In Defense of Food

It's no wonder people don't like to eat their vegetables. I ate some spinach from the cafeteria at work yesterday. It was mushy and bitter and just plain awful! Spinach is one of my favorite vegetables, and I hated to see it maligned in this way.

I've heard some buzz about Michael Pollan's (Omnivore's Dilemma) new book, In Defense of Food. I hear the book can be summed up in a few words: "Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants." He advocates that we should quit eating food that our great-grandmothers wouldn't recognize, like Go-Gurt, for example. When shopping, we should stay on the outer fringes of the store, buying fresh produce, meats, and dairy, rather than the processed packaged stuff in the middle aisles. Makes sense. Don't you think the ideas put forth as groundbreaking in most books and studies seem so obvious that you wonder who's funding this research? Not that Pollan's book doesn't look like an interesting read. My cafeteria spinach experience and oh so many other bad food experiences make me think that crappy food is all too available. Yep, groundbreaking, I know.

Another book on my foodie reading wish list is Animal, Vegetable, Miracle. Anyone have any good books to recommend? With school in session, I need some avoidance strategies. Speaking of which, I have some good ideas for excuses if you need a couple of extra days on that assignment. You could e-mail your professor and say, "My grandmother needs constant care." You don't have to say that you are or aren't the one doing it. Or "I'm planning a wedding." You don't even have to be dating anyone to mimic those girls that have every detail of their weddings planned by the age of 13.