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01.28.10

Oprah: The Truth About Food with Michael Pollan

{Food 101 with Michael Pollan}

On yesterday’s show, Oprah sat down with author of The Omnivore’s Dilemma, In Defense of Food, and now Food Rules: An Eater’s Manual, Michael Pollan, to discuss the truth about food. I truly believe every family should sit down and watch this show together to find out what we are really putting into our bodies. It’s great to see such an influential person speak out on this issue because the truth needs to be heard. I have been thinking this way for nearly 5 years now and think the rest of us should too. Thank you Oprah for finally bringing the truth about food to a national level. Pick up Pollan’s new book  Food Rules: An Eater’s Manual now, I know I will!

More from Oprah and Michael Pollan here.

Here are several quotes from the Oprah show by Michael Pollan that I think are influential, thought provoking, and worth mentioning:
 
“Although “real” food is often more expensive, you either pay for real food now, or pay the doctor later. Today 9 percent of our income is spent on food and a whopping 17 percent on health care. The less we spend on food, the more we spend on health care.”
 
“A lot of what you see in the supermarket, I would argue, is not really food, it’s what I call edible, food-like substances.”
 
“I think cooking is really key because it’s the only way you’re going to take back control of your diet from the corporations who want to cook for us.”
 
“It’s not that hard to eat well if you’re willing to put a little more time into it, a little more thoughtfulness into it and yes, a little bit more money.”
 
“Western diet, how most of us eat, is – lots of processed food and meats, lots of added fat and sugar, lots of everything except fruits, vegetables, and whole grains. It’s the normal fast food, American supermarket diet.”
 
“Before the Western diet comes in, which is in the turn of the last century, populations did not have high levels of heart disease, type II diabetes, obesity, all these diseases; these come from that Western diet… it’s not about fat, it’s  not about carbs, it’s about whole foods.”
 
“What we know is that people eating a great variety of traditional diets do not suffer high rates of chronic diseases.”
 
Pick up Food Rules or other books by Michael Pollan here: