women minds

I read Michael Pollan’s book, In Defense of Food: An Eater’s Manifesto, in one day.

I haven’t finished Pollan’s previous bestseller, The Omnivore’s Dilemma: A Natural History of Four Meals. Don’t get me wrong, The Omnivore’s Dilemma is a great book. In fact, Pollan’s writing is so good I’d probably read an owner’s manual if I knew he wrote it. I read In Defense of Food so quickly because I found both the historical details of how our American diet evolved to where it’s at, and what we can do now to correct our eating habits, equally compelling. Without trapping us into thinking we need to follow a “new” prescribed diet where we can never eat chocolate again, Pollan proposes several common sense approaches to “watching what we eat.”

And I love the philosophy that lives behind much of what he is saying. If we Americans could only learn to enjoy our food more; to eat food that tastes good (and no, a Big Mac is not really food), eat with other people while sitting down at a table, (a shocking fifth of all meals are eaten in the car according to Pollan), eat until we are full or, better yet, 80% full (that would eliminate any kind of “super size” whatsoever), and to savor the experience as well.

I think another important message Pollan writes about is that our health can be improved by eating better - and that doesn’t mean we need to become obsessed with “healthy eating.” In fact, the word “orthorexics” has been coined to describe people with an unhealthy obsession with healthy eating. I think we, as women, are susceptible to falling into the trap of becoming obsessed with healthy eating and our health in general (and let’s not forget our unhealthy obsession with the way we look). I know as a woman experiencing perimenopause I’ve become quite obsessed lately (admittedly about my health, and yes, my looks too). Not feeling well can quickly affect a women’s sense of balance in the world. And I guess, that is one of the reasons Pollan’s book is so good. Because it doesn’t try to make us more obsessed about the food we eat but rather more conscious and pleasure-seeking — freeing us up from thinking about food as a “diet” and more as a sensory experience to enjoy.