In Defense of Food : An Eater's Manifesto, by Michael Pollan
~20 copies at the Austin Public Library, but most checked out. You can always put one on hold and they'll notify you when it's available.
Check out the reviews on Amazon. The original Michael Pollan suggestion was his earlier book, but I already had a couple folks request this one instead so, voila! (Personal persuasion has a great effect on book club selection.)
Place: Chateau Dev'reaux
Time: 7:30-9:30 (discussion starts no earlier than 8 : )
btw, the upcoming book list is still flexible, so feel free to contact me with your ideas for books. We've already made a couple of adjustments. Check out the list on Google docs.
~20 copies at the Austin Public Library, but most checked out. You can always put one on hold and they'll notify you when it's available.
Check out the reviews on Amazon. The original Michael Pollan suggestion was his earlier book, but I already had a couple folks request this one instead so, voila! (Personal persuasion has a great effect on book club selection.)
Place: Chateau Dev'reaux
Time: 7:30-9:30 (discussion starts no earlier than 8 : )
btw, the upcoming book list is still flexible, so feel free to contact me with your ideas for books. We've already made a couple of adjustments. Check out the list on Google docs.
3 comments:
I really liked this book. It was a fast, easy read but was still able to give me a new way of looking at food and diet. For the most part, I didn't feel preached to, even though it's obvious that the author has an opinion (and he admits as much himself.) If you've ever given up on good nutrition and healthy, happy eating because the science and experts are too complicated and contradictory, then this book has a good chance of helping.
There were 7 of us in attendance. I brought a bowl of produce I picked up at the Triangle's Farmer's Market the day before. Adam brought chocolate cupcakes. (yeah, Adam!)
Here's a few highlights from the book:
* Nutritionsim: The almost religious compulsion to eat healthy by the numbers on nutrition labels. Has it's roots in scientific research but is now used as a marketing tool. (As in nutritious Coke Plus?)
* The more whole, minimally processed food you eat the better. This summed up other ideas I'd heard before, such as 'shopping the perimeters of the grocery store', 'avoid food products that your great-grandmother wouldn't recognize as food', and 'be wary of food-type products that never go bad' (et tu, Twinkie?)
* If you consider meat more of a side dish, then you don't have to worry about your fat intake.
* Low-Fat->Low-Carbs->Omega 3's->???: What's the next secret to good health?
Actions items? Well, I went ahead and joined a CSA (community supported agriculture) group here in Austin. I'll receive a box of produce every two weeks. My first goal is to not let any of it go bad. Have no idea what I'm going to do with okra. I guess I'll think of the box like the secret ingredient in a really dull episode of Iron Chef. Some folks are going to try to focus on thinking of meat as a side dish. Others are just happy to start thinking in terms of whole foods again and follow the advice from the book's cover: Eat Food. Not too much. Mostly plants.
oh ps! I also made one of these on Sunday and planted some herbs and pumpkin today. What the heck. I'll try.
Regarding Okra. We got a few veggies at the Farmer's Market this weekend and grilled them for our dinners. Included in this was Okra. This was a new experience for me :) When we grilled on Sat, the Okra tasted good, but oozed the little seeds ( resembled fish eggs,,, ughhh ), so it looked kind of gross, but tasted pretty good. On Sunday we grilled what was left, and this time, I left them on too long, so they got well done. In this case they dried out enough that they did not ooze, but the taste was not quite there anymore.
I think I understand why Okra is often fried :)
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