In Defense of Food is a quality read about the problems of a serious obsession our world has with removing and replacing nutrients in foods to make them "healthier"; otherwise known as "Nutritionism". Nutritionism, as Michael Pollan defines it, is an unhealthy obsession and is more or less a bunch of nonsense. He explains how ever since scientists started replacing real food with artificial nutrients, recent links have been made between "healthy nutrients" and new kinds of cancer, as well as diabetes and obesity. It seems fairly obvious that people would stay away from food that would cause harm to them, but all they see are manipulative advertisements such as "cholesterol free" or "no trans fat" that convince them to buy harmful food. Pollan's goal for writing this book was not to insult food manufacturers but instead "to help us reclaim our health and happiness as eaters" (Pollan 7). He wants to bring to our attention the threats new foods have on our health, and prevent us from essentially killing ourselves with our food. I think this book is very insightful and definitely brought many things to my attention that I never knew before. Even if you are not particularly interested in nutritional novels, this one catches your attention immediately with the stunning statistics and interesting facts; it was definitely worth reading!
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