I like Michael Pollan’s views on food. You might be aware of his “food rules”……summarised in the following seven words
Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants
What he is great at doing is bringing together knowledge from a number of disciplines (nutrition, economics, agriculture, anthropology, politics and so on), and weaving them into a seamless, and convincing narrative. He does that wonderfully in this google talk where he discusses his latest book, “Cooked”. Settle yourself down and watch this. It’s just under an hour, but that includes the Q&A, and I recommend skipping the over two and half minute intro from the google staffer!
In “Cooked” he describes learning the four transformations of food – using fire, using pots (water), baking (air) and fermentation (earth). His argument is compelling and the area of fermentation (using microbes to produce cheeses, pickles etc) is a completely fascinating new subject to explore.
One of the gems from this talk is his telling of the answer he received from someone working in the food processing industry when he asked what we could do about the obesity epidemic. The answer was “Only eat what you have made yourself”. He thinks that one principle (probably hard to adhere to 100% but a good target to aim at) would result in a healthier and more nutritious diet.
This piece doesn’t just get you thinking about the place of food in your life, it gets you thinking about the food industry, about politics and about how we might create a more sustainable way of life just by considering this important (probably central) issue of what we eat, and how it is prepared.
Fascinating – I wonder how we could cope with the discipline of only eating what we grow/cook. I fear like the road to heaven my path might be paved with good intentions.
Having just read the Master and his Emissary l became even more engrossed with the right/left brain subject and revisited Jack Black’s Mindstore technique Upledger’s Cell Talk and Betty Edwards Drawing on the Right side of the Brain. How wonderful it would be to introduce all these ideas into education in all fields? A truly holistic model with both hemispheres working in harmony?