"That food and eating stand in need of a defense might seem counterintuitive at a time when "overnutrition" is emerging as a more serious threat to public helth than undernutrition." (In Defense of Food, page 7)
"We are becoming a nation of orthorexics: people with an unhealthy obsession with healthy eating." (In Defense of Food, page 9)
In Defense of Food by Micheal Pollan was not only a best seller, but was also chosen as the book to be used at the University of Wisconsin-Madison's Big Read program. This book is a follow up to An Omnivore's Dilemma and takes a look at Pollan's suggestion to fix America's eating problems.
Pollan starts off the book by asking the question why is food in need of defense? He describes America's eating problem is a lack of eating "food." He says supermarkets are selling "food" but also many other edible things in packages. Pollan attacks any food that has been packaged or processed. He also accuses any label that says anything is healthy or anything recommended by nutritionists.
The bases of Pollan's arguments revolve around the consumption of fats, especially Omega-3s. It was assumed by scientists that a low-fat diet would help protect against cancer, but may actually lead to heart disease. Heart disease is also said to be prevented by the consumption of Omega-3s and now scientist are trying to synthesis the fats as much as possible.
Pollan feels that food is in need of defense because scientists have broken down food to it's smallest particles and trying to make nutrition of the individual components of the food. To prove that "nutritionalism" is the problem, Pollan links all diet to disease and then says it is the scientist to blame.
The first four chapters are setting up Pollan's view of the diet in America today. He is positioning himself against scientists and mainstream advertising to prove his point of why food needs to be defended.
