples. It just contributed to making the book feel sloppy.

TL;DR Save yourself 7 hours of an old white man preaching how he’s better than you and take the time to use common sense to improve your eating habits.

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A profound new look at the western diet

Western “culture” (if you can even call it that) has changed and taken away from the one thing we always do, eat. Many lessons are to be learned from this book in an eaters education of food and what they put in their bodies. Utterly brilliant and entertaining read.

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A lot of great information!

I found this book very enjoyable and it offered a wealth of valuable insights to think about regarding our food choices.

Highly recommended for everyone and anyone, as we all have to eat and the information in this book can be beneficial for anyone who is willing to give it a try :)

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ok information, annoying voice

The information is interesting. It gives a brief historical review of how we got to our "nutritionism" attitude towards diet and offers logical suggestions to get back to a normal and healthy relationship with food (nothing we should instinctivelyknow). Unfortunately, the voice reads with the tone you would expect from a Shakespear monolog, which made it hard to get through.

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A life changer book on food and diet

Micheal Pollan is a genius using a journalistic approche seeking the answers of those two questions: why food made us so fat over the last decades and what should we eat to be healthy. This book is a game changer. It explains why the « real food » has to be defended from the « food industry » and even from experts and scientists. You will understand what went wrong with our food over the last decades and why the « edible food-like substances » that fills our grocery stores and our fast-food restaurants that we confise with real food made us fat and completely unsatisfied with what we eat. And most important, you will have all the guidelines you need to radically change the way you eat and get healthier, leaner and for the first time in your life, in peace with food.

The conclusion of this book is quite simple: EAT REAL UNPROCESSED WHOLE FOODS THAT YOU HAVE COOKED YOURSELF, NOT TO MUCH QUANTITIES, MOSTLY PLANTS WITH LIMITED AMOUNT OF MEAT.

By understanding why processed foods made by a money-driven industry are so bad for us with there obsession to make profits with there highly addictive palatable foods made with mostly from cheap and shelf stable ingredients that are refined sugar, refined carbs, unhealthy fats, salt and many other chemicals, you will be able to make a radical change in what you eat. Replacing water in our foods by those ingredients makes it non-perishable and almost eternal. But is it still food? Why even molds don’t want to eat that stuff? Did you know that the industrial grain-based diet that replace the algae and grass-based diet of our fish, cows and other animals has completely unbalance our ratio intake of omega-3 fatty acids (antiinflammatory) and omega-6 fatty acids (proinflammatory)? Knowing that, will you choose grass-feed beef even if it’s a bite pricier? Those are the types of eye-opener provided in this book.

In a matter of weeks after reading and re-reading this book, I have completely change the way I see food, the food I buy, the energy I put in cooking and the appreciation of a good family meal. Doing that, I have lost a lot of weight, I am healthier and most of all I feel completely satiated. This book had change my life. Let me know if it has changed yours by sending me an email at simonletendre@cableamos.com

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