Katy's Eating Manifesto.

I love to talk about food.  So it isn't surprising I love to read listen to audio books about food.  I'm only too happy to have someone as a friend who shares my enthusiasm for food literature.  Today the lovely Katy is going to share her review of the book In Defense of Food by Michael Pollan.  Enjoy!

Awhile back, during the lovely summer months when my biggest concern was what swimsuit to wear to the pool, I heard about a book called Food Rules by Michael Pollan.  A friend recommended it, swearing it had totally changed how she thought about food.  So I bought Food Rules and read that sucker in like half an hour.  (OK, it’s a really quick read and, as stated earlier, I had pretty much nothing else to do).  A lot of the rules are really common sense, like “eat when you are hungry, not when you are bored.”  But Food Rules really got me thinking.  I took to heart several of the rules, including “avoid food products that contain more than five ingredients.” 

Wow, do you know how hard that is?! 

Good thing I was on summer vacation, because I started spending waaaay too much time reading ingredient labels and looking up nutritional content of various foods online.  Anyway, when Jamie told me she had read another book by Michael Pollan called In Defense of Food: An Eater’s Manifesto, I had to check it out.  This one took me a little longer to get through – OK, maybe like two months – but I finally finished and am here to provide you with a book review. 

Gratuitous Cat Shot.

Aren’t you excited?! There is a lot of info in this book, but here are just a few of the big ticket items, in my very non-expert opinion:


 We’re eating less and less actual food. Might sound ridiculous, but read most any label and you’re bound to see ingredients like acesulfame potassium and disodium dihydrogen pyrophosphate. Um… what the heck is that stuff? They’re chemicals, added to increase shelf life, add nice color and texture, etc. The additives might not seem like a huge deal, but very little testing or long-term studies have been done to look at what exactly goes on once we’ve ingested them.

Bottom line: be weary of foods with ingredient names you can’t pronounce. This means taking extra time to read labels if you’re buying pre-packaged stuff, but you’ll feel better about what you’re eating. It’s sort of eye-opening.

 We don’t eat nearly enough fruits and veggies. And the fruits and veggies we do eat are often shipped from somewhere far away. Chances are, they were doused with pesticides and picked/harvested before they were ripe. When at the grocery store, buying organic produce is a good idea – besides not being treated with pesticides, organics are generally grown in higher quality soil. But they can be pricey. Michael Pollan is a big fan of farmers’ markets – you can often find good deals and you know the fruits and veggies didn’t travel from halfway across the world, plus farmers selling locally are less likely to treat their crops with a ton of chemicals.

Bottom line: whenever possible, eat fresh local produce. If you can spend an extra few bucks, going organic is also a good idea.

 Our eating habits suck. We eat in the car (um… I do this every morning on my way to work) and sitting in front of the TV/computer (guilty). Oftentimes we eat alone. You know how the French are all skinny? I don’t know any French people, but I feel like I always hear how thin they are. Anyway, eating for them is more of a social thing – long, leisurely meals are the norm. Courses are small and they give their food plenty of time to digest. They don’t go back for seconds. Michael Pollan points out that Americans have this mentality that we have to snarf our food down as we rush around trying to get to everything on our schedules. However, if you make mealtime a priority, you also give more thought to what and how much you’re eating.

Bottom line: Slow down. Eat at the table with others whenever possible. I totally admit that I stink at this.

 We expect “bang for our buck.” As a society, we want food that fills us up without costing a lot. But inexpensive food is not high-quality food. Think of the dollar menu at pretty much any fast food place. I don’t even want to know what goes into a cheeseburger that is being sold for a buck. The U.S. spends less per capita on food than any other industrialized country, yet we have the highest rates of obesity and diet-related diseases like Type-2 Diabetes. Hey, I love a deal as much as anyone, but our diet isn’t where we should go bargain hunting. Our attitude towards what we eat shouldn’t be quantity over quality.

Bottom line: spending more money on food = higher quality food = better health.

OK, there is A LOT of content in this book that I’m not touching on. Seriously, if you like this stuff like I do, check it out! It’s not exactly a page-turner (it did take me a couple months to get through, remember) but I would definitely recommend it for anyone who wants a little more insight about what/how much/why we eat the food we eat.

Also, if you’re into government conspiracies and cover-ups, there’s a little bit of that for ya too. Believe it or not, Big Brother has played a big role in the various food industries over the years… but that’s for another blog post.

Now if you’ll excuse me, I’m gonna go eat some potato chips carrot sticks.

Guest Post By Kaitlin!!!

She won't start her own, she just likes to hijack mine. So I've decided to let her. Here's a taste of what we'd all enjoy if Kait would bless us with a blog. Enjoy!

if i had a blog, this would be today's post...puke and rally: marathon style.

not many people can truly say they are allergic to working out. then again, i'm not many people. it all started back in high school during my track days at the academy. the only record i ever held was being the first runner in twenty years to throw up after every race. go me! needless to say, this did nothing to further my love for the sport.

fast forward to college. after eating a surprisingly healthy dinner including celery and pine nuts, i went for a light jog on the treadmill. i hadn't made it far before the hives formed and the throat began to close. one emergency room visit and a few shots of epinepherine later, i was diagnosed with exercise induced food allergies. real live doctors actually gave me the perfect excuse to never work out again. if i should venture to run, they advised me to go only if i had not eaten in four to six hours. let's be honest, the only way i can go four to six hours without eating is sleeping.

now comes today. the past few weeks, i have lost my marbles and decided to train for a marathon. monday i went on a long run in the morning on an empty stomach. while running on empty may have been doctor recommended, i am pretty sure my body was telling me it was not a stellar idea. today was supposed to be an "easy" run if you will. i woke up early, fine 10:00, and ate a few graham crackers to give my belly a little something to burn. (if you buy funfetti frosting, you can dip your graham crackers in for some homemade dunkaroos.) i let the food sit for an hour and had a glass of water before the run. it started out fine. i kept my usual snail's pace and had gone about three miles before i got the all too familiar feeling that something in my body was off.

a child of food allergies always knows when she will throw up, and there usually is not much warning. i scanned the park for a trashcan. 100 feet- eh, too far. okay, plan b.and there it was, the beautiful plaza fountain often used as a backdrop in family photos or the setting for a romantic proposal. not today. i stumbled to the nearest bench and proceeded to throw up multiple times. i won't go too into detail, but i have no idea where all the liquid came from. i mean i sweat enough to dehydrate a small stream when i run. the only lucky break i had was that no one was bathing in the fountain at this time, so the only spectators were the droves of people on their lunch break.

the beauty of it is that after regurgitating the entire inside of my stomach, somehow i felt great. i jogged to the water fountain pretending nothing happened, washed myself off, and managed another mile. never felt better!

puke and rally, friends. puke and rally...