Reading In Defense of Food by Michael Pollan for Jeane’s DogEar Reading Challenge.
I am anxious about food-type books (because I love food), and I was planning to put this off to the very end of October, except someone has a hold on it at the library. So if I don’t read it by 18 October I am out of luck.
11 October 2009
8:30 PM: Exciting. My very first book about food except for Fast Food Nation, which let’s face it, I skipped a lot of that book because it gave me unhappy feelings. I start reading and am startled to find that it is rather enjoyable. I fetch my already-half-empty-from-when-I-bought-it-on-Saturday-morning box of Famous Amos cookies to munch on while I read.
8:45 PM: Food science must be a trying discipline. Michael Pollan is making excellent points. How can a study of diet possibly be any good, when people lie like liars about what they are eating? Plus, you can’t isolate nutrients from the foods they are in! That doesn’t make any sense! I cannot believe I have put credence in these studies that say that more of those fishy omega things are good for you. Next time I see a study that says a specific nutrient will lower your chances of heart attack and cancer, I will take it with a very large pinch of salt. Thank you, Michael Pollan!
9:00 PM: It occurs to me that Michael Pollan might frown on the number of Famous Amos cookies I have eaten. I inspect the box and it is closer to empty than it was before. Surely Michael Pollan would understand that when your football team has suffered a defeat as ours did on Saturday, particularly when the only touchdown of the game was achieved by their team fouling our defense guy (Hawkins, I believe it was) but nobody noticed, and now everyone is going on and on about Florida’s crucial win at LSU even though if LSU had won by having an unspotted foul they would have all said This is a bad win and not one that LSU can be proud of because they are the most overrated team in the SEC (ARE NOT) – I’ve lost track of this sentence. Anyway I bet that if Michael Pollan knew all of that, he would say, Go ahead, Jenny. Eat up all those Famous Amos cookies. You still have chocolate pie in the fridge if you need dessert later on this week. So I finish up the box of cookies, and then go upstairs and wash my hair.
9:45 PM: Oh hooray. I love it when this happens. I am all clean and my teeth are clean and my hair is clean and it is not even ten o’clock yet. It is cool enough outside that I don’t need the AC but do need pajama bottoms; and with my ceiling fan on and one blanket on top of me, I am the comfiest I have ever been. GLORIOUS. I can read In Defense of Food until eleven when I must go to sleep to get my eight hours of sleep.
10:00 PM: Michael Pollan loves omega-3 fatty acids like whoa. He says that studies have shown that diets with lots of omega-3 fatty acids are correlated with lower risks of heart disease and cancer. WAIT A SECOND. Michael Pollan, what happened? I thought we agreed that we didn’t like those “studies have shown, etc etc this nutrient gives you good health”. Remember, you talked about it, and I thought you were right, and we were going to take them with a pinch of salt? What happened to that? I TRUSTED YOU AND NOW I HAVE NO MORE FAMOUS AMOS COOKIES.
10:01 PM: I switch to reading John Harwood’s The Seance. The heroine is pretending to be her baby sister’s ghost.
12 October 2009
2:30 PM: I have had a half day, enjoyed a pleasant yogurty lunch with my mother, and made Halloween plans that involve a margarita. I believe that puts me in a good enough mood to carry on reading In Defense of Food even though Michael Pollan betrayed me by saying all about omega-3 fatty acids and heart attack studies even though he said that those studies were silly.
3:30 PM: Hum de dum. Michael Pollan says I have to eat more vegetables and fewer Famous Amos Cookies. But I much prefer Famous Amos cookies to vegetables. DIFFICULT CONUNDRUM. Time for a break to watch one episode of The Office.
4:00 PM: Well I can’t stop with that one! Dwight just left, and plus cause I am cataloging my books!
5:00 PM: Okay, right. Back to my book. I had a break to eat my dinner which was spinach and apple and pecan salad, so I have no guilty feelings as I return to my book. Though I have put the oven on preheat in order to make cheesy fries.
5:30 PM: Michael Pollan says, Processed foods are bad for you, and you should not eat unless your stomach is saying I AM HUNGRY SO HUNGRY MM FEED ME HUNGRY HUNGRY HUNGRY. Okay. I have learned a useful lesson from this book. I am hungry but maybe not hungry enough, so okay, no cheesy fries for me even though they are delicious. Next time I make cheesy fries they have to be made out of real potatoes that I chopped up and everything.
5:35 PM: Michael Pollan says, Have a glass of wine with dinner. I will have a glass of wine for after dinner.
5:45 PM: Maybe two. I don’t actually have any wine glasses so that was champange flutes so that was really small even though I drank it really quickly.
6:00 PM: MICHAEL POLLAN IS NOT THE BOSS OF ME I CAN HAZ CHEESE FRIES IF I WANT THEM SO THERE MICHAEL POLLAN YOU ARE NOT THE BOSS OF MY STOMACH NYAH NYAH NYAH.
6:05 PM: I decide now is a really good time to write a review. While my cheese fries are baking. Y’all, this blog post is the bloggy book-review equivalent of me drunk-dialing you (dialing is a really hard word to type, y’all).
6:37 PM: Wooooo, my head is heavy. Oh yeah. Publish post. I should do that thing where I make links to other people’s reviews but my head is heavy and my cheese fries are tasty…