This weekend I read Omnivore's Dilemma: A Natural History of Four Meals by Michael Pollan. The premise is basic in the fact that people should pay more attention to what they put in their body. After all eating is more important than sex (his idea not mine).
From the beginning I learned information that I should have already known especially growing up in Iowa. In fact in the first section which explains how virtually all of our processed food contains corn I actually called my father to check Pollan's comment about the corn welfare. Even Dad who has a small corn crop agreed that the checks were basically welfare checks. I was thoroughly intrigued by the first section as I know processed food is not the healthy. My struggle is with the alternative (knowledge, cost, and time).
The second section talking about organic food was equally informative. Lately I have been purchasing more organic food at Whole Foods (again availabity and time). Although it is still probably more healthy, the claims of basically "big box" organic is somewhat questionable. I will still buy organic although maybe I'll use the co-op more, but the problem will still remain since I live in Minnesota. Organic still needs to be processed in a manner that allows it to stay fresh for an extended time to make the trek across the country.
The third section was my least favorite. Even though the argument for vegetarianism was made and dissuaded, I think it's beneficial to think of both sides. I loved how he started reading about eating meat and the cruelty to animals as he was eating a steak. Since my dad is a hunter, I found his reactions to his first time hunting (and subsequent hunts) to be well written and thought provoking. I'll admit that my mental picture of hunting pigs changed as I realized they were wild boars. At first I pictured fat, pink pigs (same ones he talked about earlier when he mentioed how farmers cut their little curly tails:( ). When he started searching for mushrooms, I started searching for the end of the book. The salvation was the last two or three pages.
Overall I think it is an informative book. I do need to think more about what and how I eat.
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