Eat Like the French, the Greek, the Chinese...anyone but us

I've been listening to the hilarious audiobook In Defense of Food - An Eater's Manifesto.

Okay, it's not just a health food book (I know what you're thinking -- anyone who might actually end up reading this.) 

Pollan's dry humor is dead on. And the reader does a great job with it -- conveying the subtle wit. Riding in the car, Ben hits pause to predict what the author will say next, and he's usually right. It's amusing to watch him listen attentively, despite himself.

Americans (of course) have the worst diet in the world -- every culture gets sick as soon as they adopt it -- and they spend the most on "nutritional" science.

It delves into diabetes, auto-immune diseases and more. Interestingly enough, the food industry can't say "eat more spinach" but they will only say "eat more vitamin A" so they can PUT vitamin A in all kinds of junk food and sell it as  healthy. When a study shows that people who eat broccoli have less breast cancer, they just call it the "vitamin" or the "antioxidant" in green tea. They don't say --what some people who study food would like to say -- that it might be the food itself, not its chemical components. And you can't replicate food and its health benefits in labs and pills. The evolution of our current food verbiage, I found quite fascinating.

French people are not fat, and they eat shameless amounts of delights. 

All diets, from all countries, have always been fine. The stupid American beef, pork and sugar companies were dead set on defining these things called "vitamins" separate from actual food, and that led to "health benefits" of processed (and expensive) foods being marketed. The history of Mr. Kellogg was pretty amusing. 

On that note, I'm going to make myself some more melted cheese on toast and have some wine!