Customer Reviews:
Showing reviews 561-565 of 569
 One Of The Three Greatest Food Books Ever Written, 1 and 2 Listed April 24, 2006
Veenader Knudenhoff (Zurich)
14 out of 22 found this review helpful
OD is a wonderful book, and an education for all. Its primary flaw is that the prose and insights are almost too intelligent for Joe Lunchbox. I was so impressed with Omnivore's Dilemma, I would rank it the #3 best food book of all time.
#2 is Upton Sinclair's 1906 book "The Jungle." This book should be a mandatory read for all people of the world, and many have read it. Those who have not likely cannot stomach the harsh truths that permeate from Sinclair's fictional masterpiece.
THE #1 book about food, dining, and the plague that is the human condition is "Fine Dining Madness" written by John Galloway. Subtitled "The rules & realities of fine dining" "Fine Dining Madness" is brilliant on every level and expands far and beyond what the subtitle suggests. Galloway's delivery platform, original, finely honed wit and humor, makes "Fine Dining Madness" the best book ever written about those who eat and those who are eaten, both figuratively and literally. Actually it's one of the best books period.
Poses questions about a diet in a witty and humerous way. April 24, 2006
Sam worrall (Manchester, England)
6 out of 12 found this review helpful
I LOVED IT!It was just so....witty an funny but i also gave information on the matter in hand.Our diet.He gives you facts that you probably never would of known before.Pollan has divided his amazing book into 3 parts based on diet.
Industrialized food,"organic" food, and food people obtain by menas of there own.I.E hunting, home grown vegetables ect..
This is such a witty book and reminds me very much of a short history of nearly everything, bu bill brison, except with food.Poses questions you would of never of though of before.Cracking read!
Sam Worrall rating:5 stars.Utter genius!
A vital revelation about the food we overeat April 23, 2006
Shalom Freedman (Jerusalem,Israel)
8 out of 13 found this review helpful
This book contains vital revelations about the food we eat, and how it comes on to our plates. Perhaps the central one is the importance of 'corn' in much of what we eat, and how it plays according to Pollan a disproportionately large and unhealthy role in our diets. In this regard , the major area of sin is in the role corn plays in the industrial feeding and fattening up of cattle. It is distressing to realize that in order for industrial and agrobusiness profits to be maximized hundreds of thousands of creatures have to be unnaturally stuffed, made ill ( many fed in this unnnatural way deliver liver sickness). Pollan also chronicles how corn starch, fructose ,and other corn products help make up the MacDonald's meal, which is one of the four sample meals he describes the manufacturing and food value of. ( Aside from the industrial meal, there are two 'organic meals' one from a large organic firm, and the other produced by an individual organic farmer whose 'meal' receives the highest marks, both nutritionally and taste- wise. The fourth meal, is the hunter's meal which come from Pollan's own private pig hunting expedition).
Pollan gives a detailed tour of how our food is made, and convincing explanations of why the present American diet is disastrous in health- terms.
Reading this work should lead each of us to think more carefully about the kinds of food we put into our mouths.
The Meaning of Your Meals April 22, 2006
Bart King (Portland, Oregon)
15 out of 22 found this review helpful
There are some writers who have the knack of making a topic come alive, and Michael Pollan is one of this select group. Pollan proves to be a witty and informative teacher on all things "food" in this book, and made this reader (who has a very utilitarian view of nutrition) take a new perspective on what goes down his gullet.
THE OMNIVORE'S DILEMMA is organized into four sections, each of which relates to a different meal. (The meals are from McDonald's, a Whole Foods "organic" meal, a truly organic meal from a farm, and a hunter-gatherer repast.)
Pollan starts with the earliest beginnings of what made the meal possible, and then researches forward until the food hits the plate. In the process, the book brought home for me the moral and political importance of what I buy. I'm fortunate to live in a city that has an abundance of stores that specialize in organic, local produce and meats. It costs more, but the ethical considerations of not supporting these food sources is more than I can bear, and OMINOVRE'S DILEMMA really drove that point home in an effective, non-preachy way.
There are original and startling insights here. For example, Pollan clearly illustrates how corn permeates all strata of the U.S. diet, and that ain't a good thing. I also liked his confrontation of our avoidance of the "animality" of the meat we eat, both in the animals that form our meals, and in ourselves as we savor dead flesh. (Ick! See what I mean?) A really well-done book on an important topic.
 A CAPTIVATING BOOK INDEED! April 15, 2006
VAL ODUENYI (Switzerland)
24 out of 38 found this review helpful
Surely, this book deserved to be rated higher than three-stars, but, the sheer number of typographical errors in it prevented me from doing so. Its editors and/or proof-readers should be more careful in executing future jobs. But that apart, the book makes an interesting read. Readers would appreciate how it revived the things we take for granted (on daily basis), and inspired both life and reason in them.
"The Omnivore's Dilemma: A Natural History of Four Meals" did a good job in analyzing the American culture of 'eating disorders'. All our habitual tendencies were portrayed using food-chains and food-webs as the natural parameters. Also, enough emphases were shed on both organic and conventional agricultural products. The message (of this book) is so direct that one may not help wondering if we are really what we eat.
With obesity and related problems in mind, Michael Pollan traced the origins of our present-day "square-meals" as he wallowed across the fertile cornfields of Iowa. His approach might not have been strictly scientific; yet, it was all the while insightful. In fact, some of his inferences would attract applause from even the most skeptical dietician.
Despite maintaining a corn-based focus, this book did a commendable job in exploiting the latent intricacies of animal husbandry: that is, with respect to our nutritional and environmental requirements. It is a reassuring glance at the functions of ecosystem. A captivating book indeed!
Showing reviews 561-565 of 569
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