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I love living in the SF Bay Area. In addition to the wonderful natural resources we have here, there are also a plethora of wonderful speaking engagements to attend. In the past year, I have seen Mollie Katzen, Ellie Krieger, Marion Nestle and Jacques Pepin speak. This week, I was able to see Michael Pollan, NY Times Best Selling author of Botany of Desire and The Omnivore’s Dilemma, at Toby’s Feed Barn in Point Reyes.

We sat on hay bales, piled high in the back of the feed store, and listened to Michael talk about his latest book, In Defense of Food. He neatly summarized what the book was about in the first few minutes of the talk. He started by explaining the importance for people to understand that “there can be no healthy people without a healthy diet. And there can be no healthy diet without a healthy agricultural system.” He reminded us that the health of our food is directly connected to the health of the soil in which it is grown.

There is a misconception about health and healthy eating in America. Similar to the French Paradox (the irony that French people indulge in lengthy, rich meals and drink ample amounts of red wine and yet have very little incidence of heart disease), there is also an American Paradox. Americans are “the champs” of diabetes, heart disease and obesity, yet we are the nation most obsessed with healthy eating. How can this be?

He boils it down into a single term: Nutritionism. Nutritionism is based on 4 concepts (or common misconceptions).

1. Nutrients are the important component of food. Food is simply a delivery system for nutrients, and food is simply a sum of its parts.
2. If nutrients are a key to our health and are invisible to the naked eye, we must need experts to tell us what we should eat. He compared this concept to religion, which often relies on the priesthood to offer leadership and guidance.
3. The food world is divided into Good and Evil. Currently, the “communism of nutrition” is composed of saturated and trans fats. The current “blessed nutrient” is Omega-3 Fatty Acids.
4. And finally, the whole point of eating is Health. What we eat either ruins our health or contributes to it. (Never mind about the joys of delicious foods and sense of community that we feel from cooking and eating together.)

He pleas for us to throw out the ideology of Nutritionism, and consider that food IS more than the sum of its parts. The science of nutrition is currently as advanced as surgery was in the 1650′s – and might not be something that we should participate in quite yet. It seems that wherever the Western Diet appears (complete with processed foods such as refined oils, carbs and grains), disease follows. Contrast that with traditional diets, composed of REAL FOODS where diseases like diabetes hardly ever exist. It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to consider that the best way to avoid the pitfalls of our western diet is simply to get off of it.

So, what are you supposed to eat if you can’t rely on what the “experts” are telling you? Michael first suggests you ask your mother or grandmother, the person who might provide some traditional examples of Real Food.

• He doesn’t recommend eating anything that your great grandmother wouldn’t recognize as food.
• Does it contain high fructose corn syrup? This is a huge sign that you are eating something highly processed.
• Can you pronounce the majority of the ingredients?
• Does it include traditional ingredients that you would expect from such a product? (For example, does your sour cream contain cream? Does your mayonnaise contain eggs and oil? Does your butter contain milk or cream? etc…)
• Are you buying foods from the perimeter of your market, where they can easily be replenished, when they start to rot or expire? He points out that the items in the center of the grocery store lasts forever and that you should never buy food that is “incapable of eventually rotting” (such as the twinkie that has been sitting on his desk for the past 2 years).

In summary, Pollan reminds us that how we eat and where we shop are just as important to what we eat. Food is a created by a set of relationships between the ecosystem, people and the food chain. He advises us to Vote with Your Fork and purchase and consume foods that are grown and harvested in an environmentally sustainable way. For now, ignore the misconceptions of nutritionism and Eat (real) food. Not too much. Mostly plants. Your body and our planet will thank you.