geekent's Buy Nothing Year

The book is not full of science babble, nor is it a "how to" diet book. Instead it's a report on Pollan's observations after filtering through dozens upon dozens of food science studies over the past few decades, while also examining the progression of America's (and other civilizations) health as the dietary philosophies have changed. Key amongst those changes was the shift from "diet" (as in the food you put in your body) to what he terms "nutritionism", or the breaking down of food into recognized components such as Vitamins, minerals, calories, sugars, etc. Since the 1960's we've been conditioned to look at foods not as fuel, but as carbs or fats, we've been taught to look for added vitamins and minerals in the advice that intaking more of certain ones is more beneficial.

What Pollan points out, though, is that ever since we shifted to this manner of thinking, shifting to foods that are manufactured for consumption, for shelf-life, for supermarkets, our health problems such as heart disease and diabetes has grown exponentially. The industrialization of agriculture, the switch of foods from sustenance to commodities has served not only to harm ourselves but the world around us. Cows, pigs, chickens and your generally available meats no longer eat grasses and their natural diet, but instead are given feed, corn and soy and other fillers that fatten them up but good, but don't give them the same chemical balance that naturally raised or wild animals would have. Same with agriculturally produced produce... a while back key nutrients were identified that help most fruits or vegetables grow, and thus fertilizers were created with higher concentrations of these nutrients, thus throwing off the balance of the growing soil and thus the fruit we get is no longer balanced. As Pollan points out, it would take three apples from today's supermarket to gain the same nutrients from an apple 60 years ago.

The industrialization of our food, the nutritionalism that we're taught in school, the manner in which we have learned to eat (ie. eat what's on your plate, not until you're full*)... all of it is wrong, it's counter to what society has spent many a millennium coming to understand. Generations upon generations have intuitively come to learn what's healthy and what's not, what tastes good and what doesn't, what will grow and what won't (and where). So quickly in half a century the "western diet" has completely counteracted what we may not have recognized consciously but instinctively our ancestors came to know about food, and we're paying the price for it. Sure we're living longer but it's medicine and not diet that's aiding it. Diabetes, which frankly, is primarily a diet-based disease has become rampant in North America, and yet instead of changing the diet, we instead have new technologies which alleviate (rather than eliminate) the symptoms.

Pollan isn't rallying people to abandon civilization and go back to the old ways, instead he's stating that we should be much more mindful of what we put in our body. He notes most prominently that while we can calculate how much energy a certain food will give our body, we actually have very little idea how different foods react differently when eaten together... but we know they do. Certain foods slow the digestion or release of vitamins, minerals or fats of other foods, while some foods will promote the very same.

Pollan isn't telling you how to eat, but he does advise how you can eat better, thus promoting a healthier lifestyle (and life). His mantra is seven words long: "Eat food, not too much, mostly plants". He advises things like buying produce from a farmer's market instead of the grocery store (where they travel a lot shorter distance, will be fresher, and you can interact with the producer to know their growing methods), and to buy meats from a butcher, who, again, tend to buy locally. If that's not possible, investigate other options, like local produce deliveries or community-shared agriculture (Aden and I signed up to one last week and we star getting our locally grown and seasonal-specific baskets next week for 20 weeks). On a simpler basis, shop the perimeter of the grocery store (where the fresh foods, rather than packaged foods are), be wary of anything that has a health claim label (there's a lot of duplicitous writing or financial kickbacks that go into health claims) and eat more plants, rather than refined foods or meats.

The book is utterly fascinating, detailing the various ways in which industry, science and government have collaborated, unwittingly, in the decline of food quality and it's direct impact on health (his point that America is overweight and yet malnourished is probably his most poignant statement, the lack of nutrition in most of the western diet a likely contributor to overeating as the body seeks out but rarely obtains the nutrients it's looking for). Get the book. Read it. Let it sink in. Make your own decisions. For people like my cousin, it'd probably just verbalize that which he's instinctively known (or else corroborate what he's suspected).

Rating: 5/5

* A quick observation about my stepson, age 6. The little guy loves carbs... bread and pasta. He also eats vegetables like crazy. What he doesn't like is meat. He'll eat a few bites, but generally he gravitates towards the carbs and veggies. After reading this book, I have to wonder if this is natural, and if eating/liking meat is conditioned rather than ingrained? As well, he will often say "I'm finished" at the dinner table, and until reading this book, Aden and I had coaxed him into finishing what was on his plate (in effect, nurturing overeating). Now, we just make sure that he's filled up on more than just bread, but we won't force him to eat a plate full if he says he's done (but no dessert, because full bellies don't magically have room for dessert).