Book 12: The Omnivore's Dilemma

TITLE: The Omnivore's Dilemma: A Natural History of Four Meals
AUTHOR: Michael Pollan
STARTED: April 2, 2009
FINISHED: April 9, 2009
PAGES: 450
GENRE: Food, Non-Fiction

FIRST SENTENCE: What should we have for dinner?

SUMMARY: [From barnesandnoble.com] A New York Times bestseller that has changed the way readers view the ecology of eating, this revolutionary book by award winner Michael Pollan asks the seemingly simple question: What should we have for dinner? Tracing from source to table each of the food chains that sustain us - whether industrial or organic, alternative or processed - he develops a portrait of the American way of eating. The result is a sweeping, surprising exploration of the hungers that have shaped our evolution, and of the profound implications our food choices have for the health of our species and the future of our planet.

THOUGHTS: I do not recommend eating a meal of hamburgers and corn on the cob after reading the first part of this book. (At least the hamburgers turned out to be made from grass-fed beef.)

This book will make you think. I don't think it will necessarily sway most people from their established eating habits, but it will cause them to stop and think about their diet. I think that was Pollan's goal. In this book, Pollan is not actively pushing for one kind of diet (although his bias and preference is obvious), he merely lays out all the information and facts he found about the ways food comes from ground to plate.

Pollan's text comes very close to hitting that Too Much Information stage. He gets really close to that line without ever crossing over. All of his facts are revealed in a manner that resembles episodic narrative. Pollan tells stories about food. This book does not turn into a dissertation or long-form article. It's simple, as he states, a natural history of food.

The Omnivore's Dilemma is, more than anything else, a book that will make the reader think. More than once, I stopped reading to ponder how I interact with the food I buy. Do I read the labels? Do I care that most of the foodstuffs I put in my mouth are a form of corn? I don't yet know the answers to these and many other questions, but Pollan's book has led me to question the United States' relationship with food. It is, as Pollan states, a national eating disorder. The author takes a subject we all take for granted and forces to question our assumptions and ignorance.

Pollan's book was on my TBR list for months. I should have read it sooner - this book was fantastic.

RATING: 9/10 [Excellent!]

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