The Diet-Pundit’s Dilemma

Michael Pollan c/o of TED Conference on Flickr

by Eliot Caroom
I just happened upon an interview with Omnivore’s Dilemma author Michael Pollan on NYTimes.com. I’m a big fan of Dilemma, which describes modern food production methods—industrial agricultural, organic farming, small sustainable farming, and hunting/gathering.

So I was excited to read the interview with Pollan discussing his new book, In Defense of Food, which according to the Times interview explains what food is, what it isn’t, and how to tell the difference. The book’s slogan: “Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants.”

Great slogan. I can’t wait to read the book. But the interview has a couple points I’d like to dispute.

1) Pollan seems to disparage “edible food-like substances in the stores that are masquerading as food.”

I’ve got to say I like a lot of food substances, and as a pesco-ovo-lacto-vegetarian, I love getting protein from products like non-breaded Quorn—the quintessential food substance, made out of 58% Mycoprotein, rehydrated egg white, whey protein concentrate, pea fiber, tapioca, potato maltodextrin, etc.

Why do I like that substance masquerading as a turkey? Well, it wasn’t raised in a cage on antibiotics, and it offers me 14g of protein, 0.5g of sugar, 1.5g of fat in a 90 calorie, 90g serving. It’s $6.79 a pound. Not all substances are created equal, just like not all food is created equal.

2) He describes his book as an algorithm to help you make decisions, instead of a diet book. He wants to take down the “cult of expert eating,” and says “the nutritionism approach to food doesn’t work very well, besides the fact that it ruins our pleasure in eating.”

I don’t aspire to be, in Pollan’s words, an “arbiter of food choices,” but I would like to be an influence. And although, as Pollan points out, Americans are obsessed with dieting, but don’t seem to be benefiting from it, I don’t agree that dieting advice is fruitless.

In “Veggie Kingdom” I’m going to lay out my diet and my thinking. Call me crazy, but I don’t think it’s too late for the Eliot Diet.

Just a couple disagreements. The interview is cool though—I especially like:
“We watch cooking shows on TV but we cook very little. We’re turning cooking into a spectator sport.”

If you’ve read the interview, if you’ve read the book, please comment!