IN DEFENCE OF FOOD

“Eat food, not too much. Mostly plants.”  This is an excellent book, very readable, challenging the myth of nutrition and arguing for a return to healthy and enjoyable eating.  It is not meant to be a Christian book, but much of it’s reasoning is thoroughly in line with the Christian worldview.  It brings together a wealth of material indicating that the ‘westernized diet’ and methodologies employed by the food companies to encourage its continuance lie at the root of many of the ‘western diseases’ afflicting the United States, Canada and other places where heavily refined foods mostly coming from soy and corn are promoted.  There is so much common sense in the book; it is not remotely faddish, supporting a particular lobby or other.  Real food is disappearing from the marketplace and is being replaced by nutrients.  Science has broken down what used to be simple foods eaten by our grandfathers and grandmothers into its constituents, and it has not taken much encouragement for the food manufacturers to take certain easily grown basics, mainly seeds and work with them, adding the nutrients artificially and then promote them as ‘healthy eating’.  In fact these manipulated products are not true food and although science does not understand why, they lack that basic synergy possessed by plants and meat coming from pasture fed animals rather than those that are corn fed.  From a Christian worldview perspective the combining of what is necessary for the man’s physical well being by God in ways that work together is not unexpected.  Along with that, neither is the fact that so much that is called food in our supermarkets does not really come under that category and is the result of the love of money and the pursuit of the largest market share by competing supermarket giants.  Added to this the lack of wisdom in leadership in western governments who are slow to recognize what is happening, the whole picture is pretty pathetic and sad and reinforces our need to be far more discerning as to what we eat and the way we eat it.  The author’s arguments lead to three main conclusions, the first is that food is more than the sum of its nutrients, secondly, a diet is more than the sum of its foods and finally a food culture is more than the sum of its menus.  The fact that obesity is increasing where fast food predominates, along with that all manner of diseases (which need costly control and cure by expensive surgery and drugs thus making much money for certain experts in those fields) is challenging. However, in places like France the smaller helpings and sheer enjoyment of food in three meals a day eaten slowly together in convivial conversation with others means a population generally much healthier.  Such comparisons are thought provoking to say the least!  Reading this book might well make you spend more money in order to obtain true foods, change the amount you eat, and the way you eat it.