Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants.

I'm way late too the bandwagon on this one.

Can't even remember why I bought this book - if I did. Maybe I picked it up in the free book room from work, maybe it was a gift ... Regardless, I'm not really one to read "diet" books, which I thought this was. It's not.

It's awesome. And I rather fanatical about this book - so much so that I can't really write anything concrete about it, except ...

I think every person on the planet should read Michael Pollan's "In Defense of Food." It is the only book about diet/nutrition/food that I have ever read that is actually readable, interesting, and makes sense. (OK, not that I've ever read many. I think it I'm up to two, with this one.)

If you want to know why America has higher rates of obesity, heart disease and diabetes than anywhere else on the planet, read this book.

It gives you fantastic advice, like ...

• Eat meals
• Don't get your fuel from the same place you car does
• Try not to eat alone
• Cook, and if you can, plant a garden
• Eat slowly

Simple stuff: it doesn't tell you that you to avoid certain food groups that make no sense (cough Atkins cough cough), but yes, it does tell you to lay off the Pringles, white bread (e.g. bleached/processed flour + sugar = bread devoid of nutrients), Cheetos any other fake/ridiculously processed foods.

Even if you can't stomach being preached at, the book covers a decent amount of history on the food industry - from the advent of margarine and a history of Kellogg's to the lipid hypothesis.

If you don't want to know the why behind the what, just pick up "Food Rules," which is basically an expansion of the past part of "In Defense of Food."