Steven C. (SteveTheDM) - , reviewed on 8/27/2011 + 204 more book reviews

Helpful Score: 2

Fascinating book. Ever since my children were born and I started worrying more about what kind of nutrition they were getting, and so issues revolving around food have been percolating in the back of my mind for some time.

In The Omnivore's Dilemma, Pollan traces the origins of four different meals back to their source in sunlight: a typical McDonald's meal eaten in a moving car, an "organic" meal with items from a Whole Foods market, a "more-than-organic" meal comprised mainly from items from a starts-from-grass farm in Virginia, and finally, a meal made from items hunted & foraged by Pollan himself in Northern California.

And it's fascinating. You might think that Pollan approaches his topic from an "industry is evil!" frame of mind, but he really keeps that in check, maintaining a journalist's detachment from bias reasonably well. Having said that, the grass-fed farm clearly has Pollan's favor, and it's hard to deny his arguments.

The book is written with a first-person perspective throughout, as Pollan explores the questions he has. This really keeps the narrative flowing, and makes the book a joy to read, as the reader experiences Pollan's discoveries as he himself does. It keeps the book from feeling like a dry textbook, for sure.

Will any of this change the way I eat? That's hard to know. I'd like to think it will, but convenience and economics are hard to argue against, and eating "better" will likely be a never-ending challenge. But having better knowledge of what goes into what I buy (and what I eat) will flavor my purchasing habits into the future.

5 of 5 stars.

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