Cooked freight follow up

[darkemeralds]

Yesterday's educational encounter with low-grade restaurant food laced with MSG has had some interesting outcomes.

• I had a panic attack this morning--my first since I really cleaned up my food act several weeks ago, possibly supporting my suspicion of a causal link between MSG and the attacks
• I've had a developing migraine all day--oh joy
• I've started reading In Defense of Food by Michael Pollan
• I've put the documentary "The Future of Food" into my Netflix queue, thanks to a rec from serenity_valley

"Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants." That's the first sentence in Chapter 1 of In Defense of Food, entitled "An Eater's Manifesto". Pollan goes on to define food in ways that shouldn't surprise any thinking person: the stuff you buy from farmers or the edge of the supermarket, the stuff without much, or any, packaging. The stuff that's no more than a simple processing step or two away from its original state. The stuff that can't be advertised, patented, trademarked.

He spends a lot of the book defining "food" by what it is not. He examines the history of the food manufacturing industry, which increasingly produces what he calls "edible foodlike substances," what I call cooked freight.

I guess Project Empty has entered a new chapter.

Comments

[serenity-valley.livejournal.com]

That's a great book. Have you read his Omnivore's Dilemma? Also great. Oh, and Botany of Desire: A Plant's Eye View of the World and Second Nature: A Gardener's Education, which are also good. He's one of str8ontilmornin's food heroes, in case that wasn't, you know, obvious. ;)

Two others on his list of food heroes: Marion Nestle (of Food Politics: How the Food Industry Influences Nutrition and Health fame) and Carlos Petrini (founder of the Slow Food movement, which I think I've mentioned before). As I said, he's a HUGE resource on this subject.

Another book, called Manifestos on the Future of Food and Seed, which is a compilation of short essays by these authors and others, is a great companion to the The Future of Food.

[emeraldsedai.livejournal.com]

Great references! Thanks. Either you or S. has told me about the Slow Food movement, and I've done some reading about it. The other titles you mention are new to me, so I'll look forward to looking them up.