The wonders of Netflix and other Chromecast-able video apps
have brought a wealth of foodie documentaries into my home. Granted, finding the time to sit and watch is
not easy. However, we did just get a
chance to watch PBS’s documentary adaptation of Michael Pollan’s In Defense of Food. Let me say from the outset that I completely
understand that many people won’t sit down to read the book and that most who
would already have. With that, I
encourage you all to spend 90 minutes with this film.
What Pollan does so skillfully and with ample evidence is
illustrate the challenges and the nuances of figuring out what really is
healthy to eat. What was deemed fine in
one decade, appears to actually be dangerous in the next (margarine). What we thought was bad for us, turns out to
be somewhat helpful (limited amounts of red meats). Many things are actually necessary to eat,
but dangerous in large quantities. Making
matters more challenging, the food industry loves an opportunity to repackage
their wares to meet the latest health and food trends.
Pollan constructs the movie around his eventual conclusions
about how we should eat – Eat Food, Not Too Much, Mostly Plants. I like another suggestion mentioned by Marion
Nestle in the movie – eat the perimeter of the grocery store and avoid the
interior. Or avoid foods that have
packages – think apples, not apple sauce and Apple Jacks, think real poultry,
not chicken nuggets. If we all ate
appropriately portioned foods in natural forms we would solve so many health
problems.
Though I have seen Pollan speak and have read a few of his
books, I found In Defense of Food to
be a succinct, user-friendly way to initiate discussion about healthful eating. In fact, it stays exceptionally true to the
book of the same name. I encourage you
all to seek out this documentary and consider not a diet, but new life-long
habits.
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